Why I no longer use Adobe Products

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I was asked to start a thread on this topic so, here goes nothing...

Adobe has had problems with all their products for years. With the exception of Flash, they all have expiration dates that would force you to shell out significant shekels for upgrades or not get anymore security updates. And there were frequent security updates becasue their products had more holes in them than a colander (that included the free Adobe Flash). The only paid product I used was Adobe Acrobat Standard and each paid upgrade would be more expensive and have fewer features. Adding insult to injury (or was it injury to insult?), it would take Adobe an excessive amount of time to come up with plugs for newly discovered holes (and there always was a lot of them).

The final straw came when they adopted a subscription, cloud based service model. I had already eliminated flash because very few sites were using it anymore and because it was such a security liability. However, their new business model for Acrobat was just going to too darned expensive (actually, they were already too darned expensive; this was just worse) and it would have given Adobe the opportunity to see all my work.

I'm now using Qoppa's PDF Studio Pro (I recently upgraded to the 2019 version). I went with them because they have a Linux version (I'm now finally starting to use Linux). Their Pro version is between Adobe's Standard and Pro versions, costs way, way less that Adobe's, is NOT cloud based, and has no expiration date; you can use for however long you want even after new versions come out. Security hass not been a problem. Also, they allow two installations for each license. While there was quite a learning curve, I actually have found it's easier to use.

I never bought Photoshop because I couldn't justify the expense for the limited use I would get from it (not to mention the eventual security and cloud/service model). I was happy with an old Microsoft works photo editor. Gimp is a free graphics editor/creation tool that is touted to be a replacement for Photoshop. I have dabbled with it some and it's just a matter of learning how to use it. Linux has several photo editing programs I've yet to try in addition to having a version of Gimp available not to mention that Adobe puts out nothing for Linux). Free is one of my favorite words so I just need try out some of them and see what will float my boat.

 

[file3456]

I never did like Adobe from way back in like the mid 90s. And when they had to release security path after security patch for Flash back then I just shook my head.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I actually liked Acrobat Standard when I first got included with my old Fujitsu ADF scanner. I never realized how useful it could be until then. Sadly, it gradually started losing features with each mandatory upgrade.

 

[RolandJS]

I just now got onto the browser and this forum's thread. I think I dropped adobe flash and left shockwave with its old friend megatron awhile back. I still have the non-cloud reader.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I just now got onto the browser and this forum's thread. I think I dropped adobe flash and left shockwave with its old friend megatron awhile back. I still have the non-cloud reader.

I don't even trust the reader anymore. I'm using PDF Studio Pro as my preferred reader in both Win 7 and Linux Mint 19.2. PDF Studio has a free reader I've heard is good.

 

[samuria]

Don't forget hitfilm express is free top class video editor better than Adobe

 

[HAVOC]

I'm looking for a PDF reader/editor and Adobe wants too much and I don't like the pay every month option like Microsoft Office.
I'm scanning in instruction booklets and if I'm not fast enough with the next page, I have multiple files which I need to merge or delete.
Looks like PDF Studio is the way to go.

 

[file3456]

I use PDF-Xchange here. What I really like about it is if there's an embedded link in the PDF from a canary token it'll tell me.

 

[RoWin7]

I'm looking for a PDF reader/editor and Adobe wants too much and I don't like the pay every month option like Microsoft Office.
I'm scanning in instruction booklets and if I'm not fast enough with the next page, I have multiple files which I need to merge or delete.
Looks like PDF Studio is the way to go.

I don't make pdf's. Been using Foxit Reader for years. Free and not bloated like Adobe. Some sites still use Flash, so I'll keep it till everyone dumps it.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I don't make pdf's. Been using Foxit Reader for years. Free and not bloated like Adobe. Some sites still use Flash, so I'll keep it till everyone dumps it.

Some of us weirdos do use PDFs. They are ideal for documents that will be moved from platform to platform since all platforms have some kind of PDF readers available. They stabilize documents because fonts, formatting, etc. are locked in.

Foxit Reader is one of the good ones.

If a site still uses Flash, then I can't help what else may be wrong with the site if their web page designers aren't competent enough to have ditched flash thus, I avoid the site period. Flash is holier than the Pope so there is no way I'll allow it on any my machines (along with any other Adobe Products).

 

[Barman58]

The use of adobe products is a personal choice for any one individual, unless you happen to "work" in the "professional" design, Video or Photo Fields, where they are basically the default for many workflows.

As for PDF I use pdf for transmission of proofs etc where a final output quality is needed but it should not be editable (annotation yes, change NO)

Although there are many software packages that can create a PDF and add password protection, a long time ago I decided on one package as there were often minor differences in the outputs of the various sources.

