OS X PDF creation

[Paul Findon]

On 12 Jan 2006, at 17:38, William Herr wrote:

> One can see why Adobe may be losing motivation to support OS X. Now if 
> just
> Pages could grow up quickly – but I know this is a pipe dream.

I was disappointed by the newly announced Pages 2 because Apple could 
have done a lot more with it in the last 12 months. Some say this was 
to appease Microsoft by staying out of the word processor market. More 
worrying in Jobs' keynote was no mention of Adobe. He talked about 
universal binaries of Apple apps (iLife, iWork, and pro apps in March), 
and the new beta of Quark is already universal. And there's a new deal 
with Microsoft in which they'll continue Mac Office development 
(PowerPC and Intel) for at least five years. But there was nothing 
about Adobe, nothing on the Adobe Web site, and CEO Bruce Chizen 
recently commented that the PowerPC to Intel transition was a lot more 
difficult than Steve would have us believe. It would be nice to see 
some kind of statement from Adobe regarding its intentions for the Mac. 
Perhaps even a deal to support Mac for at least 5 years. There may well 
be 12,000 apps for Mac OS X, but it's the handful of biggies that 
determine what platform companies buy. We need Office, CS2, Quark, 
Dreamweaver, and, of course, FrameMaker.

Also interesting was Jobs' comment during his demo of Photoshop running 
in Rosetta, when he said "Photoshop is always slow to startup."  A 
reflection of Apple/Adobe relations? Perhaps. The Aperture/Lightroom 
issue may have added fuel to the fire. It was 1998 when Chizen refused 
to develop a video editing app for the Mac so Apple decided to go it 
alone and develop iMovie and the highly successful iLife suite of apps. 
Apple needs its 3rd party developers, so it has to reign in its own 
software a little even though it has the resources to produce killer 
apps that could see off the competition.

Apparently, Apple wants Adobe to revive FrameMaker for Mac OS X and 
it's important that anyone else who feels the same writes to Adobe 
executives. There are Apple employees who want FrameMaker for Mac OS X, 
as do some Adobe employees. Incidentally, Kevin Lynch, who developed 
the original Mac version of FrameMaker, is now an Adobe executive after 
the recent Adobe/Macromedia merger. If only he'd roll up his sleeves 
and begin coding again.

Today's Apple/Adobe situation is a good example of how a company's DNA 
changes when new management steps in. In the Warnock/Geschke era, Adobe 
and Apple were great partners, complimenting each other. Adobe was an 
innovative tech company. Apparently, there was respect between Jobs and 
Warnock (note that Jobs was absent from '85 to '97). OK, they may not 
have been the best managers (e.g., proprietary font format leading to 
font wars, failing to support Windows early on, hostile take over bid 
by Quark, etc), but at least they supported the Mac. The new Adobe is 
just a business and it's all about money, cashing in on the Windows 
monopoly, sacking expensive Western employees, and exploiting cheap 
labor in India. Windows has priority and they'd rather not bother with 
the Mac. Please come back Warnock and Geschke! We need you!

Perhaps it's time Apple put it's pot of cash to good use and bought 
Adobe?

Paul
<http://www.infopage.net/fmforosx/>