Discussion:
Hi Still PDF in MS Site???
(too old to reply)
Leon_Amirreza
2008-09-08 11:20:45 UTC
Permalink
Hi,
Am I trusting Microsoft reader and XPS and docx and ... more than the
company itself does?
I know all about portability, pritability, standard, and ... of PDF but
Isn't MS going to expand and attract more end users to its MS reader and XPS
and all other standard formats?
Shouldn't MS be using pdf just in case users dont have access to Reader, XPS
viewer and ...?
Still product brochurs (like SQL server) in PDF?

Maybe its just me that cant get it? somebody please tell me!?
Daniel Crichton
2008-09-08 13:34:05 UTC
Permalink
Post by Leon_Amirreza
Hi,
Am I trusting Microsoft reader and XPS and docx and ... more than the
company itself does?
I know all about portability, pritability, standard, and ... of PDF but
Isn't MS going to expand and attract more end users to its MS reader
and XPS and all other standard formats?
Shouldn't MS be using pdf just in case users dont have access to
Reader, XPS viewer and ...?
Still product brochurs (like SQL server) in PDF?
Maybe its just me that cant get it? somebody please tell me!?
Microsoft don't own PDF, Adobe do. For DRM ebooks only Adobe has software
that can read the PDF files, and either their licensing costs are
prohibitive or they don't license the DRM part out. Why should Microsoft
implement a closed document format owned by a competitor?

PDF is not the way forward for ebooks - Open eBook Publication Structure is,
as it's an open standard and is designed for handling ebooks. You can more
information here: http://www.openebook.org/

Adobe Digital Editions supports this format, as well as PDF.
--
Dan
Leon_Amirreza
2008-09-08 15:05:26 UTC
Permalink
Why not MS produce its documents in XPS (dont tell me its not an MS format)?

more compact, easier to use, ... But i am not sure if its portable or not!
if its not then it can put up some PDFs for ppl that dont have access to XPS
viewer!?
Post by Daniel Crichton
Post by Leon_Amirreza
Hi,
Am I trusting Microsoft reader and XPS and docx and ... more than the
company itself does?
I know all about portability, pritability, standard, and ... of PDF but
Isn't MS going to expand and attract more end users to its MS reader
and XPS and all other standard formats?
Shouldn't MS be using pdf just in case users dont have access to
Reader, XPS viewer and ...?
Still product brochurs (like SQL server) in PDF?
Maybe its just me that cant get it? somebody please tell me!?
Microsoft don't own PDF, Adobe do. For DRM ebooks only Adobe has software
that can read the PDF files, and either their licensing costs are
prohibitive or they don't license the DRM part out. Why should Microsoft
implement a closed document format owned by a competitor?
PDF is not the way forward for ebooks - Open eBook Publication Structure
is, as it's an open standard and is designed for handling ebooks. You can
more information here: http://www.openebook.org/
Adobe Digital Editions supports this format, as well as PDF.
--
Dan
Leon_Amirreza
2008-09-08 15:14:01 UTC
Permalink
Maybe my post was not so clear
1- I hate PDF reader because as a developer i feel that MS will do care more
for them and provides the API in .Net or COM as a general policy and
reusability with MS is higher for exmaple:
Word document are more structured and reusable (in terms of presentation or
to be used in programming with VBA or .Net) and can be converted to other
types (PDF, XPS, ...) more easily without much unwanted change in structure
BUT if u create a PDF document its more likely to lose its structure,
charset, ..., if u convert it back to Word SO i am more likely to use word
for Document structure and storage or office automation instead of PDF but
the only draw back is portability so i thought maybe MS is going to solve
portablity and i can get rid of Adobe Acrobat!

