World Wide War?

UPDATE:

I was going to turn off my PC, but my Feedreader blinked and I read this article on writeweb.com. 

It’s a wrapup of Adobe MAX conference, and I great summary of the things presented by Adobe. What’s the buzz? Hell, it’s the same with Adobe and MS – all about web applications.

Yesterday I was on lunch with my coworkers. It was interesting, because I was once more talking about Adobe and it’s agressive campaigns (buy everything that’s showing at least some potential) and that Adobe is becoming more and more dominant. Perhaps, that’s why they produce so superficial software – like new Adobe CS3 which is full of cool and actually usefull stuff, but also full of bugs. Well, I’m once more going off-topic… Story told short, the debate was going about Adobe buying Virtual Ubiquity the creators of Buzzword and Adobe’s intentions of going into war or at least going for the victory on the web office front. On the Max conference 2007 Adobe presented where it’s heading in the future, and it looks like Adobe is getting hostile towards Microsoft.

Adobe gained a lot by buying Macromedia – they almost formed a monopoly on the web design and design per se front. Corel is battling hard, but, Adobe won because they successfully packed a great deal into their Creative Suite CS3. They can guarantee compatibility between it’s software, which is great and is one of the main reasons why Adobe is so popular. And hell yeah, that’s why I use it. With Adobe Share , Adobe Media Player and other annoucements Adobe is looking to hammer especially Microsoft. But is THE BIG one just going to stand and watch? Hell no!

ANSWER WITH STYLE

Old boy Microsoft is still the biggest player in the worldwide software industry. It’s money makers are OS Windows and MS Office, which is still the leading steed in its branch. MS is also very strong in other fields (web applications, server technologies, media support…), but Bill’s company has not shown any interest in hitting Adobe on Adobes home field – design. Well, at least not ’till now. Microsoft is surprising us all in past few months with announcements about new applications and constant inovations. Besides long awaited Silverlight (rival of Adobe Flash) they presented Office Live Workspace and Microsoft Expression, which amazed me the most.

MS EXPRESSION

Expression, the rival to Adobe CS3? Hm, I would like an answer to that, and I would like to find it out myself. That’s why I downloaded the trial version of MS Expression Blend and MS Expression Design. MS Expression Design is going to compete with Adobe Illustrator and the ones alike, because it is a vector based graphic software. I can’t write anything concrete yet, because I installed it this morning and have been “playing” and testing it for only 5 hours. I most admit, that I use Photoshop much more than Illustrator, and therefore it is harder to pinpoint the difference between MS and Adobe. What I like about Expression Design is that it is slick, intuitive, isn’t packed with bunch of features which you don’t need and is not THAT different than for example Illustrator. Yeah, sometimes it is good to come out with something totally new, but not here, and thank god that MS didn’t try to reinvent the wheel. And one thing I noted and is very important: Expression works much faster than Adobe CS3 applications. Sorry Adobe, but…

So, for now, I must admit (though I’m not a MS fan); Expression Design looks and feels good. The biggest problem seems to be the compatibility, because you can’t open the files in Illustrator or in another third party software. Yes, soooo Microsoft.

But, if Expression Design is nothing special, I think MS hit the jackpot with Expression Blend and Web. With Blend, they compete with Adobe’s upcoming Thermo application. And Web has its rival in Adobe Dreamweaver (former Macromedia). I tried MS Expression Blend, because it impresed me, when I read that it enables creating web based applications without any coding! Yes, I hate coding (but have the deepest respect for it and therefore deeply respect all programmers) and that’s why Blend and Thermo are like Christmas for me. And here, I think MS has a slight advantage of Adobe, because of all the support and experience in stuff like server technologies, data bases, coding etc. Anyway, what is BLEND actually about? Well the MS page says Blend is: “… the professional design tool to create engaging web-connected experiences for Windows.” All I can add is, that it’s easy to learn and you can produce amazing results in no time. And almost without coding And NO, with easy to learn I don’t mean I’ve learned it already.

STILL TESTING

Again, I managed to post a totally confused article, with no real conclusion, or? I tried to point out, that there’s some great software waiting for us to try it out. Ok, and I pointed out a war between MS and Adobe. I’m still testing the new MS Expression Studio package, but for now I must admit that the future does look very bright for both; MS and Adobe. Hell, Adobe presented some of the coolest stuff and is going really big. But, Microsoft, is already the biggest. And with aditions like Expression and Silverlight, they are fighting harsh.

I can hardly wait for the report from MS reMIX which will take place in Boston (US) on 8-9.10.’07. I bet that MS is going to bring some new players on the “war front”. But then again, Adobe is prepairing the European AdobeMax conference in Barcelon (15-18.10). So, we’ll see… I challenge everyone to post your own opinion about it. Be a part of the war