Microsoft To Acquire Adobe?

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According to the NY Times, Microsoft and Adobe held a secret meeting to discuss teaming up against Apple and the possibility of Microsoft buying Adobe? Why? I’m no expert but does Microsoft buying Adobe make any sense at all to you?

The meeting, which lasted more than an hour, covered a number of topics, but one of the main thrusts of the discussion was Apple and its control of the mobile phone market and how the two companies could team up in the battle against Apple. A possible acquisition of Adobe by Microsoft were among the options.
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It could very well do with the windows phone 7 launch coming up. I'm willing to be that microsoft wants to make darn sure they've got full flash support on those phones.
 
Microsoft buys Adobe. Microsoft phases out Flash in favor of Silverlight. Photoshop gets bundled with Office. The world rejoices.

I like it.
 
Azhar said:
Microsoft buys Adobe. Microsoft phases out Flash in favor of Silverlight. Photoshop gets bundled with Office. The world rejoices.

I like it.
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Screw Silverlight, I can't watch my Netflix on Firefox because of that POS software. I'm not a big fan of flash but at least it does what I want it to do (most of the time).


Office.. what a joke.. Last decent version of that software was 2003.. after that it was downhill with MS's attempt at reinventing the File Edit View menu.
 
Interesting.

Apple says they don't want Flash, but Android does. Could Microsoft refuse to fully support Flash on Android if Adobe is purchased?
 
Wshmaster0 said:
Screw Silverlight, I can't watch my Netflix on Firefox because of that POS software. I'm not a big fan of flash but at least it does what I want it to do (most of the time).


Office.. what a joke.. Last decent version of that software was 2003.. after that it was downhill with MS's attempt at reinventing the File Edit View menu.
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How's Windows 95 doing for you, sir?
 
Yeah, Microsoft. It's not like you've already got an image problem when it comes to security. Let's own another company that is becoming known for it's security issues!
 
Wshmaster0 said:
Office.. what a joke.. Last decent version of that software was 2003.. after that it was downhill with MS's attempt at reinventing the File Edit View menu.
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I remember how I thought the same exact thing the first time I tried to use their ribbon interface... 10 minutes later I was pondering why things hadn't always been like this for every application in existence. Give it a serious try for yourself, you might be surprised.
 
Wshmaster0 said:
Office.. what a joke.. Last decent version of that software was 2003.. after that it was downhill with MS's attempt at reinventing the File Edit View menu.
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Most of the people I know who have these feelings are individuals who were "forced" to use Office 2007 at a time when they really needed to get something done. They did have (or give themselves) enough time to get use to the system prior to this "need," and thus created their impressions of Office 2007 from these situations.

People act like Microsoft didn't do research with consumers when they developed the ribbon interface.
 
One upside here, if Microsoft buys Adobe then Photoshop might drop from $1,200 to the affordable range. People think Microsoft is greedy look at Adobe's pricing.
 
It would be hilarious if they stopped offering Photoshop for mac
 
Kill photoshop for the mac and develop better movie editing software and bye bye large market of mac users.
 
Major_A said:
One upside here, if Microsoft buys Adobe then Photoshop might drop from $1,200 to the affordable range. People think Microsoft is greedy look at Adobe's pricing.
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I don't know where you're finding PS for that price. The site I go to has them for free. I think it's a shipping company out of some bay :D

I kid, i kid.
 
Azhar said:
Microsoft buys Adobe. Microsoft phases out Flash in favor of Silverlight. Photoshop gets bundled with Office. The world rejoices.

I like it.
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I hope not. When i make a flash site, i only have to make it once and it runs on pretty much every browser out there no matter how complex and how many special effects i add, and run it at a fraction of the CPU. On HTML i have to make a different code path for each browser and whenever i make a change, i have to run it over and over on different browsers to make sure i didn't run into another browser specific quirk.
 
Yep, kill Flash and end all Adobe/Microsoft Mac software. That is my evil dictator agenda :p
 
aardvark sandwich said:
It would be hilarious if they stopped offering Photoshop for mac
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If by "hilarious" you mean "shitty", yeah, it'd be hilarious. Yet considering Microsoft still actively develops Office for Mac, I don't really see it happening, but I suppose anything's possible.

