Adobe may sue Microsoft if it is not satisfied with the European Union's steps to ensure Microsoft's new operating system does not shut out rivals, Adobe's chief executive said.
Bruce Chizen told Germany's Euro am Sonntag newspaper there were two options: to sue Microsoft directly or to work with the authorities and provide them with the necessary information.
"We're doing the latter. Then we'll see," Chizen said in an interview released on Saturday ahead of publication on Sunday.
Microsoft's new Vista software, due to be released early next year, contains a version of fixed document formats which would compete with Adobe's PDF format. Microsoft has pledged to make changes to its version.
Chizen added that Adobe, known for its popular Acrobat document reader, was considering offering some of its more sophisticated software for photo and video editing over the Internet, financed by advertising.
"It would be a shame if we could not fit this into our business model," Chizen said.
News source: Reuters
Bruce Chizen told Germany's Euro am Sonntag newspaper there were two options: to sue Microsoft directly or to work with the authorities and provide them with the necessary information.
"We're doing the latter. Then we'll see," Chizen said in an interview released on Saturday ahead of publication on Sunday.
Microsoft's new Vista software, due to be released early next year, contains a version of fixed document formats which would compete with Adobe's PDF format. Microsoft has pledged to make changes to its version.
Chizen added that Adobe, known for its popular Acrobat document reader, was considering offering some of its more sophisticated software for photo and video editing over the Internet, financed by advertising.
"It would be a shame if we could not fit this into our business model," Chizen said.
News source: Reuters
Oh that's the reason? It has nothing to do with the fact that Adobe has no patent for PDF, Adobe has no problem with OpenOffice and Macs using PDF or that Microsoft can be sued for more than Adobe makes off their program in a year?
Does this make Flickr bad as well since they switched to AJAX when Adobe bought Macromedia?
Whether Adobe has a patent for PDF is irrelevant - by bundling a competing application into Vista they are destroying the market share that Adobe has spent years building up and invested considerable money into. You can't have a situation whereby industries build up that employ hundreds/thousands of people and contribute millions to the economy can suddenly be wiped out because Microsoft has decided to bundle media players, anti-virus software or such into the latest version of Windows. At the same time it is important that Microsoft still be allowed to add new features and improve security... I'm just saying that it needs to take into account the rest of the industry.
Same with browsers. Firefox can be found on many systems. Just because MS includes an alternative doesnt mean the other will go away. Sure winzip isnt the application it once was but thats because there was no competition. Nowdays there is and their market share has subsequently dropped but by no means is winzip a dead project and they arent even a spec of the company that adobe currently is.
Whether Adobe has a patent for PDF is irrelevant - by bundling a competing application into Vista they are destroying the market share that Adobe has spent years building up and invested considerable money into. You can't have a situation whereby industries build up that employ hundreds/thousands of people and contribute millions to the economy can suddenly be wiped out because Microsoft has decided to bundle media players, anti-virus software or such into the latest version of Windows. At the same time it is important that Microsoft still be allowed to add new features and improve security... I'm just saying that it needs to take into account the rest of the industry.
Microsoft is bundling Microsoft software. What's wrong?
As long as the built-in zipper performs like crap, WinZip, WinRAR, or whatever archiver won't be going anywhere soon. Vista's zipper still takes ages to do something that takes only seconds in WinRAR.
Litigation is faster and cheaper than innovation
Actually IMHO companies like Adobe, McAfee and Symantec should bind forces, bring out their products for Linux as well and try to compete with Microsoft that way. Eventually the way I see it, this may be the only way out in the future, because Microsoft is purchasing a lot of companies at the moment that could threaten the positions of other companies...Think about an integrated firewall, anti virus package in Vista and Microsoft's PDF plug in).
"It would be a shame if we could not fit this into our business model," Chizen said.
On another note, it's almost like Adobe doesn't want people using PDFs.
That's quite the trail to follow!
The way Adobe seems to go, I think they'd get lost along the way.
- It's better for the end-users to have all the options available in one OS.. if they don't like, then they can use other products.. no one is forced..
