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Re: Adobe shifts to subscriptions for software package
Subject:Re: Adobe shifts to subscriptions for software package From:David Crosswell <davidcrosswell -at- internode -dot- on -dot- net> To:techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com Date:Wed, 08 May 2013 14:29:09 +1000
On 08/05/13 12:32, Fred Ridder wrote:
> Tony Chung wrote:
>
>> On Tue, May 7, 2013 at 5:35 PM, Robert Lauriston <robert -at- lauriston -dot- com>wrote:
>>
>>> I'm comparing open-source applications with the five single-source PDF
>>> + online help authoring tools I've used: Flare, RoboHelp, FrameMaker
>>> plus RoboHelp, FrameMaker plus MIF2Go, and FrameMaker plus WebWorks.
>>>
>>> I haven't found anything open-source that's competitive with those.
>>>
>> Nor will you. Adobe owns the patent for the PDF file format, and they can
>> do things with PDF that other companies can't hold a candle to. You can
>> always supplement your PDF process by using a 3rd party product like Nitro
>> PDF to manage navigation pane, initial view, and properties, but unless
>> Adobe loosens up the reins on the file generation spec, I don't think any
>> product will be able to make PDFs as well as Adobe's own.
> While it is technically true that Adobe still holds the patent on PDF, the rest of your assertion is misleading, at best.
> In July 2008, Adobe released the PDF spec as an open standard that was published by the International Organization for Standardization as ISO 32000-1:2008. In that same year, Adobe published a Public Patent License to ISO 32000-1 granting royalty-free rights for all patents owned by Adobe that are necessary to make, use, sell and distribute PDF compliant implementations. That's about as far as a company can go to open access to their technology short of publishing the source tree.
> But it is of course true that Adobe does have an inside track (and an obvious economic interest) in developing new features and capabilities in the Acrobat product line to differentiate it from the products of their competitors since they know wher (and why) all the compromises were made.
Acroread is still right up there, but I think you'll find that Okular is
a substantial offering at the head of the open source pack.
Certainly the most fully featured. http://okular.kde.org/
Cheers!
David.
>
> -Fred Ridder
>
>
>
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