Semantics said:
Kill photoshop for the mac and develop better movie editing software and bye bye large market of mac users.
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Wouldn't matter much to me. I'd go back to Windows for my day-to-day use when Windows gets Xcode, Espresso, Fraise, Colloquy, Snippets, Cyberduck and Versions. I'd just keep using CS5 until all that happens.
 
people can always not use microsoft/adobe products, and use, ya know, linux/gimp/inkspace/etc... why more folks don't is kinda mind-bottling, those products are almost just as good, maybe a few years behind, but for 99% of what you need does the job just fine.
 
Youn said:
people can always not use microsoft/adobe products, and use, ya know, linux/gimp/inkspace/etc... why more folks don't is kinda mind-bottling, those products are almost just as good, maybe a few years behind, but for 99% of what you need does the job just fine.
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yeah those mind-bottling people.
 
k1pp3r said:
god i hope not
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Why not?

If Microsoft bought Adobe, we'd very likely get an actual, competent system for patching Adobe products. Currently, Adobe drives enterprise IT nuts.

  • The number of security issues in Adobe products is high
  • Many Adobe patches aren't cumulative (e.g., if you find a system with Widget 1.2, and 1.8 is out, you need to patch 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 1.6, etc. all the way up)
  • Adobe Reader has both quarterly updates and security updates; some updates cannot be used to patch others in an Active Directory environment. Adobe claims this is "for better security", when in reality, it makes sysadmin's lives a living hell.

I could go on, but the actual update/patching process of many Adobe products is completely broken. Adobe is either incompetent, unwilling, or unable to offer the enterprise support needed for their products --but it's something that Microsoft could do. I'd LOVE to be able to patch Adobe Reader using Windows Software Update Services, and the same is true for Shockwave and Flash.
 
http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-adobe-revenue-2010-5 says that Flash makes up only 7% of Adobe's revenue. Of course, there's the whole ownership-of-the-present-and-future-internet thing too..

Major_A said:
One upside here, if Microsoft buys Adobe then Photoshop might drop from $1,200 to the affordable range. People think Microsoft is greedy look at Adobe's pricing.
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I don't know, seems in line with other CAD software. Have you seen the price for a copy of Maya lately? Or even before Autodesk bought Alias, its main competitor?? Also, Photoshop by itself (legit) does NOT cost $1200.

aardvark sandwich said:
It would be hilarious if they stopped offering Photoshop for mac
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You know what, that would be kinda funny! Kind of a black humor thing. Only if you really like other peoples' misery.

Sly said:
On HTML i have to make a different code path for each browser and whenever i make a change, i have to run it over and over on different browsers to make sure i didn't run into another browser specific quirk.
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Christ, does that really still happen? I thought that was only in the Netscape/Opera/IE days. That's depressing.

So, anyway, uh...what does this mean for MS Paint? Because if they replace that with something actually functional, where will I get my fix of horribly aliased gradient-less internet artwork?? My god, it'll all turn into shitty burn-and-dodge anime fan art, and then I will have to immolate myself in protest.
 
All those commenting that "oh it took me 10 min to get used to the interface, bla bla bla".. 90% of every other program has yet to adopt this "ribbon interface" so for all I care MS just did this to be different.

The question is why. There was no need to change it.


And I'd consider myself a power user that can pick things up rather quickly.. I use programs like Autodesk Maya, Adobe Suite (from Photoshop to Premiere so forth so forth..) and they've all been in some way form or fashion been very intuitive, regardless of the learning curve of their respective menu sets.

The problem with MS is they try to be different.. they did it with Office and they did it with IE.
 
Apple would be in trouble with the graphics community if it lost access to Adobe products. But since apple pcs can all run Windows, they never really will. That said, it must suck to buy an apple PC to then run it as a more expensive windows box.
 
We could also be looking at "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" syndrome for both companies. MS acquiring Adobe would be an interesting strategic move, especially since Apples' ban of Flash on the iPhone would be one of the main cellphone issues that MS could further leverage by having Adobe as part of native support with Win7m and beyond. It would be interesting if Silverligt/Flash would become one uberproduct.
 
