Microsoft has just announced that it is removing PDF features
from the next version of Microsoft Office because
Adobe
will sue it for antitrust violations if it does. The
key to the success of Adobe’s PDF format is that it
is free of any licensing restrictions, so anyone can
implement PDF readers/writers. Microsoft’s
competitors have – both operating system vendors
like Apple and Linux and competing office suites like
Star Office and OpenOffice.org. However Microsoft
isn’t allowed to – not because Adobe has any
legal right to prevent it, but because Adobe claims that
it won’t be able to compete with Microsoft if
Microsoft makes PDF features available for free like most
everyone else does. Adobe
charges $449 for Adobe Acrobat – something it can
only get away if Microsoft isn’t allowed to compete with
it. In effect, it is saying “anyone can use our format
and compete with our products… unless you actually
present a competitive challenge.” Microsoft expects Adobe
to sue anyway because it will offer its own portable document
format instead of selling Adobe’s products for them in its own
software. (Meanwhile, anti-Microsoft advocates continue
blasting it for rejecting “open standards.”) You
can bypass Adobe and get free PDF creation software
here.