Micro$oft's Metro Takes Aim at Adobe
pompo (998 points) | Wed, 2005-04-27 20:02It's probably going to be a piece of creap as usual:
Next version of Windows will include a new document format that rivals Adobe's PostScript and PDF.
Tuesday, April 26, 2005
SEATTLE -- The next version of Windows will include a new document format, code-named "Metro," to print and share documents, Microsoft says. Metro appears to rival Adobe Systems' PostScript and PDF technologies.
Metro was demonstrated during Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates' keynote at the start of the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) here on Monday.
The format, based on XML, will be licensed royalty free and users will be able to open Metro files without a special client. In the demonstration, a Metro file was opened and printed from Internet Explorer, Microsoft's Web browser.
Printers and printer drivers can include support for Metro and deliver better and faster printing results than with today's printing technology, Microsoft says. On stage, a Xerox printer with Metro built in was used to print a sample slide.
The Metro technology is likely to go head-to-head with Adobe's PostScript technology. "It is a potential Adobe killer," says Richard Doherty, research director with The Envisioneering Group in Seaford, New York. "But this is just the first warning shot. Adobe could put something that is even more compelling [on top of] Longhorn."
http://www.pcworld.com/resource/article/0,aid,120575,pg,1,RSS,RSS,00.asp
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You will know fear...Then you will know pain.
Then you will use a Mac.
Interesting. I hate new standards coming up all the time. I wish they would rather perfect pdf. MS is always just confusing things.
I think this means we may have MS coming to the graphics field very soon.
I second that. I hate how MS thinks they can muscle into anything and everything just because they have the resources. By no means does that ensure a quality product.
I'm sure Adobe will get more motivated in futher improving the PDF platform.
Competition is always great for us...the end users.
_P_o_m_p_o _M_u_l_t_i_m_e_d_i_a
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You will know fear...Then you will know pain.
Then you will use a Mac.
Fine Art Framed New Orleans Photography
http://www.nolaPIC.com
=============================================
You will know fear...Then you will know pain.
Then you will use a Mac.
Especially at these times that one major player is out of the game.
... is the availability of readers on a variety of platforms. Wanna bet that M$ won't release the first reader for Mac OS X and Linux?
... rival PS and PDF? I'll believe it when it's available/useable by ALL! Stinks of proprietary monopolization, something MS has perfected. I don't care what MS says about "licensed royalty free"... I'm betting there'll be a "catch".
Alec
While MS can easily take over a format because of their obscene financial situation, I highly doubt that MS can or will even make a dent in the Acrobat market.
PDF is so embedded in corporate culture, graphics production and many software applications that they not only have to sell users on trying Metro, getting them to like Metro and getting them to actually use Metro, but they also have to come up with a way for companies to convert PDF into the Metro format as easily as a click of a button.
I don't know about most companies, but you aren't going to get me to convert hundreds of thousands of PDF files to a new format, simply because it's MS's latest buggy software release. An OS upgrade is one thing, but now you're talking about altering (and possibly totally losing) your company's assets... I just don't see it happening.
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"I don't know about most companies, but you aren't going to get me to convert hundreds of thousands of PDF files to a new format, simply because it's MS's latest buggy software release."
I agree. You bet I won't either and most companies will not for sure.
I'm sure they plan to make Metro Longhorn's default file format for documents much the same way Apple uses PDF. Since the format will be licensed royalty-free, I have no doubt people with come out with Metro->PDF converters, so where the hell is the advantage of this new format?
I'm most bothered by yet another analyst bowing down to whatever new market Microsoft decides to buy its way into and declaring it a fillintheblank-killer. Come on now.
If it's going to be Longhorn's default, we have nothing to worry about for a few years! ;-)
Alec