Yes, it appears to be based on it. Gosh, though. I really like Expression, but its documentation has to be about the worst anywhere. It makes me shiver all over to think of trying to run something photoshoppy on top of that with no better help than Expression had.
I couldn’t figure out this bit:
Acrylic appears to support opening and exporting to Photoshop and Illustrator file formats, as well as other standard graphics formats. In addition, the application appears to be able to export to Adobe’s Portable Document Format, or PDF. However, Microsoft noted Acrylic would not currently save pixel-type data to formats other than its native XPR file type.
The comparison with Paint must have Adobe managament worried. 😉
The idea of MS trying to replace PDF is laughable …
Actually, although we might joke about what MS is showing now, we should remember: Word was very inferior to WordPerfect and, before that, WordStar. Excel was nowhere near Lotus123.
PowerPoint in its early releases was a joke.
And now… OpenOffice. 😉
Cheers
I don’t find this funny at all. Beside the fact that I like Adobe products (even Bridge *with* the update !!), Microsoft had no reason to enter this market. They sell computer games by the millions (Windows XP, Windows NT, Windows Server 2003, etc.) and more useful applications (Office, Money, Age of The Empire, etc.) Why would they want to enter the graphics market?
Aside from wanting more of our money, I fail to see what good they could bring to this market.
Microsoft graphics, inside a Microsoft PDF documents, running on a Microsoft Windows OS, using a Microsoft keyboard and a Microsoft Mouse. All this backed up once a week, with Microsoft Server Tools. And, after a good work day, why not enjoy Microsoft Halo on Microsoft XBox.
Microsoft Beer with Microsoft Bretzels, Sir ?
No, this ain’t a monopoly 🙂
Ray
Barbara,
Isn’t it a little early to be promoting your next book? 😉 Ha ha, sorry, you left yourself wide open for that one! 🙂
Colin,
Good points about MS version 1-itis. Eventually they aim for a good-enough product bundled at a good-enough price to whack their competition. And I thought they abandoned this market. Didn’t they have some goofy graphics program with Office 2000? Never heard about that again.
Ray,
Yeah, good point about Microsoft’s vertical integration strategy–just like the oil & railroad monopolies of a century ago. Although I must say, Apple seems to be learning from Microsoft’s lessons: your Apple iPod connected to your Apple Mac connected to your Apple monitor connected to your Apple iSight, keyboard, Airport station, Xserve, OS X, iLife, iWork, Final Cut Pro, DVD Studio Pro, etc., etc. They make great stuff, but it’s a disturbing trend.
In 10 years’ time, will there only be Apple, Sony, and Microsoft left?
In ten years’ time you will have a chip at the base of your skull and won’t need an external appliance.
You don’t have one yet, Tom? 😉
In ten years’ time you will have a chip at the base of your skull and won’t need an external appliance.
An MS Chip with that, Sir ? Or perhaps would you prefer the compatible AMD model.. ? It delivers more power, but the heat is a little over the average. And you might have problems with your mother-in-law, as you’ve told me she’s running the MS Chip.. ?
🙂
Lou,
Difference is, Apple doesn’t force anyone out of the market with all sorts of obscure deals (i.e. "Don’t sell this brand and we’ll allow you to carry our full line"), nor does it lock its system up to prevent competition from performing as good as them (Quicktime and Windows 3 and 95, WordPerfect for Windows, etc).
Now that Apple has gone the Intel way, this might change… Microsoft will only be 1 inch away from OS X… Business practices may be revisited at MS 🙂
Ray
Interesting Ray.
Apple have swapped chips before and got away with it.
The changed OS – MacOS to X, which is really UNIX.
With Intel processors, they could easily move to Windows …
Red rag + bull = …
Ray,
One thing I learned from the business program is when you have no reasonable place to grow… you have to take business away from others.
MS is likely at its peek at this point and is looking to try to get into other areas… One thing is… it’ll keep Adobe from lying on its laurels…
Cheers
Hi Barbara,
The help system is the best I’ve seen so far. It is very easy to find needed info on anything. Also the Hints window is very informative. Surprising for a M$ product.
Alex,
Hmmm… well… after a quick preview… I’ll stick with Adobe. Kind of like Publisher to InDesign… not really a comparison. I like how they put… "professional software for professional blah blah…" Excepting that we don’t use the same adjective twice in the same sentence as professionals. 😉
Cheers
MS is likely at its peek at this point and is looking to try to get into other areas… One thing is… it’ll keep Adobe from lying on its laurels…
Jim,
You’re most probably right. It’s just that I don’t like the idea of Microsoft Professional Graphics apps. I don’t know, but they’re not exactly recognized as being innovative and creative.
In any case, we’ll see. I downloaded a copy and I’ll try to install it under Virtual PC. Be back in 3 weeks 🙂
Ray
Thanks, Alex. That’s interesting. I only have SP1 but I’ll see if I can get it to install to take a look.
Got it installed, although it won’t actually do much of anything, probably because of SP1. That combined curves/levels dialog is interesting.
Still an avid user of Wordperfect as it is superior to Word in at least one very important area – showing all hidden formatting codes when importing a file from another format or from an OCR scan. Easier, in my estimation to do page formatting, changing the font throughout a document by inserting the new font code at the top of the document, etc. Hopefully Adobe will keep the edge. I would hate to see it marginalized in the marketplace like Wordperfect has become.
"Colin Walls" wrote in message
Actually, although we might joke about what MS is showing now, we should remember:
Word was very inferior to WordPerfect and, before that, WordStar. Excel was nowhere near Lotus123.
PowerPoint in its early releases was a joke.
