While I think one of the greatest problems in society today is entirely too much hate speech online, I simply must pass along this epic anti-Adobe tirade– I Hate Adobe. I know nothing about this author or website. But some long time Adobe subscribers will no doubt appreciate the rant.

When I transitioned to a home office with no outside IT support, I knew I’d be giving up Adobe. The subscription cost was the primary reason. But it was also the continuing feature bloat and the upgrade pitches!

Cory Doctorow delivered the keynote at ABA TECHSHOW 2025. As his bio there noted, he is “a visionary science fiction author, tech journalist, and digital rights advocate, Cory is known for shaking up the status quo and challenging the way we think about technology, policy, and the future.” Enshittification is a term he coined to describe the decline in quality of technology tools and online platforms as they prioritize profit over users and business customers. I’ll leave each reader to consider how many of the tools and services they use today are impacted by this trend.

But for any readers who are retiring or moving 100% WFH who have no clerical or outside IT support, I will share my path. For a few months I tried to make do with the various free or “included” PDF creator tools. I had a ScanSnap, so I could easily turn printed pages into PDF files with the text OCR’d. Word will save as PDF, as do other tools.

But, as I suspected, even as a “part time” lower volume user, I needed a “one stop” PDF creation, editing and management tool and I did not need another monthly subscription. So, as I had been suggesting for a while to budget-minded solo and small firm lawyers, I purchased (Note: Purchased, not subscribed to.) Tungsten’s Power PDF Advanced for Windows for $179. It installed easily and all my software that used to say “Save as Adobe PDF” now say “Save as “Tungsten PDF.” I should note some may find the features they need in Tungsten Power PDF Standard for Windows for only $129. There are also Mac licenses of Standard for $129. Acrobat users should find the transition is fairly simple, but there will be some one-time learning curves. In fact, those planning on retiring this year may want to buy it now and put it on a personal computer to start getting the brief learning curve behind you. As I log in to copy the links, the Tungsten website keeps popping up 10% off coupons.