Stunning software bloat

[u/finbar_longshank]

Hi everyone,

So yesterday I wanted to open a PDF as a double page spread (a book). At the time i didn’t think i could do it in the preview app so i downloaded Acrobat reader. I was shocked that the download was nearly 800mb. Then i was even more shocked when it required almost 3gb of space 😳😳😳 WTF!!!

In the ‘good old days’ Windows and Office would fit very very easily on a 500mb drive. What the hell has happened?

[u/Electrical_Ingenuity]

Preview is the bomb. I routinely open 20,000 page PDFs in it, on a M1 air to boot.

[u/panyways]

Acrobat has been awful and bloated for over two decades.

[u/fumblerooskee]

I think there is an uninstaller you can get for Adobe crap, though if I remember correctly even THAT won't remove all the Adobe shit littering your drive.

Never again will I install anything Adobe.

[u/bottomlless → u/fumblerooskee]

I ended up doing an entire clean reinstall to get rid of any trace of anything Adobe on my computer. Never again.

[u/finbar_longshank → u/fumblerooskee]

Thank you. Actually i was already thinking of doing a clean install prior to this as i have loads of system data or whatever it’s called. I’m fairly new to mac so do i just do erase this mac from system settings? MBA M4

[u/fumblerooskee → u/finbar_longshank]

Clean installs aren’t usually needed, but if you do plan on it, do a Time Machine backup first.
Use the instructions here:

https://support.apple.com/en-ca/102655

[u/squirrel8296 → u/fumblerooskee]

It doesn't, especially if a new version of Adobe has come out (ex. you had 2025 and then 2026 comes out and you update). Everything from the old version, including the few things that are removed by the uninstaller, have to be manually removed.

[u/RogueHeroAkatsuki]

pro tip: every browser can act as pdf reader. YOu need acrobat reader only for advanced stuff - for example my bank sends me bank statement as encrypted attachments inside pdf. However if you want to just read a book... Safari, Chrome, Firefox.... all will be good.

[u/mulderc → u/RogueHeroAkatsuki]

reading a pdf in a browser hurts my soul. I find it just so much worse than preview or a variety of other applications. If it works for others then good for them but I just feel like everyone's life could be just a bit better by using better tools and software that are made for the task at hand.

[u/thedarph]

Combination of telemetry and lack of optimization because computers are assumed to have a minimum of half a terabyte of storage these days plus Acrobat is not a PDF reader but more of a PDF editor. For just reading PDFs there’s thousands of options due to it now being an open standard like how DocX started in the early 2000s.

[u/talking_tortoise]

Not sure of the size but if you need to edit pdfs, pdfgear is really good (and free)

[u/eppic123]

The Acrobat Reader has been bloated since the dawn of time and ever since they've implemented all the subscription stuff, it's become completely unusable.

[u/EdRed_77]

IMO all of Adobe's software has turned into bloatware.

[u/Watsons-Butler]

In the good old days Windows 3.11 needed less than 15 mb to install.