OSNews: http://www.osnews.com/story/18467/Adobe_May_Launch_Office_Rival Exploring the Future of Computing en-us Copyright 2001-2009, David Adams adam+nospam@osnews.com Tue, 10 Nov 2009 02:01:53 GMT http://www.osnews.com/images/osnews.gif OSNews.com http://www.osnews.com My requirements. http://osnews.com/thread?263957 http://osnews.com/thread?263957 Make it cross-platform, which it would be, if it ends-up being browser-driven, cheap, and make sure it supports ODF and I am there.

Competition is always good. Thu, 16 Aug 2007 18:11:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (porcel) Comments Yikes http://osnews.com/thread?263958 http://osnews.com/thread?263958 Judging by all the other products Adobe has released, whatever they come up with will actually make OpenOffice look like a speed demon. Seriously, they have great products but they are all very industrial and memory intensive. I can't imagine them doing anything else. Thu, 16 Aug 2007 18:13:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Don T. Bothers) Comments Waste of time http://osnews.com/thread?263959 http://osnews.com/thread?263959 If it's like the rest of Adobe products, it will be:
- 1GB RAM minimum requirement
- Windows & Mac only
- Proprietary format
- $$$$
Go OpenOffice.org! :-) Thu, 16 Aug 2007 18:17:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Joe User) Comments Adobe May Launch Office Rival http://osnews.com/thread?263965 http://osnews.com/thread?263965 Bye, Adobe! You're now toast! ;-) Thu, 16 Aug 2007 18:33:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (sbergman27) Comments RE: Adobe May Launch Office Rival http://osnews.com/thread?263968 http://osnews.com/thread?263968 > Bye, Adobe! You're now toast! ;-)

Yeah, MICROS~1 that has taken the extra effort of porting MS Office to the Mac for years will be happy with this slap in the face. Thu, 16 Aug 2007 18:37:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Joe User) Comments what ever happened to Gobe Productive? http://osnews.com/thread?263969 http://osnews.com/thread?263969 Although somewhat offtopic, it is related. It might serve as a good base for an office suite for Adobe without having to build everything from scratch. Thu, 16 Aug 2007 18:42:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Ophidian) Comments i just wish... http://osnews.com/thread?263970 http://osnews.com/thread?263970 adobe would come out with a slim version of InDesign (InDesign elements), that costs $100 so that "office professionals" would have something OTHER than Punisher... i mean Publisher to do there toy brochures and other misc page layouts!!!!!! Thu, 16 Aug 2007 18:44:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (tryphcycle) Comments I hope they do it... http://osnews.com/thread?263972 http://osnews.com/thread?263972 Competition is good.

With Google giving away Staroffice, Apple fleshing out their office package, and with MS Office's UI change, and now--perhaps--Adobe getting into the mix...

It seems like the office productivity market will get a whole lot more interesting. Thu, 16 Aug 2007 18:46:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (jtrapp) Comments RE: i just wish... http://osnews.com/thread?263978 http://osnews.com/thread?263978 ahh... you can have iWork. It's great for simple layout stuff.
But actually Adobe could instead lower the prices on the CS. Last thing we need is yet *another* proprietary office format. It's also going to be heavy if the latest CS3 is any indication. Its "Device gallery" or whatever actually installs not one, but two versions of Opera on a Mac! And they all show if you do an "open with" on an html file. That's afwul. Thu, 16 Aug 2007 19:07:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Buck) Comments IT'S ABOUT TIME http://osnews.com/thread?263979 http://osnews.com/thread?263979 I hope they will integrate it into Acrobat so I can use the same application to edit .DOC files, XLS files, ODF and PDF files. I applaud any competition but I hope that Adobe realizes that their refusal to support Linux only strengthens Microsoft and the high cost of many of their applications (When compared to Microsoft equivalents) excludes 95% of their potential market.
Let the competition begin Thu, 16 Aug 2007 19:09:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (lz1kwk) Comments This is a horrible idea. http://osnews.com/thread?263982 http://osnews.com/thread?263982 Adobe should focus on unifying the user-interface in its Creative suite (it looks a disheveled inconsistent mess) and work on taking all the bloat.