2- I was hoping MS is going to compete adobe and create a reader with
diferenet file format (like XPS or ...) or invent a new file format and ppl
like me (that dont want to install Adobe Acrobat reader) will get another
choice = MS Reader!
Post by Daniel Crichton
Post by Leon_Amirreza
Hi,
Am I trusting Microsoft reader and XPS and docx and ... more than the
company itself does?
I know all about portability, pritability, standard, and ... of PDF but
Isn't MS going to expand and attract more end users to its MS reader
and XPS and all other standard formats?
Shouldn't MS be using pdf just in case users dont have access to
Reader, XPS viewer and ...?
Still product brochurs (like SQL server) in PDF?
Maybe its just me that cant get it? somebody please tell me!?
Microsoft don't own PDF, Adobe do. For DRM ebooks only Adobe has software
that can read the PDF files, and either their licensing costs are
prohibitive or they don't license the DRM part out. Why should Microsoft
implement a closed document format owned by a competitor?
PDF is not the way forward for ebooks - Open eBook Publication Structure is,
as it's an open standard and is designed for handling ebooks. You can more
information here: http://www.openebook.org/
Adobe Digital Editions supports this format, as well as PDF.
--
Dan
Daniel Crichton
2008-09-08 16:08:42 UTC
Permalink
This newsgroup is for discussion of Microsoft Reader, which is designed to
handle DRM encrypted ebooks. Right now the most common DRM ebook formats are
Adobe PDF, Microsoft Reader (LIT), eReader (formerly Palm), and Mobipocket
(Amazon Kindle uses a Mobipocket format). Microsoft haven't released a new
Reader for a long time (save for patching), yet Adobe have been releasing
updated readers for a while now (unfortunately the horrendous Digital
Editions which is way behind Adobe Reader 7 in features). MS are unlikley to
care more - in fact, it feels like they're trying to just let the LIT format
die quietly.

I work for an ebook retailer, and at present we have almost 115,000 PDF;
42,000 LIT; 25,000 eReader. As you can see the publishers favour PDF,
although it is probably helped by it having no royalty fees, and greater
market penetration. While the Microsoft Reader is only available for Windows
platforms, Adobe Reader with DRM is available for Mac and Windows (plus
Symbian for the mobile version), and eReader is available on most OS's.

We sell a lot of ebooks, and every day I have to deal with customers who
have trouble downloading their ebooks. eReader is by far the simplest,
rarely causing problems. Microsoft Reader has issues occassionaly with
activating Pocket PC/Windows Mobile. Adobe Digital Editions is by far the
worst, which is why we still recommend that our customers stick to Adobe
Reader 7 if possible.

While XPS might be the way forward for Microsoft, they really should try and
adopt the Open eBook Standard. But it's unlikely to happen. And unless they
make free reader software available for all platforms, and not released
under the MS name, they won't get anywhere pushing their own "standard" for
ebooks. Linux and Mac users will mostly avoid Microsoft if possible. And
there's no money in them support the Open standard, so that's unlikely to
happen either.

I feel from your post that maybe this is the wrong newsgroup for you - you
don't seem to be asking about issues with reading ebooks, but instead
documents in general and that is not what Microsoft Reader is for.

Dan
Maybe my post was not so clear 1- I hate PDF reader because as a
developer i feel that MS will do care more for them and provides the
API in .Net or COM as a general policy and reusability with MS is
Word document are more structured and reusable (in terms of
presentation or to be used in programming with VBA or .Net) and can be
converted to other types (PDF, XPS, ...) more easily without much
unwanted change in structure
BUT if u create a PDF document its more likely to lose its structure,
charset, ..., if u convert it back to Word SO i am more likely to use
word for Document structure and storage or office automation instead
of PDF but the only draw back is portability so i thought maybe MS is
going to solve portablity and i can get rid of Adobe Acrobat!
2- I was hoping MS is going to compete adobe and create a reader with
diferenet file format (like XPS or ...) or invent a new file format and
ppl like me (that dont want to install Adobe Acrobat reader) will get
another choice = MS Reader!
Post by Daniel Crichton
Post by Leon_Amirreza
Hi,
Am I trusting Microsoft reader and XPS and docx and ... more than
the company itself does?
I know all about portability, pritability, standard, and ... of PDF but
Isn't MS going to expand and attract more end users to its MS reader
and XPS and all other standard formats?
Shouldn't MS be using pdf just in case users dont have access to
Reader, XPS viewer and ...?
Still product brochurs (like SQL server) in PDF?
Maybe its just me that cant get it? somebody please tell me!?
Microsoft don't own PDF, Adobe do. For DRM ebooks only Adobe has
software that can read the PDF files, and either their licensing
costs are prohibitive or they don't license the DRM part out. Why
should Microsoft implement a closed document format owned by a
competitor?
PDF is not the way forward for ebooks - Open eBook Publication
Structure is, as it's an open standard and is designed for handling
ebooks. You can more information here: http://www.openebook.org/
Adobe Digital Editions supports this format, as well as PDF.
--
Dan
Leon_Amirreza
2008-09-09 10:58:42 UTC
Permalink
Thank you for your time
maybe i have to find another newsgroup but i needed insight (Info form an IT
Pro to be specific) about the future of MS reader and XPS and you gave me
that I appreciate it!

