Adobe sues Macromedia over patent...

Cool!

I saw this about three days ago.

I must say, bad form on Adobe.

I mean, in the past, Adobe has actually -supported- Macromedia, even went so far as integrating it into Adobe Illustrator. This is really a very -bad- change in pace, in my opinion.

It does make me wonder, however, what made them do this.

Tabulated Menus are about the easiest thing you can use, in my opinion.

I will, however, continue to buy their programs. Mooahahaha.

It doesn't make any difference to me.

Quote: Originally posted by Mike Fisher

It does make me wonder, however, what made them do this.

I would say it is to hold off the release of Flash 5 by any means possible

If that's how it is, Werehere, then I'd say that when Tyson bit Holyfeild pales in comparision to this as a low blow.

Macromedia and Adobe are competitors but at the same time they seem to “partner up” occasionally. Adobe’s LiveMotion can export to Flash format, Adobe’s Illustrator 9 can directly export to Flash, etc.

It’s very confusing but for those of us that use Adobe and Macromedia products everyday compatibility is essential.

You can read a post about this lawsuit (from a Macromedia official) here:

http://www.were-here.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=21986

There are tons of posts about it in that thread, and a couple of MM employees thoughts on it as well

Happy reading!

Adobe (in my uneducated opinion) just doesn't have anything to compete with Flash 5.

As far as them 'partnering up'... Just because one guy makes software that exports files in the 'other' guy's format, doesn't mean there was any cooperation.

Example: Microsoft Word can export to PDF. Does this mean that Mocrosoft and Adobe 'partnered up' to make this possible?

Adobe Livemotion competes with Flash.

Adobe Illustrator also competes with it.

Basically, you name a Macromedia component, and I could tell you an Adobe Product to counter it.

Also, since Adobe owns the copyright to create .PDF files, a company that would wish to export to .PDF would need special permission in order to do so.

...And god I need a new keyboard, this one's just going loopy.

You can make examples of countless programs that export to different file formats. But when you get down to it they still need permission unless it’s a free-for-use format like PNG. I’m sure Adobe has some deal going with LiveMotion just like Macromedia probably has a deal with Apple allowing Flash to export to QuickTime.

Microsoft Word by the way only exports to PDF if you have Adobe’s PDF printer drivers installed or Acrobat ‘creator’.

Actually the .swf file format is open source now.

I guess I just assumed that file formats were free for all.
But I guess that companies would get a copyright/patent thingy on them.

...Moving along..

Does -anybody- know of a third party .PDF File reader?

My Acrobat has went fruity and crashes every time I try and open it, and I -need- to read some of these .PDF's. I'd do it with Photoshop, but you only get one page per import, and it takes hellit long. I also think that Photoshop stopped 'accepting' the .PDF's, too..

PhotoShop 5.5 still opens PDF’s so does Illustrator. Acrobat Reader has always been a disappointment to me. It’s a major system resource hog and seems to “go bad” frequently. You may want to try uninstalling and trying again.

Actually... since Acrobat is on the fritz.. Photoshop, nor Illustrator will open .PDF's.

Dumb Adobe... WORK!