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By David Rothman

AdobeAdobe howled when Microsoft wanted to let Office 2007 users export PDF. Supposedly PDF was an open format. But not when an arch rival wanted to use the standard. Rather than risking a lawsuit, however, Microsoft has now made PDF exportation available through a free add-on that also does XPS. (Via Alexander at MobileRead.)

Detail: Yes, I know Adobe would say the issue is anti-trust or whatever. If that’s the case, however, I’d say it’s still a great example of Adobe trying to crimp the competition at the expense of users. I’m not talking about the equivalent of Microsoft using the free Explorer browser to kill off rival Netscape. Export isn’t that novel a function these days.

And speaking of Adobe—or maybe to it: Will you guys please stop throwing in Photoshop Album with downloads of Adobe Reader? I’m may have missed out on an opt-out checkbox during the installation process—the fault is very likely mine in part. Regardless, I’m not too happy after having uninstalled this A-bloat-be crap and found that Microsoft’s Photo Album then took over my JPGs, which normally are entrusted to L View Pro.

Hmm. A metaphor for the e-book wars? Adobe triumphs, only to see Microsoft crush it, the way Redmond did WordPerfect.

Luckily I knew how to untangle the file-association mess, but newbies might not be so lucky. Oh, how the greed of corporate marketers complicates life for end users. At least with a genuinely nonproprietary nonprofit e-book format, you’d stand less chance of undergoing such annoyances—you could simply avoid a bloatware reader and choose another for the same format.

 
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