Steve Jobs’ 2010 open letter, "Thoughts on Flash," was the beginning of the end. He cited security, battery drain, and touch incompatibility. He was right.
Like Flash, Reader became a vector for disaster. PDFs could contain JavaScript, embedded Flash objects, and malicious TrueType fonts. From 2008 to 2018, "Malicious PDF" was the #1 method for spear-phishing corporate employees. Open a fake invoice in Reader, and a hacker owned your network. adobe flash player adobe reader
Here is where the story gets ugly. While competing lightweight readers (Foxit, Sumatra, Nitro) were 5MB downloads, Adobe Reader became a 200MB monster. It insisted on running in the background ( AdobeARM.exe ), wanted to update constantly, and—infamously—tried to install and a browser toolbar with every update. Steve Jobs’ 2010 open letter, "Thoughts on Flash,"
In the pre-cloud era, file compatibility was a nightmare. A Word document formatted on Windows 98 might look like hieroglyphics on a Mac. The PDF (Portable Document Format) solved this. It captured the intent of the author, freezing typography and images in carbonite. Like Flash, Reader became a vector for disaster
If you are still running either of these tools, stop.