What is a good alternative to Scribd? One that allows viewers to download the source file without too much hassle and displays the text properly? Google Drive?
The problem with Scribd is that it tries to reduce your cognitive load by one click. "Open or save?"
But it replaces that horrible, horrible soul-crushing "Open or save?" dilemma with its own inferior implementation.
As mentioned, it's not suitable for large audiences - but it's perfect for other stuff.
Sharing to a select group of people (e.g. a link in a mailing list, or on a small online community - it's perfectly valid in my opinion.
And yes, it's absolutely fucking awesome. Better than any book reader, online or off, anywhere.
Having a document hosted on your own website together with a javascript viewer reduces the risk for users both in terms of privacy and security, as Acrobat Reader is a seriously problematic piece of code and all the remote code is a serious violation of trust between the user and the owner of the site.