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Software Makers Lobby EU Against Microsoft
Carl Bialik from WSJ writes "Adobe and Symantec are lobbying EU regulators for action against Vista, the Wall Street Journal reports. Adobe is calling for Microsoft to be barred from building into the OS free software that competes with Acrobat. From the article: 'Adobe and Symantec have told EU regulators that Vista has put them squarely in Microsoft's cross hairs. Symantec is concerned that Vista will direct consumers toward a Microsoft-designed security console, or box that shows what level various security functions, such as an Internet firewall, are set on. The rival company wants to be able automatically to override the Microsoft template with its own design and features, as it has been allowed to do in the past.'"
Actually, i'm with microsoft on this one.
Symantecs OS invading suite of crappy tools just sucks.
Integrating PDF generation into applications and office suites ist also a MUST.
Microsoft is doing the right thing here. And i won't whine for symantec, they just made all the veritas products more sucky.
What is good for Adobe in this case is good for us.
.doc file if I send them as a PDF I know it's going to work. Likewise a lot of people send me PDF... if they start sending me MS-PDF-Ripoff files I'm probably not going to be able to read them and I certainly won't be able to write them with any degree of confidence.
PDF is a standard that Linux and OS X are well brought into. While I worry about my documents turning up mangled if I send them as an OO.o produced
While I'm happy to see Adobe get a competitor this is a clear case where MS will be able to use their monopoly (Office and Windows) to overnight destroy an existing market. While any other company should be allowed a fair go, in this case it is in everyones interest to:
Force MS to comply with the PDF standard or
Force MS to only do this if their new standard is genuinly open (with no usage restrictions) or
Not distribute a product in this space.
Think of the Children; Sleep with your Sister
The things Apple continually receives praise for and advertises about, included applications and higher security, Microsoft gets sued over. Yeah, that's fair.
"Security" software companies only exist becuase ... windows didn't have or provide adequate security. Or due to bugs in the OS which were exploited. They're basically parasitic entities.
Now MS is trying to fix this with Vista.
So basically, the logic being put forth is: Our business model is based on your inability to put out a secure product. Your attempt at putting out a secure product is going to break our business model, and thus our business.
- Roach
The most frustrating thing to me is that Microsoft cannot even get the basics of their OS working right. All the security holes, inefficiencies, bloat etc. keep getting worse, yet instead of working on the real problems, they continue to tack on more proprietary stuff to suck in consumers. The UI problems with Vista are bad enough. If you include the nasty slow network stack (3rd parties are now offering network cards to bypass the mess to improve performance), nag-ware as opposed to proper security, etc. I think Microsoft is going to loose more than the respect of software developers. Looks like just another closed platform.
Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.
I agree with Microsoft on this one at least with respect to Security. The way I see it these security companies have been enjoying all of the advantages of the Parasite feeding on the security nightmare that is Microsofts current code-base. Security IS the job of the Operating System, including anti-virus and firewall. However, if Microsoft are going to charge us for anti-virus/spyware updates in future then thats a different story.
Its really only game companies that are holding other OS's back. If they had their software work on both Windows and Linux, i would think lots of gamers would switch (the ones that know how to do things), as with Linux (or BSD) you can control what software is currently active, you can sqeeze every last FPS out. When that happens, hardware companies will make drivers are more people need them. There is already plenty of software for most peoples use that is free, so once games come in to Linux/BSD, all the other software companies can start switching as their users have a good chance to do so.
Also, MS is the ones being anti-competitive. Its true Adobe and such are cry babies, with good reason. MS has a history of undercutting them by bundeling crappy knock offs to their customers. True, MS software is crappy, but for most people, they dont know that, or care. It has the functionality they need most, and are to lazy to find software that has everything they need, they will make do with what they have because they dont really think there is a better way. If MS really wanted to have a level playing field with other companies, it would stop the bundeling and using hidden API's. MS should have the users download the extras from its website, or if the user wants, install some other software. Also, the software MS supplies that is not part of their OS need to be fully removable (there is some question as to what software is really nessesary, and what was only made "nessesary" to dodge the legal system by saying its nessesary).
Adobe said PDF is an open standard and anybody can make a reader/writer for it if they want. Now that Microsoft has, they're trying to renege on that and say it's proprietary? Doesn't work that way, Adobe.
PDF is an open standard. Anyone can make a reader and writer for it. The recipe for cheese is open too and anyone can make and sell cheese. So you don't mind if the electric company (a monopoly) raises your rates by $20 a month and gives you some slightly sub-par cheese do you? And you don't think cheese sellers have any legal right to complain that the electric company is abusing their monopoly to put them out of business do you?
PDF is an open standard. MS is welcome to make PDF creation tools and XPS (PDF competitor) creation tools. They're even welcome to bundle those tools with the mice they sell, or with Halo 3. What they are not free to do is bundle them with anything they have a monopoly on, including Windows, just as they are not legally allowed to bundle anything else with Windows for which their is an existing market. It has nothing to do with how open the format is.
Did anyone who responded to this article actually READ the damn article? MS isn't offering PDF creation in Vista - AT ALL!!! They should, as *nix and OS X have done for years, all OS's should have Print/Export to PDF built into the OS. HOWEVER, MS is planning on releasing Vista with an MS homegrown "PDF Killer". As the MS Office suite moves to XML based file formats, they are building a PDF-Like file export into Vista called XML Paper Specification (or XPS). So all you happy like MS lovers chiming in on this little article, and how MS is entitled to include PDF in Vista since it's an open standard are going to be in for a bit of a surprise when your files come out as "MyHomework.xps".
... I agree on the Symantec=crappy part.
But then, anyone with half a clue is going to be using OpenOffice anyway - and exporting to PDF wont be a problem. Suck on 'em apples Micro$cum! I don't have a problem with MS adding features, and improving file formats. I have a problem with MS forcing your hand and making it difficult to choose something other than MS only solutions. That's what all the anti-trust legal battles were about, and Redmond keeps pushing forward.
It's always fun to see how people are willing to get all riled up about things they won't bother to understand.
um, but yeah