I wrote:

>>my only complaint about PDF is that it is a proprietary format - I think it
>>would be better to have an open format which offered such security, so
>>anyone who wanted to write software for it, could (like using RTF instead
>>of Word DOC) - as it stands, if you want to create PDF files, you have to
>>buy Adobe Acrobat - no one else is even legally allowed to create software
>>which can read or write PDF files.

Haukur asked:

>That's where the knife is sticking out of the cow, isn't it?
>
>How much does it cost?

the current version of Adobe Acrobat (4.05) is available for $249 on their
web site - although they do run special offers (usually only for US and
Canada), and other places will sell it at a discount, or it's possible to
find previous versions on a remainder table in stores, plus they make their
software available to schools at a discount for students.

however, my complaint is not actually with the price - Acrobat is a good
product, and Adobe deserves to make money on it - but with the
philosophical problem of not having a comparable non-proprietary format...
Hel, if someone did develop such a format, and placed it under the GPL, for
example, Adobe would be smart enough to support that format, and would
still sell a ton of copies of Acrobat as being the best software with the
most features which supported it. if that happened, Adobe would still have
a corner on the market for such software, as they've been doing it longer
than anyone else and would continue to do it better for a while - I just
don't like that they own the market for such software.

but I'm guessing that I've probably wandered a little too far from the
topic of the list, for something only indirectly related...

-Selv, who still wants Adobe to make a web browser so we can have just one
which displays images correctly...

--
Selvårv Stigård
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