I have used PDFCreator – free pdf converter, create & merge PDF files as a "fake" printer for many years, totally free for private and other use.

It also can be used to create Images in many standard bitmapped formats for use in other applications and can also be used to supply proofs

 

[file3456]

You can crack a PDF password in a second if not a day. I have software that'll do it and I know of a website that'll do that plus hashes and other nice stuff.

 

[Barman58]

The professionals I deal with would be very unlikely to use tools of that sort, and would certainly not boast about owning them on an open forum

 

[file3456]

LOL The Internet doesn't care...

 

[Barman58]

Some parts of it does ...

6) No discussions of hacking someones system, network, password, etc.

https://www.sevenforums.com/misc.php?do=showrules

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

The use of adobe products is a personal choice for any one individual, unless you happen to "work" in the "professional" design, Video or Photo Fields, where they are basically the default for many workflows.

As for PDF I use pdf for transmission of proofs etc where a final output quality is needed but it should not be editable (annotation yes, change NO)

Although there are many software packages that can create a PDF and add password protection, a long time ago I decided on one package as there were often minor differences in the outputs of the various sources.

I have used PDFCreator – free pdf converter, create & merge PDF files as a "fake" printer for many years, totally free for private and other use.

It also can be used to create Images in many standard bitmapped formats for use in other applications and can also be used to supply proofs

PDF Creator is an excellent virtual printer (the more technical name for "fake" printer") for creating simple, basic PDFs. I used it for years to make PDFs when websites would only offer a Print option for things like receipts for online purchases, etc. I often needed a more flexible option for creating PDFs that would allow different size pages within a PDF, image rotation that could be saved, editing PDFs beyond just annotating, creating searchable PDFs, etc.

While many companies need to have their employees use the same productivity programs for compatibility reasons, PDF creation usually doesn't need compatibility with others in the company for PDF creation since most PDFs are actually start in an office type program, then get converted to a PDF. The only valid reason for requiring employees to use a specific PDF creation program is to prevent them from installing their own software that may may be dodgy or downright dangerous.

Besides PDF Studio Pro and PDF Creator, I also use Libre Office for creating PDFs. LO apps have an option to export a document being created by the app )Wirter, Calc, etc. directly to PDF. Even better, there is also an option to embed the original document being exported to PDF within the PDF itself. This allows the PDF to be opened and viewed by conventional means but it can also be opened by the program that created it for quick and easy editing. While the workflow for each option is different, the results are the same (except for the ability to have different size pages in a PDF). Which one I use is based on what is easiest and/or fastest to use at the time.

I no longer use PDF Creator now that I'm using Linux Mint most of the time since PDF Creator doesn't have a Linux version (unlike PDF Studio, which does). However, the browser I'm using (the newer Chromium based Brave browser) has the print to PDF feature baked into it already.

 

[RoWin7]

Some of us weirdos do use PDFs. They are ideal for documents that will be moved from platform to platform since all platforms have some kind of PDF readers available. They stabilize documents because fonts, formatting, etc. are locked in.

Foxit Reader is one of the good ones.

If a site still uses Flash, then I can't help what else may be wrong with the site if their web page designers aren't competent enough to have ditched flash thus, I avoid the site period. Flash is holier than the Pope so there is no way I'll allow it on any my machines (along with any other Adobe Products).

I don't think you're a wierdo. I don't do computing professionally anymore. I just have no need to make pdf's, so the Reader is fine for me. I add my own notes on the side. As for Flash, they said they were discontinuing it, but they're still issuing updates. I play a few Flash puzzles online.

There are probably substitutes for all the Adobe products.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I don't think you're a wierdo. I don't do computing professionally anymore. I just have no need to make pdf's, so the Reader is fine for me. I add my own notes on the side. As for Flash, they said they were discontinuing it, but they're still issuing updates. I play a few Flash puzzles online.

There are probably substitutes for all the Adobe products.

I haven't done anything professionally in over a decade (it's called retirement). Not everyone will have a need to work with PDFs; I just find them very convenient to use.

There are substitutes for all Adobe products, some better than others. Some are even better than the Adobe product they replace.

 

[file3456]

Some parts of it does ...

6) No discussions of hacking someones system, network, password, etc.

https://www.sevenforums.com/misc.php?do=showrules

That's NOT what I'm eluding to. What I'm saying is that a password added to a PDF can be cracked by someone so don't depend on it. They sell software all over the Internet to do this and I said there is website that can do it. Just food for thought.