Thank you again and sorry if caused trouble by not posting to appropriate
place or newsgroup!
Post by Daniel Crichton
This newsgroup is for discussion of Microsoft Reader, which is designed to
handle DRM encrypted ebooks. Right now the most common DRM ebook formats
are Adobe PDF, Microsoft Reader (LIT), eReader (formerly Palm), and
Mobipocket (Amazon Kindle uses a Mobipocket format). Microsoft haven't
released a new Reader for a long time (save for patching), yet Adobe have
been releasing updated readers for a while now (unfortunately the
horrendous Digital Editions which is way behind Adobe Reader 7 in
features). MS are unlikley to care more - in fact, it feels like they're
trying to just let the LIT format die quietly.
I work for an ebook retailer, and at present we have almost 115,000 PDF;
42,000 LIT; 25,000 eReader. As you can see the publishers favour PDF,
although it is probably helped by it having no royalty fees, and greater
market penetration. While the Microsoft Reader is only available for
Windows platforms, Adobe Reader with DRM is available for Mac and Windows
(plus Symbian for the mobile version), and eReader is available on most
OS's.
We sell a lot of ebooks, and every day I have to deal with customers who
have trouble downloading their ebooks. eReader is by far the simplest,
rarely causing problems. Microsoft Reader has issues occassionaly with
activating Pocket PC/Windows Mobile. Adobe Digital Editions is by far the
worst, which is why we still recommend that our customers stick to Adobe
Reader 7 if possible.
While XPS might be the way forward for Microsoft, they really should try
and adopt the Open eBook Standard. But it's unlikely to happen. And unless
they make free reader software available for all platforms, and not
released under the MS name, they won't get anywhere pushing their own
"standard" for ebooks. Linux and Mac users will mostly avoid Microsoft if
possible. And there's no money in them support the Open standard, so
that's unlikely to happen either.
I feel from your post that maybe this is the wrong newsgroup for you - you
don't seem to be asking about issues with reading ebooks, but instead
documents in general and that is not what Microsoft Reader is for.
Dan
Maybe my post was not so clear 1- I hate PDF reader because as a
developer i feel that MS will do care more for them and provides the
API in .Net or COM as a general policy and reusability with MS is
Word document are more structured and reusable (in terms of
presentation or to be used in programming with VBA or .Net) and can be
converted to other types (PDF, XPS, ...) more easily without much
unwanted change in structure
BUT if u create a PDF document its more likely to lose its structure,
charset, ..., if u convert it back to Word SO i am more likely to use
word for Document structure and storage or office automation instead
of PDF but the only draw back is portability so i thought maybe MS is
going to solve portablity and i can get rid of Adobe Acrobat!
2- I was hoping MS is going to compete adobe and create a reader with
diferenet file format (like XPS or ...) or invent a new file format and
ppl like me (that dont want to install Adobe Acrobat reader) will get
another choice = MS Reader!
Post by Daniel Crichton
Post by Leon_Amirreza
Hi,
Am I trusting Microsoft reader and XPS and docx and ... more than
the company itself does?
I know all about portability, pritability, standard, and ... of PDF but
Isn't MS going to expand and attract more end users to its MS reader
and XPS and all other standard formats?
Shouldn't MS be using pdf just in case users dont have access to
Reader, XPS viewer and ...?
Still product brochurs (like SQL server) in PDF?
Maybe its just me that cant get it? somebody please tell me!?
Microsoft don't own PDF, Adobe do. For DRM ebooks only Adobe has
software that can read the PDF files, and either their licensing
costs are prohibitive or they don't license the DRM part out. Why
should Microsoft implement a closed document format owned by a
competitor?
PDF is not the way forward for ebooks - Open eBook Publication
Structure is, as it's an open standard and is designed for handling
ebooks. You can more information here: http://www.openebook.org/
Adobe Digital Editions supports this format, as well as PDF.
--
Dan
Daniel Crichton
2008-09-10 09:05:29 UTC
Permalink
If you really were interested in the future of XPS and Reader then this is
the right group - it's just that I can't see MS investing anything in Reader
as they seem to be giving up on moving forward with it even for new versions
of Windows Mobile.

