Summary : Microsoft included a "save to PDF" and XMS (their format to 'rival' pdf) feature in the office 2007 beta, which has been made available to the public for quite some time now.
While adobe does sell their own product to create PDFs (around 240$ I believe), this feature has been included in Apple software, OpenOffice.org and some others for quite some time. Yet when Microsoft, their so-called business partner, jumped on the bandwagon Adobe threatened to counter with legal action.



They wanted Microsoft to remove the feature from the retail version and offer it as a purchasable add-on; else they'd claim they're violating the antitrust laws and offering their product for free.

In the latest episode of this startling series, Microsoft attempts to soothen adobe's wrath by offering a deal.

Microsoft to Adobe: Let's Make a Deal
http://www.microsoft-watch.com/article2/0,...,1971047,00.asp




Another good read is the following article, about Adobe's possible motives.

Why Adobe and Microsoft Hit Delete on PDF Deal
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...=rss_technology

Well, if I were Adobe I wouldn't really want that MS would use my product not even asking about it and etc. But what I don't really understand is that OpenOffice.org has this feature included and Adobe didn't do anything about it or maybe they had some deal with Adobe, never read about this.. Moreover, I can always make a PHP Script (I believe using some other stuff too it is also possible) using some libraries and create PDF files from simple text files and even DOC files. When I print my projects done with OpenOffice, I always export as PDF and only then print them.. because as I know PDF is really good (maybe even made) for printing documents. But I like that Adobe is threating Microsoft.

Well that's the weird thing, they want PDF more widely used and that's why it's included in other packages. But tell MS to sell it as add-on and promote its other format instead? They want PDF to be a commonly used open format.

Telling Microsoft how to sell their product could be seen as breaking antitrust, price fixing, as well.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_fixing

PDF is good for sharing and printing as you'll get the same display on any machine, no messing with sizes, images or text formatting.

I think I'm afraid I don't know why people think it's a good thing companies like Adobe and Symantec try to slow down Microsoft's progress or break the product. In the end the big losers are the clients. What's good about that ?

Well once Open Document formats reach mainstream, PDF format will possibly become obsolete, I don't think it'll be able to compete unless they figure out how they can get PDF in most main stream programs and only providing it as their plug-in and charging for it will possibly not be their best intentions. Office needs a method to convert their documents to PDF at this stage for cross compatibility.

PDF is a good format, but Open Document format will be better and will become de facto instead of these proprietary formats.

Cheers,

MC

Here is a link to another article that throws Apple into the mix regarding Adobe, pdf, and OpenOffice.

Seems to be there's a lot of litigation aimed at Microsoft because some other companies have been successful at suing and/or settling with them.

weird ... but remember, Microsoft is always out to screw all the technology companies around world, so this isn't shocking.

xboxrulz

I think that it might be that, from what I read, MS didn't ask permission to include it in Office 2007, second OpenOffice is Free. Apple I think did ask permission and pays royalties. MS just added it, charges for it, makes money on it, and from what I understand wasn't gonna pay royalties.

Personally if I, or a company, worked hard on something then saw another person/company making money on it and not paying me for use of my product I'd feel screwed and want to sue also.

Yup... I would agree with Logan Deathbringer. MS Office is not free, so if Microsoft wants to add Adobe products to MS Office, then royalties should be paid to Adobe.

Open Document is that the Open Office standard? What is so good about it? I have thought about switching to Open Office but in the workplace hardly anyone uses Open Office so it doesn't very practical in the working world. Requiring clients to get a viewer all the time surely defeats the purpose of ease of use.

Or am I mistaken and is open document viewable with anything?

OpenDocument Format (ISO 26300) is the industry's new standard. It removes all companies worldwide from vendor-lock-ins. Also, it's much smaller in disc space, so that you can fit more documents in your computer!

Furthermore, it's an open standard, that means, anyone can use it without having a suspicion that there's any gimmicks inside your files.

xboxrulz