My PDF reader REALLY HAD to add a permanent "AI assistant" button that floats on every single file i open
If someone knows how to disable this fuckery, please tell me or i have to install adobe acrobat, it makes me crazy as it floats on all the open PDFs, covering text/content
Is this FoxIt? What the hell, FoxIt used to be cool.
Anyway, if all you need is a .pdf reader and don't need any editing or form fill BS, just uninstall all your .pdf readers because they're totally redundant these days. Firefox and all other browsers can natively read .pdf's. If you need to mess with the content of a .pdf, Inkscape (open source) does a competent job of taking them apart and letting you edit them nowadays.
I'm of the opinion that bloated memory hog .pdf applications full of subscriptions and ads and other bullshit can just die in a fire. I haven't actually needed one for years.
The main issue that I've run into is that foxit has a pretty decent signing system for signing PDFs which comes in handy from time to time and foxit and adobe both have batch editing for PDFs which is really handy for taking a bunch of random documents and sizing them to be all the same view size and rotating pages and the like to make everything nice and uniform for sharing with others.
My main issue with browser PDF reading is that I can't compile and apply my signature on PDF with them, which are the main reasons I'm still using Foxit.
Yeah, I used to use it to fix my RPG PDFs. (Seriously, it's astounding how many publishers either omit or completely fuck up bookmarks.) I found out it went to shit when trying to help someone else do the same, and the newer free version was significantly cut down.
Hey this name is familiar.... these guys sent me all their app telemetry for a couple weeks because they hardcoded AWS LB IPs into their software, and I got lucky enough to get one of those recycled IPs.
Wouldn't be surprised if their apps are still screwed up and sending large amounts of junk traffic at me, but at least now it's going into a void.
Do you live in a utopia where you get as much beer as you want without having to pay for it, or do you live in a dystopia where you have to pay to be able to speak your mind and only in limited quantities?
I live in mixed world where companies are making proprietary software and paywalling everything. Yet, there's independent open source programs where I can get a copy, share, and expand as I want without worring about legal issues.
Free as in beer means I got a beer for free (gratis, "No Price"), whereas speech is I can say what I want (without being silenced).*
In this context, Okular is a free (As in price) and free (As in libre software). I can copy, share, modify, and share modification as I please. There is no subscription, paywall, or proprietary licsense that prohibits this.
= This may be inaccurate, wrong, misleading, and varying amoung countries and states.
i need n-up, booklet, zoom control, a preview and batch printing. Sumatra PDF just invokes the standard barebones print dialog with no extra frills. It's ok for viewing but not for printing
One of the biggest problems with this AI-spam in every app is that there is no workable business model. You can't run the AI locally on most end user computers. And running it in the cloud or via OpenAI API is expensive and won't work in the long term. So you're looking at another one of those stupid subscriptions, but who really wants to pay monthly for his PDF reader so he can ask it questions?
Thanks for reminding me to uninstall Foxit reader. Last week at work I read an article about yet another security flaw in Foxit Reader, and I thought: "I have to uninstall that when I get home" but then I forgot about it.
Foxit Reader used to be a useful tool waaaay back in time. Now it is time for it to go.
I never had that floating over the document I was viewing, just in the home tab of the menu, but I did find a way to switch it off.
'File > Preferences > General' has an option to 'disable all features which require an internet connection'.
There are also options in there to disable that opening splash screen if you don't want that.
That's why I use edge (I know ugh) when I don't need to comment sign or edit PDFs. I don't want to use Firefox so it doesn't get mixed up with all my other open tabs.
I’m kinda done with everyone adding an AI assistant. Like it’s cool but I don’t always need an assistant. It’s not cool or new, every has one. Just develop it if you want but don’t shove it down our throats.
Wait what? I thought, they'd integrate it in the OS like they did with cortana - or Bing search in the start menu...
I'm from the EU, so I'm lucky and won't see this anytime soon, but what does it do and how does it work in the Terminal? Is it a new tab complete, but with AI hallucinations instead of real commands/filenames?
Only seen it (FoxIt) installed in a corporate environment, because for some reason businesses cannot stop using "Interactive editable PDFs".
I wonder if there are FOSS alternatives adressing that niche.
It gets buried in my pile of Firefox tabs, so I usually use edge. I could probably set up a different user or something to keep them separate, but I've been to lazy so far.
I've gotten so used to being able to just use the zapper in ublock origin that I forget that in apps outside of the web browser you can't just get rid of unwanted bits of the UI. That sucks man.
I still use Foxit 9.72 on my pc (which I don't have open ATM, so I can't check to be certain I gave the right version). I have tried newer versions, but there always was some kind of enshittyfication change that annoyed me and I always reverted back to that last good version.
As a Linux user, I was rather surprised to learn that Windows doesn't have a good pdf viewer. (Sumatra was the closest I could get.) Scientific software I can understand, but pdf viewer? Wtf?
I'm on Windows 11 and it opens PDF files in Edge by default. While I find it kind of silly to use a web browser for that purpose, the built-in PDF reader is actually fairly good, it can even read your documents out loud using text-to-speech.
Another good option on Windows is PDF XChange Editor, though I'm using an old version so I can't vouch for how much or little enshitification has happened in newer versions
Adobe PDF is also good if you know where to get it for free.
I esp. rely on the editing feature of Adobe PDF. Has saved me so much hassle to edit PDF files cleanly.
Hey Moonrise2473,
Do you still have this issue?
I opened foxit today and was reminded of your post. I figured out how to get rid of the "AI assistent" and "support centre".
go to file>preferences
image (sorry, I don't have time right now to figure out how to insert images properly)
(below the arrow in this image is the "disable support centre" button for the other floaty thing)
An adblocker that allows you to select and remove elements can be critical in helping to declutter websites, including those annoying floating windows.