Open For All Except Microsoft Users

Adobe’s move to prevent Microsoft from include PDF functionality suite simply shows how hypocritical software makers are these days as far as Microsoft is concerned.

The changes follow a breakdown of talks between the two technology giants after Microsoft announced last year it would include native PDF publishing with the release of Office 2007. The feature has long been a top request from customers, the company said at the time, and other office suites have the capability.

But Adobe was unhappy with the move and a dispute has been brewing for four months, Microsoft's lead counsel Brad Smith said Friday. Although PDF claims to be an open format and is integrated into OpenOffice and Apple's Mac OS X operating system, Adobe apparently sees Office 2007 as a real threat to its business.
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Adobe wants Microsoft to charge for the feature, which the Redmond company has refused to do. Smith said Adobe threatened to file an antitrust suit in Europe, and his company was preparing for that eventuality.

The threat to move immediately to European anti-trust courts was particularly under-handed given Europe’s obvious distain for success Microsoft.

Either the PDF format is open or it is not, Adobe’s abuse of the legal system to make it open for everyone but Microsoft shouldn’t be tolerated. However, given the anti-Microsoft bias, well, just about everywhere, I don’t see any resolution that will be a win for consumers.