I think the main intent of Metro is to replace the GDI system that is currently used to print documents. Of course Adobe has its PostScript with similar functionality. See:

www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/print/metro_FAQ.mspx

The main intent is so that Microsoft can make money from somthing that they don't already make money from.
They don't have a portable format yet, so they want one. Simple as that. God forbid a nother company had somthing they don't have!
They are a buisness who want to make money, which is fine.
Just don't ever think they do anything for the users bennifit. It is all to make money, pure and simple. Which again is fine, just don't moan when they try to take over everything thay can!

Another issue that will arise is that Metro will be integrated and Adobe will scream about this just like others have about Internet Explorer and Media Player and say they need to sell these as separate programs. That way, they can counter with a program of their own and try to keep their spot on top of the hill.

I like the idea of no separate programs to buy. This idea has some great points and bad, but I for one, hate having to buy several programs to view different content. If i need or want to buy a program, I should be able though.

Being based on open standards will help quicken Metro's adoption because Adobe doesn't share its API with hardly anyone. No more need for the Reader adware!

Reader 7 for Linux is pretty nice, though i haven't used the Windows version yet so I can't give an opinion on that one.

"...an XML-based "electronic paper" file format called "Metro Reach" that boasts portability for use with any application on any platform."

And then will come the "Viewer Wars" like the browser wars we have now.

Quote: For users running Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, Microsoft will make available...

Somehow few people seem to be going backwards, rather than going forwards while still being backwards compatible. The "only on XP/2003" thing could turn people off if businesses thought about their customers who still prefer 98SE/ME and L!nux since XP+ are relatively shonky.

This may be interesting to see, although I consider PDF will remain to be the standard format for transferring documents. PDF is robust in its design and the next closest thing to sharing documents while preserving formats is using XHTML with CSS2.

Look at a while ago, Adobe challenged Macromedia's SWF format by releasing animated SVGs, and even that's been out for a while, so it would be hard for MS's format to catch on.

Anyways, why build on new software when they could enhance what's already here? I remember seeing one person write an awesome program that weighed only 6kbytes and simulated 3D Mars surface on an ancient 60Mhz 486 (if you don't know what a 486 is, and most people don't, it came out before the original Pentium did) with graphics that would p!ss all over a 3D accelerator.

The fault is in the software, not the hardware.

Complain about WMF or EMF then... It's already in Windows. Also, the whole PDF-killer hype was run through with MODI already.

"Metro is aimed at solving a specific set of challenges in the document lifecycle, including viewing, sharing and printing..."

Wow, I never realized that PDF couldn't be used to view, share, and print documents! Thank goodness Microsoft is developing their own technology. FINALLY we can do these things.

PDF format is slower, larger, costs more to edit.
I never could figure out why anyone would use it.

I totally agree...

PDF isn't slow, it's Acrobat Reader (except old versions, which won't work for newer PDFs, and version 7, which runs only on modern OSes).

A GhostScript viewer or something will work if you want to complain about speed. Try it.

Editing is the only bad thing, but I don't see how Metro will help, and PDFs weren't really intended to be edited (at least not with Reader, hence its name--but you CAN still make it "fill-in-able" for forms and such).

You must be from AOL... :)

Look for an article in Google titled "Metro is not a PDF killer after all."

I think what they mean is there are some challenges in those parts of the document lifecycle that are not met by any current technologies, so they created their own. For example, postscript can't do transparencies and gradients properly. Metro can.

Microsoft plays hardcore ball. Its not fair, they always integrate their sofware into the os affectivly rendering itself a monopoly over everyone. Well, here comes another piece of garbage integrated into our os! Happy garbage picking!

When you set it up, if you click custom instead of noob install you can select componants not to be installed when i need to install windows.

Id like an alternative to pdf thankyou.

lol 'noob install'. priceless. id like an alternative to pdf as well. im sick of ppl complaining about what msft programs into their OWN OS. if i made a piece of software that was making me billions of dollars, id put my own stuff in it too. every one needs to stop crying and get over it.

I'm also tired of having to open up a PDF because some brain dead user used Acrobat to create it.

I'm tired of these retarded document standards. I'm also tired of Microsoft embedding so much stuff in their OS. I wish they would just creat an OS and not put all that crap in it.

I used Linux for about 3 years and then went back to XP. I'm about ready to go back to Linux.