- So why companies are acting silly like that..? bah
You know.... I have no incentive to buy Acrobat for $800 regardless of what Vista has.
They just want to make easy money from their own mistakes.
They just want to make easy money from their own mistakes.
Their own mistakes? They created a very successful file format and now Microsoft has decided to bundle their own version and take away their market share... I wouldn't call creating a successful product a mistake. By that logic anything designed for Windows would have to be a mistake because Microsoft could ultimately decide to include that functionality and make the original product worthless.
Either way, it was just a FILE FORMAT for crying out loud and they did a good job of making it ubiquitous, but how long did they honestly think they were going to be able to keep a FILE FORMAT generating money?
Adobe should have just "Freewared" this and let MS include it as a de facto standard in its new Office 2007 products, just like it already is in Open Office, Final Draft, etc. etc.
....Imagine that, competition and use choice...
/Very bad day working with Adobe. They are bloody useless.
For Pete's sake, it's just a FILE FORMAT!
Way to try and sue the competition just because they create a open standard that (god forbid) might compete with your god-awful closed standard. This sounds exactly like Adobe getting scared because they haven't done a single useful or innovate thing with the PDF standard in years...and now they might actually have some competition so the obvious solution would be to
make a better productsue.As for why Microsoft won't integrate PDF support into the OS (or any other Microsoft application), well Microsoft tried to strike a deal with Adobe, including pre-installing Adobe Reader with new copies of Windows, but Adobe didn't go for it...What the hell else do they want? Having your crap-tastic software pre-installed with every copy of Windows is about as good as it gets.
What an absolute joke.
Last edited by xxdesmus on 21 Nov 2006 - 00:04
Even make the system unresponsive
Also, if Adobe sues MS, you can flush their support right down the toliet for Vista.
PDF have become very useful to me. As for XPS, apparently you can open them with IE7 and .net 3, but it didn't work very well for me.
.ZIP files are supported in XP and Vista... no problem there????? No need to buy or download Winzip or WinRAR.
I wish Final Cut would be made for windows{no I wont switch mac, fck them) because I would drop premier/after effect so adobe could die.. and nope I never paid for there ridiculous price for there software I gotta it for really cheap and legit hehe. I never use PDF unless there file that need be view I use foxit as viewer.
Oh, wait, that doesn't make any sense. Shouldn't Mac have been sued first?
Welcome to Adobe: The company of double standards and moronic lawsuits.
My opinion is that Microsoft is a monopoly plain and simple, it is not possible to compete against it's might and the EU is correct to enforce it's anti-monopoly laws.
..and what are "fixed document formats"?
What?
They threatened to sue MS if they sopport pdf.
What?
They threatened to sue MS if they sopport pdf.
I thought they threatened to sue MS if they created a default scenario which precluded fair competition (in their eyes!
Perhaps my reading is wrong but I thought we'd moved on from the necessity of removing an unfair default to ensuring through the EU that Adobe (and others) have a fair opportunity to integrate their products with Vista. A subtle distinction I admit so perhaps this is really the same argument.
There seem to be a few takes on the reporting of this some saying PDF support was intended others saying only an MS rival was supported - I'm now confused as to what is the truth!!!!
Wall Street Journal article referring only to rival format.
Last edited by tigeir on 22 Nov 2006 - 18:14
It’s all about rivalry at the end of the day? McAfee, Symantec, Adobe... all complaining about Windows Vista mainly because for the first time Microsoft has created an OS which doesn’t require you to purchase immeasurable amounts of software to make sure your PC is safe therefore, saving you the best part of over £100 in the process. The Security Centre will replace the need for McAfee and Symantec, both of which we all know slow you system down and decreases the load time.
Microsoft developed and alternative to PDF which if anybody has seen is pretty good and saves you around about $800 for the professional version of Adobe Reader 8 Professional. I sort of agree in one sense that Microsoft are cutting out the competition, but... come on face it, if Microsoft develops software for Vista which works better than your rivals it’s going to hack them off a little, because they know, that the end-user will not bother purchasing extra software mainly because its already pre-programmed in the Operating System. I’ll say it again... EU laws are stupendous, and inane, to say the least.
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