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Microsoft to Introduce PDF competitor 'Metro'

Posted by timothy on from the that-portable-thing-sounds-dangerous dept.

RustNeverSleeps writes "Computerworld reports that Microsoft will be including a new document format called 'Metro' with Longhorn. Apparently, Metro is intended to be a competitor to Adobe's PDF and Postscript formats. The format will be open and available for royalty-free licensing, and will be based on XML. Can we expect Microsoft to do this right? If they do, I think it could be a good thing." Reader gsfprez is less optimistic: "... I noticed the main, and probably most important difference between old and busted PDF and new-hotness Metro (besides the Queer Eye styled name)... 'We will offer products based on this next generation RIP technology and make them available under license to printer manufacturers and software integrators worldwide.' Yes, I can see it now - entire industries undoing their time-tested, battle hardend PDF-based workflows with free and open files all for the chance to use patented, pay-for-use Microsoft proprietary workflows, software, and files. Good luck with that, guys."

10 of 798 comments (clear)

  1. Metro by SimonInOz · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Wasn't there a British car called the Metro - small, ugly, and had a square steering wheel (I'm not making this up)?

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    "Cats like plain crisps"
    1. Re:Metro by NetSerf2000 · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      We had that sucker out here in Australia as well... small ugly and totally useless for large people. I dont think that we had the square steering wheel though. Or I am just having nightmares from my days in the UK a couple of years back now...

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      *** I had a .sig, but then I got a life ***
    2. Re:Metro by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      Yes, there was. A most excellent car for it's time. Won several awards, and outperformed everything on the road in terms of fuel efficiency when it first came out. Obviously it's outlived it's sell-by date by now, but still, it was a great car back in its day.

    3. Re:Metro by SimonInOz · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      Oh dear. It was the Allegro - I looked it up. Sigh ...

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      "Cats like plain crisps"
    4. Re:Metro by bears · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      There was. http://www.angelfire.com/retro/minimetroland/ calls it 'Absolutely the greatest ever small hatchback built in the West Midlands to come out of the closing years of the second half of the 1970s'. An excellent summary. The editorial line of http://www.thesun.co.uk/ during the Falklands War was widely satirised as 'Kill an Argie and win a Mini Metro'.

      The square steering wheel, though, was on that exemplar of the early 1970s British car industry, the Austin Allegro. A nice pic here http://www.74simon.co.uk/newallegro.html.

    5. Re:Metro by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1, Offtopic

      Wasn't there a British car called the Metro - small, ugly, and had a square steering wheel (I'm not making this up)?

      Wasn't that a Yugo? Those cars were so cheap that the CD player skipped every time the speedometer hit 55 MPH.

  2. lol, what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    seriously, huh?

  3. Uh oh! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Bush's approval rating is falling. Time to start another war and make love to the evil Saudi empire!

  4. Can anyone say... by TheIndefiniteArticle · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    metrosexual?

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    get a free laptop
  5. There was a Geo Metro in the USA too. by Blaede · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    An ultra small car, but pretty impressive MPG, even for 1997. I wouldn't dare drive this on a highway, but if you live in a city, wouldn't be a bad car to get around inexpensively. If you want a newer and roomier car, a Volkswagon Jetta would be a better choice.