Microsoft to Pit ‘Metro’ Format Against Adobe PDF, PostScript?
Source: eWeek
Written By Mary Jo Foley
Updated: Microsoft is readying a new printing document specification and set of printer drivers code-named “Metro.” Due to debut as part of Windows Longhorn, ‘Metro’ will allow users to share, print and archive documents with greater fidelity, the Redmond company says.
SEATTLE—Microsoft took the wraps off a new document-workflow technology that it is readying as part of Longhorn during the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) here on Monday.
Officially unveiled as part of Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates’ kick-off keynote, the new Microsoft document workflow format, code-named “Metro,” sounds from initial explanations like a page-description language meant to compete with Adobe’s PostScript.
Microsoft has been telling partners and software vendors for some time that it was planning to include document-management functionality as a core part of Longhorn.
Some partners said they believed that Microsoft officials were simply referring to the company’s collaboration technology, SharePoint Services. Others said they thought Microsoft brass were making reference to the WinFS Windows file system that Microsoft decided to cut from Longhorn in order to have a better chance of meeting its 2006 ship-date target for the operating system.
Read entire article