I'm so sick and tired of all the whining about MS "forcing" people to use ___fill-in-the-blank___. When have they EVER done that??? I've NEVER been prevented from installing Netscape or Opera, or MusicMatch or WinAmp or WinZip or Nero or whatever. So much BS whining. So MS is going to make Adobe cry to mama. They do that already, so now they have a reason to point at (instead of making one up). They bought Macromedia (which they'll quickly destroy) so what's their complaint? IT geeks should work construction for a year to learn about "real work" and stop whining about breaking their nails from too many strenuous mouse clicks. Sissies.

I wasn't a big fan of PDF until recently, when I realized just how useful they can be. I use OOo at home but my school has Word. If I write something at home and want to print it at school, I can save as .DOC in OOo (which I do, just in case I need to edit), but I'll still be at the mercy of its DOC-writing abilities, which aren't 100% right all the time. OR, I can make a PDF and print it from practically any computer.

About the only time they're annoying is on the Web, where they're best left to things that need to be printed out in an exact way--on paper. Otherwise, they can be a pain.

Oh, and if you're using Reader 6.0, don't. Upgrade to 7.0 if you can; it's a lot better and faster, even without their "smart start" or whatever turned on.

:-)

"When have they EVER done that???"

http://wired-vig.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,20510,00.html

google, first hit.

This is what I got from what you typed:

Blah blah blah blah blah blah words words words words text words blah blah blah nonsense blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah whine whine blah blah blah blah someone who's mad blah blah blah

You should take yourself out on a date.

M$ don't "forces" ppl to use their fatware? Mhh, where to start... For example, they "keep" your windows me$$enger open while outlook express is on, or better: Even if you choose to unistall windoze me$$enger, guess what? The me$$enger is still there! I don't know how you call it.
I've another: Winxp SP2 (try to) "force" you to not to use any p2p software, as they limited the tcp half-open connections to 9 to "avoid" viruses to spread (and that's a *ridiculous* excuse). But is even worse: They HARDCODED the tcpip.sys in order to impose that in windows xp, guess what? In NT4 it was a registry key!!! So, in windows XP you have to use an utility to modify tcpip.sys AND their backup copy. Tech advance!
So, Microsoft not only tries to impose their software but they also want to "force" elections on which software you can(not) run. Clear?

Isn't this forced "integration" what MS keeps getting into trouble about? Forcing everyone to use their application such as IE and etc. Why do we continue to have this same problem over and over with MS? If they spent more time on making the best products on the market they would not keep running into the monopoly problem. How about putting Metro out there as a stand alone product and see how it fairs against the competition on equal footing?

Well, for .txt files they have notepad. For jpg they have their handy viewer (added in XP i believe).

There are quite a few apps already bundled. For 80% of Windows users these apps are the only way they know how to open files. You have to understand that MOST users are extremely stupid. They aren't/don't know how to go looking for applications to run certain files.

And if IE wasn't installed on their computer automatically, then how would they get to mozilla.org anyway???

wicketr, the problem is not really IE coming with the OS but that you can not remove it since they integrated it so deeply into the OS.
A browser should have absolutely nothing with the functionality of the OS to do. And it should be up to the end customer what programs to add on top of his/her operating system. Maybe you like when programs like Mediaplayer call home to Microsoft and let them know exactly know what you been playing in it? They did not tell you about this when you got your pc did they.

This seems like one of those things that is well suited for an open specification - not tightly integrated into Longhorn or requiring any proprietary applications to create.

[QUOTE]
Microsoft hopes to promote adoption of Metro by pushing its use of open standards. The company will provide a set of application programming interfaces (APIs) for developers that wish to incorporate Metro technologies into their applications. Microsoft will also offer a royalty-free license for Metro.
[END QUOTE]

Just my .02c.

Hal (http://hal.lco.net)

My only problem? is why is microsoft the only company who is "the devil" and can't do anything? by the amount of complaining i hear constantly, basically microsoft should: stop making software, sit twiddling there thumbs, watch cobwebs grow in their R & D Department, and just keep paying lawsuits until they have no money left.

It's sad that as soon as anything is announced suddenly it's a rip off of something else. Guess what, lots of things are rip off's of other companies software lol Why else is there hundred's if not thousands of music players on the net lol

Where was all the complaining when adobe bought macromedia pretty much their ONLY competition?

http://www.nitropdf.com/

Using Metro will be like using a condom with a hole in it.

Wow, such insight and intelligence. I commend you! Why dont you try giving a little bit more "Constructive Insight" into your posts