CS3 is in dire need of a consistent and predictable user-interface with consistent keyboard shortcuts across the applications. That's step number one. After that the need to trim the fat. The entire thing is way too resource-intensive and taxing.

The last thing they need to do is take on a whole other beast. Thu, 16 Aug 2007 19:21:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Pseudo Cyborg) Comments RE[2]: i just wish... http://osnews.com/thread?263983 http://osnews.com/thread?263983 i'd love to see iWork for windows! Pages is leaps and bounds better then Publisher... but is Mac OS only! Since 100% of Publisher users are on windows... that not the replacement i'd hoped for! Since AppleWorks was cross-platform... i'd really hoped to see its replacement as cross platform. Maybe apple will surprise us!

CS3 is indeed pretty bloated and "heavy", but it has to be for what it does!!!! I would hope that a skinny version of ID would be just that...Skinny! Thu, 16 Aug 2007 19:21:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (tryphcycle) Comments RE: This is a horrible idea. http://osnews.com/thread?263987 http://osnews.com/thread?263987 "dobe should focus on unifying the user-interface in its Creative suite (it looks a disheveled inconsistent mess) and work on taking all the bloat.

CS3 is in dire need of a consistent and predictable user-interface with consistent keyboard shortcuts across the applications. That's step number one. After that the need to trim the fat. The entire thing is way too resource-intensive and taxing. "

Adobe HAS focused on unifying the interface!!! In every new version, each application has come closer and closer to feeling like one unit!!! of course, trying to make 10 different kind of creative apps act exactly alike is got to be the toughest thing in the world! especially considering the many of the apps began life at another company!!! (ie, Dreamweaver, flash, pagemaker>indesign,)

Personally...I think the app that needs the most help is Illustrator! even though it IS an adobe original.... it is so inconsistent and so faulty when compared to InDesign.. and Photo Shop! InDesign... and a Grand F'N Slam, though... Thu, 16 Aug 2007 19:31:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (tryphcycle) Comments RE: My requirements. http://osnews.com/thread?263989 http://osnews.com/thread?263989
Make it cross-platform, which it would be, if it ends-up being browser-driven, cheap, and make sure it supports ODF and I am there.

Competition is always good.


I'd hate to sound this bitter at this early in the morning (7:35am where I am) but I doubt it'll be multiplatform - remember folks, this is the same company who got 3/4 of the way through and was almost ready to release Framemaker for Linux and then cancelled it. This is also the same company who treat *NIX customers who great contempt with their refusal to provide their applications on Linux/Solaris/FreeBSD on the x86 platform, refusing to properly maintain their Acrobat/Flash products and worse still, their refusal to even work with wine to allow better interoperability between their Windows product line up and wine compatibility. Thu, 16 Aug 2007 19:39:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (kaiwai) Comments RE: Waste of time http://osnews.com/thread?263990 http://osnews.com/thread?263990 And have a product matrix that looks like an ant farm. Thu, 16 Aug 2007 19:46:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Kroc) Comments RE: My requirements. http://osnews.com/thread?263991 http://osnews.com/thread?263991 As I've noted before, there is a massive design synergy between the WYSIWYG office suite and the WYSIWYG Web-2.0 development suite.

The only way it makes sense for Adobe to enter the office space is as a part of a universal content creation suite for AIR. Adobe is arguably the industry leader in most aspects of multimedia content creation. The next step is to map this expertise onto the Web-2.0 notion of unified rich content.

An Adobe "office suite" will most likely treat ODF and OpenXML as limited import/export targets. The key for Adobe is making AIR the most compelling Web-2.0 framework. While multimedia and applications are the big-ticket items, the pathway to content framework dominance goes through the basic document.

The document is the volume market. Then Adobe can leverage this installed base to deliver premium creation modules such as animation and application development. All based on AIR, of course, and ready for consumption both online and offline. Decent strategy, huh?

