To read PDFs, use Foxit. It's free, not bloated (i.e. loads instantly) and works well.
To create PDFs, use CutePDF. I've used/tested/recommended lots of others in the past, and CutePDF is the PDFer du jour.
Obviously, for PDF manipulation you might be SOL, but that's the only reason i'd buy a pukka copy of Adobe these days.