Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Microsoft To Acquire Macromedia?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the rumours-swirling-around dept.

perly-king-69 writes "The Register is reporting that 'industry sources' say that Microsoft have Macromedia in their sights. Whilst it could just be holiday gossip, if they do pull it off it could have a significant impact on the cross-browser compatibility of Flash applications."

11 of 496 comments (clear)

  1. Not the end of the world by IamTheRealMike · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Too bad for Microsoft that Macromedia documented and made the SWF format open a long time ago now. Even if they pulled the flash player from any platform except IE on Windows, we still have libflash.

    1. Re:Not the end of the world by Nosher · · Score: 4, Insightful

      That's true enough for existing versions of Flash. It would not be true of any Microsoft-based version of future releases. I guess they'd sooner turn it into some ActiveX-only control and re-write the language, which would completely stuff up any future cross-browser compatibility. As far as plugins go (speaking as a webmaster), I've never minded Flash too much: it can be neat, compact and you can *reasonably* guarantee that your target audience can play it. That would be blown away the second Micro$oft got their anti-Java mitts on it - it's clear from the article that they would want it to support .NET and Windows platforms exclusively.

      --
      It's too late for me to die young
    2. Re:Not the end of the world by Genom · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Someone with mod points mod the parent up.

      Dreamweaver is what MS has their sights set one -- not Flash. Think about it. MS pretty much controls the browser end of things through IE. What they don't control is the creation of webpages. Most of the industry that I've been in contact with have a very low opinion of Frontpage, but a very high opinion of Dreamweaver (when it comes to GUI HTML editors). Acquiring Macromedia will allow them to either integrate Dreamweaver into Frontpage, or kill it altogether. Either way, the acquisition gives them a major hold on the webpage creation industry.

      It would also give them a chance to crush Cold Fusion once-and-for-all...replacing it with ASP.NET, of course... (not that I see many CF sites anymore - most are either ASP, JSP, or PHP nowadays)

      Flash would just be frosting.

  2. Let's look back at history for a sec by inteller · · Score: 5, Insightful

    For those of you born yesterday here is a recap: Microsoft bought Liquid Motion back in the late 90s. It was actually a contender for about 3 months but Flash quickly surpassed it. Microsoft quietly concedes this battle. Then around 2000 Microsoft acquires Visio. Again, pushing the visualization theme here. About this time they also come out with a very capable Photodraw application that even uses Adobe Photoshop plug-ins. Clearly Microsoft hungers for visualization software in it's portfolio. And Dreamweaver is kicking FrontPage's ass. It should be no surprise to anyone that Microsoft wants Macromedia. With this piece of the puzzle they could finally off Adobe and their pesky little PDF format.

    1. Re:Let's look back at history for a sec by Idarubicin · · Score: 4, Insightful
      With this piece of the puzzle they could finally off Adobe and their pesky little PDF format.

      Why on earth would millions of businesses, governments, and individuals want to go to all the trouble of migrating billions of documents from PDF (designed for forms and printed documents) to a 'standard' that's best known for making web sites more annoying and slower to load--and is available on fewer platforms?

      --
      ~Idarubicin
    2. Re:Let's look back at history for a sec by constantnormal · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Why on earth would millions of businesses, governments, and individuals want to go to all the trouble of migrating billions of documents from PDF (designed for forms and printed documents) to a 'standard' that's best known for making web sites more annoying and slower to load--and is available on fewer platforms?

      I believe the answer to this is tied up with the same reasons why millions of people use other Microsoft products. One could ask why people would prefer a bugridden claptrap OS from Redmond over OS/2, which was far and away the better product for many years.

      Why don't people look for the best solution to their needs, and instead look to what others are doing?

      People don't want multiple platforms -- they want the rest of the world to conform to their own way of doing things. This replays in politics, religion, culture, etc. We're basically herd animals. All that Microsoft has to do is gain a marketplace majority, and the world will bleat a path to their doorstep.

      Macintosh and Linux users are basically aberrations, which is why they will always be a minority, no matter how much better their respective systems are.

      So if Microsoft can make it less convenient to use PDFs, and more convenient to use MDFs (Microsoft Document Format), and even offer a one-way compatibility to allow PDF users to migrate to MDF without converting, the game is won.

      Powerpoint is the Document format of the Future. (puking noises)

  3. Well, must get past DoJ by os2fan · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Remember, the DOJ blocked the Microsoft attempt to acquire Intuit. Maybe they could block this attempt.

    Suppose that some "public interest" suggestion could be put to bear on MS acquiring companies in related fields....

    --
    OS/2 - because choice is a terrible thing to waste.
  4. Folks this is a rumor by ces · · Score: 5, Insightful

    And a rumor posted on The Register at that. I'll believe this when I see it confirmed somewhere that doesn't appear to be cribbing from the Reg or Slashdot.

    This also assumes Macromedia wants to be bought by Microsoft, even if MS is attempting a hostile bid Macromedia may go looking for a white knight.

    I could see IBM, Adobe, or Sun ending up with Macromedia in the end.

    --
    Happy Fun Ball is for external use only.
  5. No, that is not a fact by EvilAlien · · Score: 4, Insightful
    That is a fear, a suspicion, certainly not a fact. It may be a fact that you worry about this coming to pass, but what is the credibility of an AC? Heh.

    Anyways, I'd be more worried about cross-platform compatibility for anything with a Mac OS preference or that Apple is the vendor for. Quicktime, anyone? I'd sure love it is Apple would release Quicktime for Linux. Microsoft has a stronger record of cross-platform compatible products that some. They have to, by law. There are bigger and better things for them to crush (Java lawsuits with Sun being a good example), which is why they do paradoxical things like hand Apple a barrel of cash to stay afloat.

    --
    perl -e 'print $i=pack(c5, (41*2), sqrt(7056), (unpack(c,H)-2), oct(115), 10)'
  6. Dreamweaver, Microsoft, standards by galaga79 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I hate to think what Microsoft acquiring Macromedia would mean for webstandards. Dreamweaver by Macromedia is certainly one of the most popular WYSIWYG HTML editors around, and because of that there has been groups such as the WaSP have been work with Macromedia making sure it is complies with the web standards out there. Who knows what Microsoft would do with Dreamweaver seeing that is in direct competition with Frontpage.

    --

    aus.music.scrapbook
  7. Re:The big days of Flash are over. by GlassUser · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Newsflash: The web in general and HTML and CSS specifically were not ever intended to allow an author to enforce a certain visual style. That's what MPEG is for. Simply put, you do not know what I will be viewing your web page on, and you don't need to be making assumptions that my television can display 4pt font, or my PDA feels like displaying 800x600 "content". The internet is not an electronic magazine. Get with the century.

    --
    funny munging