Microsoft Moves in on the Graphics Market

Ian Lamont writes "Microsoft has quietly been building up graphics-related R&D, reports Computerworld, noting that Microsoft employees will be presenting one out of every eight papers at SIGGRAPH 2007. And it's not a fluke — other recent Microsoft graphics-related developments include Photosynth, which has been discussed on Slashdot several times, as well as the Silverlight/Expression Studio graphics suite, which will compete with Adobe's Flash/Illustrator/Lightroom/Dreamweaver offerings. At SIGGRAPH, Microsoft will supposedly have demos of some new software including image deblurring tools and Soft Scissors, which 'solves the vexing problem of how to cut and paste an image from one background to another if the image's edges — hair blowing in the wind, blades of grass — are very complex.' Microsoft's competitors aren't sitting down. Adobe's CEO, calling Microsoft a '$50 billion monopolist,' has questioned whether Silverlight will be compatible with non-Windows operating systems, and Google has also been building up its own graphics-related software products, such as the 3D modeling tool SketchUp, and Google Earth."

Comments

Questions Linux Support?

[TheNetAvenger]

In other related news today:

Microsoft Nurtures Linux Silverlight Port
http://www.sdtimes.com/article/LatestNews-20070801 -46.html

I have more faith in MS and Silverlight on cross platform than I do Flash anymore after the past few years. Not only is Silverlight already available on other platforms it even supports 64bit (gasp).

And this is just the Silverlight 1.0 RC and MS doesn't expect long range use or adoption until 1.1 is finalized as it adds in massive amounts of support for web interaction and more language support. (1.1 is already in developer circles, and will be out not long after 1.0)

Also for people worried about adoption, take a look at MLB.com. There are a lot things in Silverlight especially on the programming side that Flash just can't do easily. Silverlight not only builds on Vista XAML technology for the web but also does HD quality video and can also do single feed streaming unlike Flash.

If I Were Adobe

[balazsa]

If I were Adobe, I would start to push Linux products out of the door like crazy.

Re:Microsoft might be a monopolist...

[GeckoX]

PS is not a tough hill to climb at all, unless you're climbing to the very top.

Maybe 5% of users use 90% of the features in PS. It's serious overkill for most graphical needs except high end skilled professional work. And it's ludicrously expensive for anyone elses needs.

I do lots of graphical work in my job, lots of minor editing and image creation, gui element creation, that kind of thing. Know what? Paint.net has all of the tools from PS that I'd ever need for my requirements, and it's free. (As well as just one of a number of very suitable graphics programs that are free and suitable to most peoples needs)

Adobe could quite easily be killed off, and just might be yet if they continue to expect their entire potential market on the same level as they currently do. Adobe _should_ have been providing a free version of PS with less features to the masses for YEARS now...then they WOULD be the graphics gorilla that would be almost unstoppable. As it stands, sure most use Adobe products, but how many are thrilled to do so? Everyone I know spends a LOT of time talking about other products, just waiting to jump ship ASAP (For those that haven't yet that is!)

other non-windows OSs?

[kaizokuace]

Hey Adobe! There are other OS's that OS X and Windows! Make your stuff work in Linux! ALL of it! I seriously hope that M$ creating this stuff will cause adobe to make their suites for Linux. I don't care if its closed source I just don't wanna have to use windows for graphics stuff anymore! I wanna use my 64bit processor for reals! And then I hope other popular art packages move to Linux and then the world will be safer and those Dell PC's with Ubuntu installed will be worth something to some people! Some people like me!

PS: SIGGRAPH is most fun conference

[peter303]

I've attended many conferences in computer science and the physical sciences (I develop visualization tools for the energy industry) and I have to say SIGGRAPH is hands-down the most fun conference I attend. SIGGRAPH includes core graphics, advanced hardware, and special techniques used for movies and video games. This year there were several "how they did it" sessions from major movie studios. The young F/X Turks get up and expalin their amazing tricks to adulation of the audience. You can skim the exhibits and showrooms for a day for less than hundred dollars or listen to mathematically intense courses and papers all week.

2007 San Diego conference ended today. Los Angeles in 2008! (Big party city with all the studios)

MS is spreading itself too thin if you ask me

[HeavyDevelopment]

Microsoft has too many battles going on. The list is long--MS vs Sony/NES, MS vs the Linux/Open source community, MS vs Apple iPod, MS vs Google, etc.. Now MS want to take on Adobe/Macromedia? In the end I think that this is a losing proposition for them. In fact it already might be happening. Their core product, the Windows OS, had a launch that was lackluster at best and Office had a little better reception than that. And it took them, what 5 years, to get it to market? Now they want to get into the graphics and web design market? This battle may be their undoing--their Stalingrad. MS should take a page out of the history books and realize that fighting on too many fronts usually leads to bad things. They need to keep their core business, and more importantly their core clientèle (ie Windows and Office) happy. Then narrow in on markets that they can overtake....but always keeping an eye toward the homeland. I don't think they are doing that. Think about it. Vista and new Office has lukewarm response (I have yet to know anyone that has upgraded that didn't buy a new computer), the Xbox 360 is having all kinds of hardware issues--for hardware that they are already subsidizing, the Zune officially blows (I don't know anyone that owns one...do you?), their "Live" suite of web services to compete with Google has completely dropped off the radar screen (zero buzz. I mean what happened to Live????), and now they want to get in the graphics arena? Hmmmm....looking like another half-baked business strategy. BTW, didn't MS already attempt a "Flash killer", some years back? Wasn't called Quicksilver or something like that?

Obsolescence and the Mac Platform

[gobbo]

On an iMac the monitor is disposable (unless I am missing something).

Yah, you are missing the used computer market. Mac users who bother to upgrade sell their computers for a premium, the used prices are inflated so it works well to buy new, cheaper than upgrading components and you get the warranty.

Why? because macs obsolete a bit slower. I have a 7 year old iBook G3 that still gets used for capturing video and sorting clips in the field; the equivalent toshiba with its crappy case and expensive add-ons is already disposed of. A 4-year old machine will run OS X 10.4 fine.

What this means in practical terms to the discussion at hand is that I know quite a few freelance layout specialists who know damn little about their Macs but know their primary tools (Quark, InDesign, Illustrator, etc.) exactly as much as they feel they need to. This means that they haven't upgraded for years, software or hardware, since their setup is essentially a locked-down turnkey system: stable and adequately fast for the task. The biggest speed boost is in the wetware, anyway.

A couple of examples: 3 years ago I was talking to someone who specializes in complex books like naturalist and travel guides. His rig was a maxed out and optimized PowerMac 8500 running OS 8. He couldn't afford the downtime of upgrading, because he didn't want to distract himself from churning out quality books and raking in freelance $. Last weekend I met a government document specialist who is finally moving to OS X with considerable anxiety, and is even more anxious about moving away from that nasty Quark thing to a new set of keyboard commands and costly paradigms.

Nerds have trouble grasping this, because they see corporate shops where the graphic dept. has spanky new quads, or they're used to an upgrade frenzy every time nvidia drops a log. I straddle both worlds, so I can tell you that quite a few Mac users are stealthed out there on their antiques, while many windows users are snapping up $400 dells and lenovos. I think this factor skews the installed user base / market share equation, and I'm pretty sure Adobe knows about them (though they probably don't care much).