Don't blame Adobe for that. People shouldn't use PDF to distribute mere "text"; that's like using an armored-truck
service to deliver a postcard.
On the other hand, I'd dread seeing how something like this would come out in the wrong browser if attempted in HTML. (And since it was something I had to submit for a grade, I sure wanted it to be right!)
I am not concerned with Acrobat's ability to reproduce document layout identically, that's fine.
I understand why Adobe would wish to put themselves in the position they have, this does not mean that I have to like it and I'll feel free to not like it.
When I say text I mean to refer to its character of being graphically represented information to be read by people, it's irrelevant to my point whether it includes graphics or diagrams.
"People shouldn't use PDF to distribute mere "text"" They do because they have been given the opportunity to maintain control over text, even when the text is in someone's possession, something of which I'm not terribly fond. My dislike of this stems from my wish to have the most control over information about myself, my private property, what I do on it and the least external control over anything in my personal possession. Electronic transmission of information from my home and remote control of anything in my home, although fairly benign in the case of PDF files, are both potentially insidious and invasive affronts to my privacy and freedom. I dislike things, on principle, that smack of small steps towards an Orwellian world. If I wish to take a file on my computer and print it, alter it or look at it every day for 5 years, then I should be free to do it with no invisible electronic fingers reaching onto my property and trying to stop me.
"...that's like using an armored-truck service to deliver a postcard." This is exactly my point. When something like digitized text is in my possession on my own property I do not like the idea that it can be encapsulated in a little digital armoured truck in the form of remotely controlled lifecycle policy settings and embedded digital rights management schemes. Privacy and freedom are things that everyone ought to be sensitive about.
If you understand this, then you'll understand why I dislike some aspects of PDF files. Let me see if I can do a little consciousness raising. Imagine books you could buy and take home but, if the publisher wished, the books would close up if you try to photocopy them or tear out a page. Worse still, the book could, without your knowledge or consent, notify someone of when you open it, how long you read it or only allow you to read it pending consultation of a remote source. Anyone else a little uncomfortable with that idea? There are things not so different from this: PDF files, they differ mainly from the analog(ue) (pun intended and, I admit, slightly obscure) books in that they are in a digital medium.