@tech

Adobe, one of the biggest fish in the software pond swallows another minnow.

Reuters is reporting today that software giant Adobe Systems Inc. (maker of Acrobat, Photoshop, Illustrator, and many more very expensive software packages) is going to aquire Virtual Ubiquity, makers of the word processor Buzzword.  Your first response may be the same as mine, 'Virtual who?'.  While I'm not familiar with the company or their word processor, this news irritates me.

Adobe, much like Microsoft, seems to pride itself on making bloatware.  For non-techies, this is software that loads so slowly you could make and eat dinner while waiting for it to start.  It consumes all of your computer's resources and wants to control what you can do with your computer.  This is simply very poor and sloppy programming, not the mark of higher quality software.

Also much like Microsoft, they seem to be in the habit of goobling up the smaller competition so they can kill them.  Over the years many of the finest and cleanest applications have been aquired by Adobe.  If they manage to survive, they soon start running slower, consuming system resources, AND the price of the package suddenly skyrockets.  This has happened to a few of my favorite applications, one of which sadly, seems to be on the Adobe chopping block, and it's one of the best of it's kind in the web development world.

I suppose this is capitalism at it's finest, yes?   Capitalism.  Or greed?

Didn't the US government enact some sort of anti-monopoly laws ages ago?  Isn't that what broke up the Standard Oil empire?  What about ATT being split into mini 'bells' only years later to morph back together slowly.  And wasn't Microsoft even under the glass for this in recent years, yet escaped the axe?  What defines a monopoly to these morons in DC?  Who makes the call?  Why can some continue unchallenged while others are called to the table?  I don't get it.

If congress won't follow through with their own edicts I suppose it remains up to us to use our wallets so I'll be doing my part.  As soon as I make the switch to a Mac I'll be ditching Microsoft.  And I'm also in the market for software to replace those I love that are firmly in Adobe's belly.  I guess that's a part of capitalism too isn't it?