XPS might well be the future of ebooks from Microsoft, and it does appear to
at least be making an attempt to using the open standards. But ultimately
any fixed layout format is not the way for ebooks - they need to be able to
reflow dynamically so that they can support devices with different screen
ratios and resolutions, Adobe get around this currently by having the Adobe
Reader for Mobile Devices application actually rewrite the PDFs so that they
are readable on small screen devices. But given the lack of any information
when searching for how XPS will work with ebooks (which is where MS Reader
comes in), it seems that at least for now MS are not interested in the ebook
side of things.

Microsoft did, some years back, have a big push for ebooks - but it all just
appears to have been swept aside. I spent a week on a training course at
Microsoft in Redmond (Building 32 to be exact) back in January 1999 on
Microsoft Reader and Microsoft Digital Asset Server, and it included looking
at unreleased prototype technology that was supposed to have ebooks
replacing paperbacks, yet here we are nearly 10 years later and very little
progress has been made. Even the new hardware that's recently come out, such
as Amazon Kindle and Sony eReader, are pretty poor in their document format
support - neither can handle the large number of DRM PDF or LIT format
ebooks, and Kindle itself uses Mobipocket format (apparently a single
version character is changed) yet can't open Mobipocket documents, while
Sony have locked their eReader into only being able open DRM ebooks bought
from the Sony online store. Closed systems like these have only furthered to
make ebooks much less likely to take over from traditional books, and Adobe
Digital Editions is killing the PDF format too ...

