Microsoft has apparently set it’s sights on Adobe’s PDF format with their own version thereof called Metro. According to the plethora of details available online, it supplies the same benefits as PDF’s in that you don’t need the original program to view the content, and it displays and prints the way the original author intended. The question begs to be asked though, do we need another PDF format? Especially a format that is likely to be restricted by patents and license restrictions like the majority of their file formats appear to be. Microsoft also haven’t’ gotten it into their heads that governments the world over are switching to open standards and Open Source software and are unlikely to view a non open format as a possible future standard. Adobe realised this and opened up PDF’s to all. And they make PDF readers for all the main Operating Systems including Linux which is something else I can’t see Microsoft doing any time soon. Adobe have taken it a step further and open parts of their source code as well. Given the choice I’ll stick with Adobe because I can save to PDF in OpenOffice.org and I can read PDF’s just fine in Linux with a choice of several different readers. Until Microsoft realises it can’t act anti-competitively any more, I’ll continue to view everything they do with suspicion because they not yet given any reason for anyone not to. I’ll use Metro when Microsoft release it as a totally open non encumbered format. They recently asked to sit down with he Open Source community to discuss working inter-operability, well this is their chance to back their words up with some action. Expect Microsoft to embed Metro as far into MS Office and Longhorn (and possibly XP SP3) as they can manage to try to make it a de-facto standard. If you use any MS tools that try to push Metro, try to resist and instead use one of the dozens of free and cheap tools available online to create PDF’s instead. At least you know what you’re getting.
