Okular
Close matchFreeFree and thorough. Reads PDFs, adds notes and highlights, fills in forms and handles digital signatures.
Your files: Opens any standard PDF. Very complex Adobe-only interactive forms can misbehave.
Does Adobe Acrobat Reader run on Linux?
Verdict: Not directly
Not directly. Adobe lists Acrobat Reader for Windows, macOS, iOS and Android only, with no Linux version. Adobe's web app works in a browser, and Linux comes with its own PDF reader.
Adobe's Acrobat Reader page names Windows 10 and 11, macOS, iOS and Android. Linux is not mentioned. Adobe stopped making a Linux reader years ago and has shown no sign of returning to it.
Adobe does run the Acrobat web app, which the same page points to for opening PDFs in a browser without installing anything. It works on Linux, covers reading, commenting and simple edits, and the fuller features ask you to sign in or pay. Files go to Adobe's servers, so think about what is in the document first.
In practice most people never open it. Every Linux desktop includes a PDF reader that opens automatically when you double-click a file, and it starts faster than Acrobat ever did. Okular is the one to know if you want more than reading: annotations, highlights, form filling and digital signatures are all there.
Your PDFs open everywhere, so nothing is at risk. The rare exceptions are PDFs built as Adobe-specific interactive forms, the sort some government agencies still use, and those can refuse to behave outside Acrobat. If you have one of those to file, do it before you wipe Windows.
What to use instead of Adobe Acrobat Reader
Evince
Drop-in replacementFreeThe plain reader already installed on Ubuntu and Fedora. Opens instantly when you double-click a PDF and does nothing else.
Your files: Opens standard PDFs. No form saving on older versions.
Master PDF Editor
Different way of workingPaidFor actually editing the text and pages inside a PDF. The free version covers a lot, with a watermark on some operations.
Your files: Edits and saves standard PDFs directly.
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