Dan
Thank you for your time maybe i have to find another newsgroup but i
needed insight (Info form an IT Pro to be specific) about the future of MS
reader and XPS and you gave
me that I appreciate it!
Thank you again and sorry if caused trouble by not posting to
appropriate place or newsgroup!
Post by Daniel Crichton
This newsgroup is for discussion of Microsoft Reader, which is
designed to handle DRM encrypted ebooks. Right now the most common
DRM ebook formats are Adobe PDF, Microsoft Reader (LIT), eReader
(formerly Palm), and
Mobipocket (Amazon Kindle uses a Mobipocket format). Microsoft
haven't released a new Reader for a long time (save for patching),
yet Adobe have been releasing updated readers for a while now
(unfortunately the horrendous Digital Editions which is way behind
Adobe Reader 7 in features). MS are unlikley to care more - in fact,
it feels like they're trying to just let the LIT format die quietly.
I work for an ebook retailer, and at present we have almost 115,000 PDF;
42,000 LIT; 25,000 eReader. As you can see the publishers favour PDF,
although it is probably helped by it having no royalty fees, and
greater market penetration. While the Microsoft Reader is only
available for
Windows platforms, Adobe Reader with DRM is available for Mac and
Windows (plus Symbian for the mobile version), and eReader is
available on most
OS's.
We sell a lot of ebooks, and every day I have to deal with customers
who have trouble downloading their ebooks. eReader is by far the
simplest, rarely causing problems. Microsoft Reader has issues
occassionaly with activating Pocket PC/Windows Mobile. Adobe Digital
Editions is by far the worst, which is why we still recommend that
our customers stick to Adobe
Reader 7 if possible.
While XPS might be the way forward for Microsoft, they really should
try and adopt the Open eBook Standard. But it's unlikely to happen.
And unless they make free reader software available for all
platforms, and not released under the MS name, they won't get
anywhere pushing their own "standard" for ebooks. Linux and Mac
users will mostly avoid Microsoft if possible. And there's no money
in them support the Open standard, so that's unlikely to happen
either.
I feel from your post that maybe this is the wrong newsgroup for you
- you don't seem to be asking about issues with reading ebooks, but
instead documents in general and that is not what Microsoft Reader
is for.
Dan
Maybe my post was not so clear 1- I hate PDF reader because as a
developer i feel that MS will do care more for them and provides the
API in .Net or COM as a general policy and reusability with MS is
Word document are more structured and reusable (in terms of
presentation or to be used in programming with VBA or .Net) and can
be converted to other types (PDF, XPS, ...) more easily without
much unwanted change in structure
BUT if u create a PDF document its more likely to lose its
structure, charset, ..., if u convert it back to Word SO i am more
likely to use word for Document structure and storage or office
automation instead of PDF but the only draw back is portability so
i thought maybe MS is going to solve portablity and i can get rid
of Adobe Acrobat!
2- I was hoping MS is going to compete adobe and create a reader
with diferenet file format (like XPS or ...) or invent a new file
format and ppl like me (that dont want to install Adobe Acrobat
reader) will get another choice = MS Reader!
Post by Daniel Crichton
Post by Leon_Amirreza
Hi,
Am I trusting Microsoft reader and XPS and docx and ... more than
the company itself does?
I know all about portability, pritability, standard, and ... of PDF but
Isn't MS going to expand and attract more end users to its MS
reader and XPS and all other standard formats?
Shouldn't MS be using pdf just in case users dont have access to
Reader, XPS viewer and ...?
Still product brochurs (like SQL server) in PDF?
Maybe its just me that cant get it? somebody please tell me!?
Microsoft don't own PDF, Adobe do. For DRM ebooks only Adobe has
software that can read the PDF files, and either their licensing
costs are prohibitive or they don't license the DRM part out. Why
should Microsoft implement a closed document format owned by a
competitor?
PDF is not the way forward for ebooks - Open eBook Publication
Structure is, as it's an open standard and is designed for
http://www.openebook.org/
Adobe Digital Editions supports this format, as well as PDF.
--
Dan
Leon_Amirreza
2008-09-11 16:53:17 UTC
Permalink
I appreciate this! Thank you very much!
Post by Daniel Crichton
If you really were interested in the future of XPS and Reader then this is
the right group - it's just that I can't see MS investing anything in
Reader as they seem to be giving up on moving forward with it even for new
versions of Windows Mobile.
XPS might well be the future of ebooks from Microsoft, and it does appear
to at least be making an attempt to using the open standards. But
ultimately any fixed layout format is not the way for ebooks - they need
to be able to reflow dynamically so that they can support devices with
different screen ratios and resolutions, Adobe get around this currently
by having the Adobe Reader for Mobile Devices application actually rewrite
the PDFs so that they are readable on small screen devices. But given the
lack of any information when searching for how XPS will work with ebooks
(which is where MS Reader comes in), it seems that at least for now MS are
not interested in the ebook side of things.
Microsoft did, some years back, have a big push for ebooks - but it all
just appears to have been swept aside. I spent a week on a training course
at Microsoft in Redmond (Building 32 to be exact) back in January 1999 on
Microsoft Reader and Microsoft Digital Asset Server, and it included
looking at unreleased prototype technology that was supposed to have
ebooks replacing paperbacks, yet here we are nearly 10 years later and
very little progress has been made. Even the new hardware that's recently