Now you see how important it is for the free software community to get behind the lesser of the Web-2.0 evils. At least with Silverlight we can follow open specifications to create free software runtimes and tools. Adobe AIR is the proprietary Web, our worst nightmare. Thu, 16 Aug 2007 19:53:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (butters) Comments RE[2]: My requirements. http://osnews.com/thread?263992 http://osnews.com/thread?263992 Have we forgotten Macromedia so quickly? Thu, 16 Aug 2007 19:55:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Kroc) Comments RE[3]: My requirements. http://osnews.com/thread?263997 http://osnews.com/thread?263997 Adobe bought Macromedia, Macromedia no longer exists. Thu, 16 Aug 2007 20:36:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Ophidian) Comments RE[2]: This is a horrible idea. http://osnews.com/thread?264000 http://osnews.com/thread?264000 You're right that Illustrator does need the most help. And, yes, there have been attempts at tying the applications together. The problem, though, is that it's still very much inconsistent across the board.

Part of the problem is that each application has its own bloat. It doesn't appear to me, as an end-user, that there is even any code-sharing going on at Adobe. It's like each app team has their own version of the wheel and aren't willing to share.

It's a managerial problem as I see it. The thought of them thinking of tackling a Productivity suite is more proof of that. Thu, 16 Aug 2007 20:53:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Pseudo Cyborg) Comments RE[3]: i just wish... http://osnews.com/thread?264003 http://osnews.com/thread?264003 It doesn't have to be heavy, take a look at Pixel for example: http://www.kanzelsberger.com ... and few screenshots of upcoming Beta: http://www.kanzelsberger.com/temp/beta8mac.png and http://www.kanzelsberger.com/temp/vista.png ... download package is about 12-13Mb Thu, 16 Aug 2007 21:12:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Brmbolec) Comments RE[2]: My requirements. http://osnews.com/thread?264006 http://osnews.com/thread?264006 "At least with Silverlight we can follow open specifications to create free software runtimes and tools. Adobe AIR is the proprietary Web, our worst nightmare."

Right. On whose teaching did you decide:
Silverlight is open.
AIR is not.

Neither is a good idea, so stop misjudging them. Thu, 16 Aug 2007 21:28:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Beta) Comments RE: Yikes http://osnews.com/thread?264007 http://osnews.com/thread?264007 I agree. Even with plenty of memory, striped hard disks, fast CPU and good video card, Photoshop, Illustrator and Dreamweaver take ages to load. Thu, 16 Aug 2007 21:34:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (flanque) Comments RE[2]: Waste of time http://osnews.com/thread?264008 http://osnews.com/thread?264008 Hahahha Thu, 16 Aug 2007 21:34:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (flanque) Comments Firefox and Linux http://osnews.com/thread?264009 http://osnews.com/thread?264009 the preview site does not work on Linux at all. Not under any browser including firefox 2.0.

So much for cross-platform ;)

Cheers. Thu, 16 Aug 2007 21:48:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (kanwar.plaha) Comments RE[2]: Yikes http://osnews.com/thread?264016 http://osnews.com/thread?264016 "Photoshop, Illustrator and Dreamweaver take ages to load."

Hell, even a small app like Acrobat takes forever to load...if they can't even get that right, how will they get a full blown office suite to run quickly? Thu, 16 Aug 2007 22:52:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (jayson.knight) Comments Ugh....no thanks. http://osnews.com/thread?264025 http://osnews.com/thread?264025 I'd take Office over anything by Adobe any day of the week and twice on Sunday. Talk about choosing the lesser of two evils.

Acrobat is a pig, as is reader (not to mention the other lovely products they produce), you really think I want that as my primary word processor? Thu, 16 Aug 2007 23:52:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Phloptical) Comments RE: I hope they do it... http://osnews.com/thread?264026 http://osnews.com/thread?264026 It's interesting to see this happening just as document standarization is gaining ground. The office market used to be quite vibrant but, like the OS market, it's stagnated over the past decade of Microsoft dominance. It's good to see it picking up again. Thu, 16 Aug 2007 23:56:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Michael) Comments RE[2]: My requirements. http://osnews.com/thread?264030 http://osnews.com/thread?264030 You had me up to "synergy". Are you in marketing? Fri, 17 Aug 2007 00:17:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Havin_it) Comments RE: i just wish... http://osnews.com/thread?264038 http://osnews.com/thread?264038 Thank you for the best laugh of the week tryphcycle. Punisher was classic.

