Manage all the world’s information… even that in pdf files?

by Brian on March 4, 2006 — Permlink — microsoft, google, adobe, pdf

Evolution of industry dynamics:
- In the 90’s Sun hyped Java.
- percieving a threat Microsoft backed Flash
- Flash shipped with IE, which means
- that nearly all PCs today run Windows, which comes bundled with IE, which includes Flash.
- Adobe bought out Macromedia, the developers of Flash, as they saw it a good fit with the other applications in their lineup
- Google buys Adobe. Instantly can bundle Google Desktop Search with Adobe Reader and Flash. That would be a lot of installs for Google.

And all because back in the day MS used its clout to back a competing technology against a percieved threat which never materialized. Oh what a tangled web we weave…

Remember, you heard it here first ;)

Smart vs. Dumb

by Brian on October 23, 2005 — Permlink — apple, oracle, pdf

Oracle is smart in buying out InnoDB. They would be even smarter if: they hand it out for free or very cheap, which would undercut MS SQLServer, and the increasingly ambitious MySQL. They would be even smarter if they give it a decent UI and made it quick to setup and use. That means no crappy Java UIs.

Adobe are dumb. It would be ok, for Adobe, if the world had stopped a couple of years ago. Unfortunately for Adobe it has not. Microsoft are out to get PDF with Metro. It surely must be one of the ironies of nature that one of the best applications in the world, i.e. Photoshop, happens to be made by the same company that gave birth to the steaming pile of crap that is Reader. Kill it. I’ve been using the free Foxit Reader. It works great and downloads quickly.