Why not scribd every link to an HTML-based webpage so that we can go through yet another layer of indirection?

Your sarcasm doesn't acknowledge iPaper's potential. PDFs are actually somewhat annoying to open for many people. Scribd's platform independent solution is actually pretty cool.

It depends on Flash, it isn't any more platform independent than the acrobat reader is.

And if you don't like Adobe, for Windows there's Foxit Reader, and for Linux there's Evince.

I can't vouch for Foxit, but viewing PDFs through Evince is also far more efficient in terms of processor usage, especially since flash seems to like to take up all the cycles it can get.

Foxit is great, it feels much more like a Linux PDF reader than Adobe's reader. The editor is also good, it lets you edit PDFs at a relatively low level.

It's choosing the lesser of two Adobe evils. I'll take Flash over Acrobat Reader any second.

If there were only two evils, I might agree with you. But there are better options than either of the two you mention, for example Preview on a Mac or Sumatra PDF in Windows. Converting to Flash makes it harder to use a decent program to view PDFs, picking evil for everyone, not just those who use Adobe Reader.

So platform independent it doesn't work on devices such as iPhones. ;-)

I say add an extra link or make it a cookie preference, so I can have different settings depending on where I am.

Another option is that the Scribd guys add the feature to download the PDF file.

They should, but that isn't a solution to the problem in hand, as getting to the file I'd have to load the URL, click to load Flash, wait for Scribd to load, hope Flash on Linux doesn't crash, then click on the save button, then download it again.

It's worth noting that due to the separation of pro- options it appears like the board is divided down the center when, in reality, more than 2 out of 3 voters (about 68%) are in favor of Scribd support!

Other ideas:

- check the user-agent and only scribd for Windows (since that seems to be the only platform where people still use, and hence complain about, Adobe Acrobat Reader)

- make a greasemonkey script to auto-scribd any PDF (so people who like it can do it everywhere and the rest of us don't have to bother)

Other: a user site preference (with Scribd on by default – it is a Y Combinator company after all).

added

Also, where would the extra link go? To the right of the domain? Left of the domain? In the domain ()?

3 hours ago | Pdf/scrib'd | comments

pdf or scrib'd depending on the outcome of the poll

improve Scribd so it doesn't mangle pdfs.

off topic, but how do you create a poll?

http://news.ycombinator.com/newpoll but you need more than 200 karma points, see http://ycombinator.com/newsnews.html 1 Mar.

thanks