come out, such as Amazon Kindle and Sony eReader, are pretty poor in their
document format support - neither can handle the large number of DRM PDF
or LIT format ebooks, and Kindle itself uses Mobipocket format (apparently
a single version character is changed) yet can't open Mobipocket
documents, while Sony have locked their eReader into only being able open
DRM ebooks bought from the Sony online store. Closed systems like these
have only furthered to make ebooks much less likely to take over from
traditional books, and Adobe Digital Editions is killing the PDF format
too ...
Dan
Thank you for your time maybe i have to find another newsgroup but i
needed insight (Info form an IT Pro to be specific) about the future of
MS reader and XPS and you gave
me that I appreciate it!
Thank you again and sorry if caused trouble by not posting to
appropriate place or newsgroup!
Post by Daniel Crichton
This newsgroup is for discussion of Microsoft Reader, which is
designed to handle DRM encrypted ebooks. Right now the most common
DRM ebook formats are Adobe PDF, Microsoft Reader (LIT), eReader
(formerly Palm), and
Mobipocket (Amazon Kindle uses a Mobipocket format). Microsoft
haven't released a new Reader for a long time (save for patching),
yet Adobe have been releasing updated readers for a while now
(unfortunately the horrendous Digital Editions which is way behind
Adobe Reader 7 in features). MS are unlikley to care more - in fact,
it feels like they're trying to just let the LIT format die quietly.
I work for an ebook retailer, and at present we have almost 115,000 PDF;
42,000 LIT; 25,000 eReader. As you can see the publishers favour PDF,
although it is probably helped by it having no royalty fees, and
greater market penetration. While the Microsoft Reader is only
available for
Windows platforms, Adobe Reader with DRM is available for Mac and
Windows (plus Symbian for the mobile version), and eReader is
available on most
OS's.
We sell a lot of ebooks, and every day I have to deal with customers
who have trouble downloading their ebooks. eReader is by far the
simplest, rarely causing problems. Microsoft Reader has issues
occassionaly with activating Pocket PC/Windows Mobile. Adobe Digital
Editions is by far the worst, which is why we still recommend that
our customers stick to Adobe
Reader 7 if possible.
While XPS might be the way forward for Microsoft, they really should
try and adopt the Open eBook Standard. But it's unlikely to happen.
And unless they make free reader software available for all
platforms, and not released under the MS name, they won't get
anywhere pushing their own "standard" for ebooks. Linux and Mac
users will mostly avoid Microsoft if possible. And there's no money
in them support the Open standard, so that's unlikely to happen
either.
I feel from your post that maybe this is the wrong newsgroup for you
- you don't seem to be asking about issues with reading ebooks, but
instead documents in general and that is not what Microsoft Reader
is for.
Dan
Maybe my post was not so clear 1- I hate PDF reader because as a
developer i feel that MS will do care more for them and provides the
API in .Net or COM as a general policy and reusability with MS is
Word document are more structured and reusable (in terms of
presentation or to be used in programming with VBA or .Net) and can
be converted to other types (PDF, XPS, ...) more easily without
much unwanted change in structure
BUT if u create a PDF document its more likely to lose its
structure, charset, ..., if u convert it back to Word SO i am more
likely to use word for Document structure and storage or office
automation instead of PDF but the only draw back is portability so
i thought maybe MS is going to solve portablity and i can get rid
of Adobe Acrobat!
2- I was hoping MS is going to compete adobe and create a reader
with diferenet file format (like XPS or ...) or invent a new file
format and ppl like me (that dont want to install Adobe Acrobat
reader) will get another choice = MS Reader!
Post by Daniel Crichton
Post by Leon_Amirreza
Hi,
Am I trusting Microsoft reader and XPS and docx and ... more than
the company itself does?
I know all about portability, pritability, standard, and ... of PDF but
Isn't MS going to expand and attract more end users to its MS
reader and XPS and all other standard formats?
Shouldn't MS be using pdf just in case users dont have access to
Reader, XPS viewer and ...?
Still product brochurs (like SQL server) in PDF?
Maybe its just me that cant get it? somebody please tell me!?
Microsoft don't own PDF, Adobe do. For DRM ebooks only Adobe has
software that can read the PDF files, and either their licensing
costs are prohibitive or they don't license the DRM part out. Why
should Microsoft implement a closed document format owned by a
competitor?
PDF is not the way forward for ebooks - Open eBook Publication
Structure is, as it's an open standard and is designed for
http://www.openebook.org/
Adobe Digital Editions supports this format, as well as PDF.
--
Dan
Leon_Amirreza
2008-09-11 16:57:54 UTC
Permalink
As a user I like the XPS on windows Platform. I hope it be there for a long
time or should I invest Time on learning some other format.
Due to the nature of my job as a developer of word automation in a teaching
and publishing company I am considering XPS, djvu, open ebook for now!? Do
you know any other formats? i am looking for a very structured, maitainable
long time storage format that can be stored wholely or partly in Databases
and be processed by automation Apps!
Post by Daniel Crichton
If you really were interested in the future of XPS and Reader then this is
the right group - it's just that I can't see MS investing anything in
Reader as they seem to be giving up on moving forward with it even for new
versions of Windows Mobile.
XPS might well be the future of ebooks from Microsoft, and it does appear
to at least be making an attempt to using the open standards. But
ultimately any fixed layout format is not the way for ebooks - they need
