> Just say, "If you want to read a PDF file, you don't have to > install Adobe's proprietary software that doesn't give you freedom. > Here's how to install a free program to read that PDF file."
Well, we wanted to use the main page to at least offer a little bit of education (with further links), since that's the one most people will read.
This is counterproductive to the goal of the campaign. "ISO 32000" is enough to make most people feel uncomfortable. Many will give up reading when they see all that "technical stuff".
Some sites may refuse to link to this page if they think non-techies will get discouraged by it.
The information given is merely technical, and technical education is not our purpose. It is not even important technical information -- for users of PDF. It is of no use to me, so I won't remember it. Only people concerned technically with PDF have a reason to know it.
Since it serves no important purpose and can interfere with the goal, it must go!
> Offering a long list of PDF readers is also unnecessary complexity. > I suggest you make the simplest recommendations you can. > Recommend just one player for each platform. Make it simple > to do what we ask people to do. > > The full list could come after, as a sort of appendix.
This is exactly what we had in mind for bigger changes in the mid-term: recommend only one reader on the main page, and show the complete list on a different page. This requires some more fundamental work, as we also want to include readers for mobile platforms and browser plugins.
A simple change would do most of the job. Just add another short table (or unordered list) above the existing one. In it, recommend just one player for each platform. The existing table, unchanged, can come after.
You can do this simple change today. The larger changes you propose are a good idea, but they can wait.
This simple change is extremely important. The recommendations must be CLEAR. If you tell people they have a choice, and you don't give them information on which to decide, they will feel anxious about choosing wrong.
However, the information on which they could decide is complex, and could not be included here. It might even be inconclusive, so they would still not be sure what to choose, even if they knew it.
So don't make people decide! Recommend ONE reader for each platform. See PlayOgg.org as an example.
After that, you can say, "Here are some other free software PDF readers you can try if you are curious to explore", followed by the existing table. Make it clear to people that they can ignore this, and they it won't cause trouble.