Wshmaster0 said:
Screw Silverlight, I can't watch my Netflix on Firefox because of that POS software. I'm not a big fan of flash but at least it does what I want it to do (most of the time).


Office.. what a joke.. Last decent version of that software was 2003.. after that it was downhill with MS's attempt at reinventing the File Edit View menu.
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Silverlight works under IE, Chrome and firefox for windows. On the Mac it works under Safari and Firefox

webmastir said:
Damn. I hate silverlight (no *nix support). I bet MS will try & phase out Flash.
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not completely true

Silverlight for linux --> http://www.mono-project.com/Moonlight

It is a little behind the offical silverlight releases. Stable version is 2, 3 is in beta form while silverlight itself just release 4 not too long ago. although according to the site, moonlight 3 should be final Q3 and the alpha of 4 should be released around then. However netflix will not work as it doesn't support the require DRM stuff for that.

Wshmaster0 said:
All those commenting that "oh it took me 10 min to get used to the interface, bla bla bla".. 90% of every other program has yet to adopt this "ribbon interface" so for all I care MS just did this to be different.

The question is why. There was no need to change it.


And I'd consider myself a power user that can pick things up rather quickly.. I use programs like Autodesk Maya, Adobe Suite (from Photoshop to Premiere so forth so forth..) and they've all been in some way form or fashion been very intuitive, regardless of the learning curve of their respective menu sets.

The problem with MS is they try to be different.. they did it with Office and they did it with IE.
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I find the new ribbon interface to be far cleaner and easier than the menu interface. Before you had to dig though mutliple levels to get to some things. With Office 2007 and 2010 some times can be done MUCH faster. Why did it need to be done? To fix the horrible issues with having menus. Try to change your margin size in office 2000 to be as narrow as you can in word, then go do the same in 2010. See which is easier. Same goes for changing the landscape. Or for many of the other features.




As for this story about Microsoft buying Adobe. I could see it.
 
Azhar said:
yeah those mind-bottling people.
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What a mind Bottle may look like
brain-in-jar.jpg
 
ccmfreak2 said:
Most of the people I know who have these feelings are individuals who were "forced" to use Office 2007 at a time when they really needed to get something done. They did have (or give themselves) enough time to get use to the system prior to this "need," and thus created their impressions of Office 2007 from these situations.

People act like Microsoft didn't do research with consumers when they developed the ribbon interface.
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well, the new office ribbon is kinda like opera , so surprising, only took me a minute to get used to it...:p
 
Boy, this would get ugly trying to get FTC approval...
 
I like the ribbon inerface much better. Less levels to get to what I need. Also Silverlight runs so much better than flash. I'm not sure if coding is as easy for it as it is for Flash, but at least for me going on a silverlight website on an older computer is much more enjoyable than flash
 
silentbrain said:
Christ, does that really still happen? I thought that was only in the Netscape/Opera/IE days. That's depressing.
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It hasn't gotten any better. In fact not only do you have to watch between different developers, you also have to watch from the same line as well. HTML code that works perfectly on the iPod/iPhone is not guaranteed to work on the iPad. If the text on one browser is 20 rows, it could be 23 rows on another browser. Etc.

May not matter to the blogs and forums most of you go to, but those product sites are very particular about the sites that they've spent a fortune designing. On flash, everything is in one package and ready to go with a guarantee that everything will work and you can move on to the next project. If they take out flash, web development is gonna be a nightmare.
 
Major_A said:
PS is way too damn expensive for a photo editing app.
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While I rarely give Adobe much credit, Photoshop is really much more than a "photo editing app". There are other applications that come pretty damn close to what Photoshop does for much less, but I honestly can't look at Photoshop's price tag and say "yeah, that's too much". It's the defacto industry standard for good reason, if you ask me.

Now, I'm actually a little sickened by the fact that I just said something positive about Adobe, though, so let's get back to the Adobe bashing so I can start feeling better.
 
Mister Natural said:
Distributing adobe updates via wsus or windows update would be nice.
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This! One less useless update service running and hopefully no more stupid Adobe Reader shortcuts on the desktop. Once you get an actual purchased product installed, half of Adobe's updates seem to be to update the installer, anyway.
 
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