I agree that Adobe is a formidable competitor. The products they produce in the markets they choose to pursue are superior. Notwithstanding resource requirements and cost. Fri, 17 Aug 2007 01:33:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (RGCook) Comments Nice title http://osnews.com/thread?264064 http://osnews.com/thread?264064
group manager for platform evangelism at Adobe


Seriously? That's his job title? Fri, 17 Aug 2007 03:48:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Soulbender) Comments Let's not forget IBM http://osnews.com/thread?264067 http://osnews.com/thread?264067 At least in the business space, IBM is starting to sneak in their (ODF-friendly) content editors for word processing, spreadsheets, etc. by incorporating them into Lotus Notes, for example.Edited 2007-08-17 03:51 Fri, 17 Aug 2007 03:51:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (tamas) Comments RE[4]: i just wish... http://osnews.com/thread?264076 http://osnews.com/thread?264076 A little OT so apologies up front, but i've been using Pixel for about 6 months now, on PCLOS at home and XP at work. Overall, it's very nice to use but it does have its' quirks.

I'm yet to figure out why it's less stable on XP than it is with Linux, but if you're a casual user frustrated with the GIMP's gui or you're looking for a Photoshop replacement that doesn't cost the earth, it's well worth a look. Fri, 17 Aug 2007 05:08:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (wakeupneo) Comments RE[5]: i just wish... http://osnews.com/thread?264089 http://osnews.com/thread?264089 I just tried out the Pixel demo, and it sure does seem worth the money. It's not too big, has a lot of features and so on..I'm not a professional so Photoshop is way out of my league, but GIMP isn't much better: you get exactly what you pay for..It's ugly, confusing and I absolutely hate it opening dozens of new windows >_ Fri, 17 Aug 2007 06:41:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (WereCatf) Comments Annoying http://osnews.com/thread?264162 http://osnews.com/thread?264162 Will their office suite ask me to download fifteen f--king updates every time I open it like their stupid pdf reader does? Fri, 17 Aug 2007 14:39:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (monkeyhead) Comments should be fun http://osnews.com/thread?264219 http://osnews.com/thread?264219 I don't mean to ran on Adobe but I support their stuff heavily at work and so when I hear they are making an office suite this is what goes through my mind.

1. - Will updates have to be installed one-after-the-other and in a specific order like they do now with Acrobat? I swear they hired some developers from IBM circa the 1970s to do their installation routines.

2. - Will this new adobe product suite grace us with bizarre crap like registry key permission changes at random and totally clueless error messages such as "Failed". This is what I'm used to dealing with from Adobe products sadly.

Maybe they should just go all the way and write an operating system. Their software is so bloated it feels like an OS is loading already.Edited 2007-08-17 18:14 Fri, 17 Aug 2007 18:13:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Bit_Rapist) Comments Something I enjoy about iWorks version 3 http://osnews.com/thread?264248 http://osnews.com/thread?264248 Apple did an incredible amount of optimization and code refactoring.

It's definitely a useable product, even on an iBook G4 1Ghz.

I've got OpenOffice/KOffice/Scribus DTP on Debian Linux, LaTeX[Kile/TeXMaker/LyX] on Debian and OS X and I'm adding iWorks 08 to the mix.

I think Adobe would be better served complementing products that could work in conjunction with iWorks and OpenOffice.

They could even offer a series of Services to be used in OS X from a custom subset of their apps and offer something similar in the Linux/*nix camp to make OpenOffice more attractive with these addons.

Since they use Qt I don't see why they wouldn't do something with Trolltech. Fri, 17 Aug 2007 20:24:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (tyrione) Comments RE: i just wish... http://osnews.com/thread?264249 http://osnews.com/thread?264249 Scribus 1.3.4+.

http://www.scribus.net

The changes they've added make it much more powerful than Publisher and a lot less expensive than InDesign. Fri, 17 Aug 2007 20:27:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (tyrione) Comments