to be able to reflow dynamically so that they can support devices with
different screen ratios and resolutions, Adobe get around this currently
by having the Adobe Reader for Mobile Devices application actually rewrite
the PDFs so that they are readable on small screen devices. But given the
lack of any information when searching for how XPS will work with ebooks
(which is where MS Reader comes in), it seems that at least for now MS are
not interested in the ebook side of things.
Microsoft did, some years back, have a big push for ebooks - but it all
just appears to have been swept aside. I spent a week on a training course
at Microsoft in Redmond (Building 32 to be exact) back in January 1999 on
Microsoft Reader and Microsoft Digital Asset Server, and it included
looking at unreleased prototype technology that was supposed to have
ebooks replacing paperbacks, yet here we are nearly 10 years later and
very little progress has been made. Even the new hardware that's recently
come out, such as Amazon Kindle and Sony eReader, are pretty poor in their
document format support - neither can handle the large number of DRM PDF
or LIT format ebooks, and Kindle itself uses Mobipocket format (apparently
a single version character is changed) yet can't open Mobipocket
documents, while Sony have locked their eReader into only being able open
DRM ebooks bought from the Sony online store. Closed systems like these
have only furthered to make ebooks much less likely to take over from
traditional books, and Adobe Digital Editions is killing the PDF format
too ...
Dan
Thank you for your time maybe i have to find another newsgroup but i
needed insight (Info form an IT Pro to be specific) about the future of
MS reader and XPS and you gave
me that I appreciate it!
Thank you again and sorry if caused trouble by not posting to
appropriate place or newsgroup!
Post by Daniel Crichton
This newsgroup is for discussion of Microsoft Reader, which is
designed to handle DRM encrypted ebooks. Right now the most common
DRM ebook formats are Adobe PDF, Microsoft Reader (LIT), eReader
(formerly Palm), and
Mobipocket (Amazon Kindle uses a Mobipocket format). Microsoft
haven't released a new Reader for a long time (save for patching),
yet Adobe have been releasing updated readers for a while now
(unfortunately the horrendous Digital Editions which is way behind
Adobe Reader 7 in features). MS are unlikley to care more - in fact,
it feels like they're trying to just let the LIT format die quietly.
I work for an ebook retailer, and at present we have almost 115,000 PDF;
42,000 LIT; 25,000 eReader. As you can see the publishers favour PDF,
although it is probably helped by it having no royalty fees, and
greater market penetration. While the Microsoft Reader is only
available for
Windows platforms, Adobe Reader with DRM is available for Mac and
Windows (plus Symbian for the mobile version), and eReader is
available on most
OS's.
We sell a lot of ebooks, and every day I have to deal with customers
who have trouble downloading their ebooks. eReader is by far the
simplest, rarely causing problems. Microsoft Reader has issues
occassionaly with activating Pocket PC/Windows Mobile. Adobe Digital
Editions is by far the worst, which is why we still recommend that
our customers stick to Adobe
Reader 7 if possible.
While XPS might be the way forward for Microsoft, they really should
try and adopt the Open eBook Standard. But it's unlikely to happen.
And unless they make free reader software available for all
platforms, and not released under the MS name, they won't get
anywhere pushing their own "standard" for ebooks. Linux and Mac
users will mostly avoid Microsoft if possible. And there's no money
in them support the Open standard, so that's unlikely to happen
either.
I feel from your post that maybe this is the wrong newsgroup for you
- you don't seem to be asking about issues with reading ebooks, but
instead documents in general and that is not what Microsoft Reader
is for.
Dan
Maybe my post was not so clear 1- I hate PDF reader because as a
developer i feel that MS will do care more for them and provides the
API in .Net or COM as a general policy and reusability with MS is
Word document are more structured and reusable (in terms of
presentation or to be used in programming with VBA or .Net) and can
be converted to other types (PDF, XPS, ...) more easily without
much unwanted change in structure
BUT if u create a PDF document its more likely to lose its
structure, charset, ..., if u convert it back to Word SO i am more
likely to use word for Document structure and storage or office
automation instead of PDF but the only draw back is portability so
i thought maybe MS is going to solve portablity and i can get rid
of Adobe Acrobat!
2- I was hoping MS is going to compete adobe and create a reader
with diferenet file format (like XPS or ...) or invent a new file
format and ppl like me (that dont want to install Adobe Acrobat
reader) will get another choice = MS Reader!
Post by Daniel Crichton
Post by Leon_Amirreza
Hi,
Am I trusting Microsoft reader and XPS and docx and ... more than
the company itself does?
I know all about portability, pritability, standard, and ... of PDF but
Isn't MS going to expand and attract more end users to its MS
reader and XPS and all other standard formats?
Shouldn't MS be using pdf just in case users dont have access to
Reader, XPS viewer and ...?
Still product brochurs (like SQL server) in PDF?
Maybe its just me that cant get it? somebody please tell me!?
Microsoft don't own PDF, Adobe do. For DRM ebooks only Adobe has
software that can read the PDF files, and either their licensing
costs are prohibitive or they don't license the DRM part out. Why
should Microsoft implement a closed document format owned by a
competitor?
PDF is not the way forward for ebooks - Open eBook Publication
Structure is, as it's an open standard and is designed for
http://www.openebook.org/
Adobe Digital Editions supports this format, as well as PDF.
--
Dan
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