<Solved>About Zathura-pdf-mupdf viewer

[zhengzhou]

Hello, everyone, I am using LM20.2 cinnamon on an Intel 6th-gen i3 machine. For PDF viewing, I installed Zathura and mupdf from the software manager of Linux mint, however the Zathura in Mint's software manager contains only the doppler version. I found from the link (https://pwmt.org/projects/zathura-pdf-mupdf/) that there is also a mupdf version of Zathura. Is it possible to incorporate the mupdf version of Zathura into Mint's Software Manager?

I found Zathura is very convenient to use as a PDF viewer, every operation is on keyboard. But the mupdf is really fast in opening large-size scanned PDF files, no page-loading at all.

Thanks a lot.

[zhengzhou]

I found this link https://launchpad.net/~spvkgn/+archive/ ... hura-mupdf and followed its instruction to add a PPA. Then I installed zathura-mupdf in terminal.
Now I can open some very large scanned PDF files without any waiting and loading when clicking the next new page.
But I can tell this version is a bit outdated.

[Hoser Rob]

You do not get the newest versions of software in any long term support Linux distro. This is due to the lack of backwards or forwards compatibility in Linux in general. You can have stability or new software, not both.

Since Mint, like its Ubuntu base, ids meant to be beginner friendly it leans in the direction of stability. Rolling release distros like Arch go the other direction and do have new software. But they break often when updating and their support forums do not hold your hand if you're a newbie. So they're completely unsuitable for them.

In Ubuntu based systems you can often add a ppa for newer versions but they also make the system less stable, they're a leading cause of broken OSes with newbies. I avoid them unless really necessary. My main box runs Debian Stable based MX, which doesn;t support ppas at all. SO I guess I don't need any .

[zhengzhou]

Thanks, it helps me to get more understanding about distros.