Roy Schestowitz wrote:
> __/ [ Robert Newson ] on Friday 15 September 2006 20:43 \__
>
> > Roy Schestowitz wrote:
> >
> > ...
> >> Here's a thought that I have. Think FrontPage and Internet Explorer. What
> >> Microsoft intends to do here, which is also what Adobe argued against
> >> Microsoft at the time (in court/Commission?) is that portability of PDF's
> >> is what Adobe thrives on. Microsoft could corrupt the format as it has
> >> always done. It could 'extend' PDF in a way that only permits its own
> >> software (Metro, Windows-only) to read those 'extensions'.
> >
> > Surely then, MS would have to write a "corrupted PDF" generator - one which
> > does not generate proper PDF. Doesn't Adobe licence the PDF format (surely
> > they could complain that it's not proper PDF and so shouldn't be so called?
> > just like these protected audio "cd"s don't meet the Phillips defn of an
> > audio CD and so can't be called as such, ie can't have the CD logo) or is
> > PDF an open, free to use and extend as one wishes format?
>
> I suspect that not so long ago Microsoft proposed an alternative to PDF (I
> could try to find the link I blogged about), just as it worked/s on a
> Photoshop killer and a Flash alternative called Sparkle. One thing is for
> sure: Microsoft wants Adobe out of its turf (platform). Adobe helps opening
> the Web, as well as facilitates communication across platforms in general.
> Interoperability hurts Microsoft cash cow (Office), among other products
> whose revenue potential is lower. Anything that does not help Microsoft's
> agenda, as benevolent to end-users as it may be, is perceived as evil that
> ought to be eliminated. Think Netscape or Linux. But industry is not a
> person. It has no feelings and in a world that promote oligopoly it will
> have no 'ethical' barriers either. A law needs to be ratified which is
> somehow of a surrogate of ethics. I suspect that the European Commission can
> see that. But Microsoft is clung up on the American dream and the mottos of
> extreme capitalism (like republicanism/nationalism).
>
You are just plain silly, roy!
First you champion the MS alternative, taking some glee in the notion
that people might find the grass greener on the non-Microsoft side of
fence. Then you voice dismay when you discover that there is no fence
and the MS cash cow has come to graze in your pasture. LOL!!!
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