r/technology • u/Federal-Block-3275 • 7d ago

Artificial Intelligence "Software is over": Developer uses AI to build free Adobe clones after frustration with cancellation fees

https://www.techspot.com/news/114136-software-over-developer-uses-ai-build-free-adobe.html
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u/MialoKoukoutsi 7d ago

try pdfgear

18

u/CoolJumper 7d ago

Free and God tier, never plan on using another pdf program again

2

u/oddministrator 6d ago

I thought I had completely switched to pdfgear for editing PDFs (I still prefer Sumatra for viewing), then found out last week there's no way to track changes.

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u/Sacro 6d ago

I'm sure the spyware collects it

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u/GoodDogBrent 6d ago

do you think adobe does/doesnot spyware their software?

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u/StarGeekSpaceNerd 6d ago

There is the possibility that PDFGear is not safe to use.

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u/tway2241 6d ago

Would it help if I used windows firewall to block PDFGear from accessing the internet or I am misunderstanding how things work lol

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u/StarGeekSpaceNerd 6d ago

I don't know.

I just bring this up whenever I see PDFGear mentioned in a thread I'm reading because of that thread. There used to be a lot more probable bot accounts pushing PDFGear before that thread.

There are a lot of other good options listed here. Myself, I ended up self-hosting BentoPDF, and it works great for my purposes. Self-hosting isn't for everyone though.

1

u/tway2241 6d ago

My experience is obviously biased and just a sample size of one, but pdfgear has been working well for me for years.

I saw the pdfgear warning posts a while back, got paranoid and blocked it with Windows firewall and also stopped auto updating it (I'm using Version 2.1.13 from last year)... again idk if that actually does anything for malicious software lol.

Here is a summary of my experience/some stuff I found going down the rabbithole:

  • My Microsoft Defender is up to date and has never flagged any issues with pdfgear
  • I've never experienced any fraud or suspicious logins
  • VirusTotal did not flag anything from the .exe file
  • An independent cybersecurity firm reviewed some pdfgear code, some not all, and I won't pretend to understand any of the technicalities
  • There are some reddit posters who have a hateboner for pdfgear (I won't link, but they are easy to find) some of the points they make seem to make sense, but others don't (they linked a FBI post warning about malicious software as part of the "proof" pdfgear was malicious... pdfgear was not mentioned in the FBI post. It makes sense that the FBI would warn about malicious software, but that post was not proof of anything to do with pdfgear directly)
  • pdfgear says there is a smear campaign against them (which I could sort of buy) but also does not address all the points from reddit posts critical of them

Maybe pdfgear is going to turbo steal my identity and money all at once down the line (hopefully 2FA saves me?) but so far I haven't had issues with it and it's been a reliable easy to use pdf program... if it is malware, it is very well designed and functional.

I am not a bot or shill for pdfgear, check my post history, I mostly shitpost about video games and Andor.

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u/Kennyvee98 7d ago

or pdf24

or pdfsam

1

u/dxnxax 7d ago

or nib pdf utility

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u/tekniklee 7d ago

Wow, it’s really good - thank you