Acrylic Beta (Download free till October 1st)

[Terro]

As theEye has stated in a previous post, Microsoft is getting ready to go against Adobe and Macromedia. Here is their early stab at photoshop. Microsoft Acrylic supports both bitmap and vector layers.

Download it here. (http://www.microsoft.com/products/expression/default.aspx)

To get a full list of features.

http://www.microsoft.com/products/expression/features.aspx#vectorpaint

[NOOB!]

it really sucks

they shud call it *microsoft crappy painter/photoshop rip*

[Mundokk]

:blink:
I must check it !

[jimiphoenix]

From what I've heard, Acrylic is designed to be Windows Vista's main design tool. If Windows Vista is half as successful as XP, Acrylic will be too ;)

Macromedia was acquired by Adobe partly because both companies need to steel themselves against the Microsoft threat in future, especially with the onset of Vista. M$ has been trying to develop a PDF killer for years, and Vista is meant to include something called Metro, which holds similar capabilites. They've also been trying to develop a media app similar to Flash...:D
Why Acrylic's release is so interesting is because it's Microsoft's first serious challenge to the vector-graphics industry, which is the only industry where Adobe and Macromedia really have any product overlap (in Freehand and Illustrator), despite still being investigated for potential antitrust issues. I'm thinking Adobe/Macromedia will be cleared by the end of the year and then it will be interesting to see if Microsoft mounts a challenge to the markets that they have traditionally dominated.

Also, a while ago there was a vector gfx app called Expression - developed by a company called Creature House if I remember correctly. As of release 3, Expression was an amazing tool for creating natural media vector graphics. One of the very best, in fact. Last year Creature House was acquired by Microsoft and Expression Studio (which was at one point freely downloadable) developed under a new name. Acrylic is not exactly a direct evolution of Expression, but it builds on it a LOT. Microsoft hasn't commented on the relationship between Expression and Acrylic even though at one point Acrylic was regarded as the next build of Expression.

[Terro]

I wasn't aware they renamed Longhorn into Vista. Can't wait to use my AMD 64 chip in Vista, things should run much smoother.

[jimiphoenix]

Yes, indeed :)

I still don't know too much about the operating system as a whole though. I guess I'll just wait and see...

[Terro]

1 major change. It's a 64 bit instead of 32. Won't really change anything if we'll still be using 32 apps. But in the future it'll be a big change once theyt start making 64 applications. It's like going from a Nintendo Entertainment System to Sega genesis. Good stuffs

[jimiphoenix]

There's already a 64-bit version of XP out though, isn't there? Are you running that? ;)

[Terro]

yeah there is a 64 XP, but no 64 applications for it. It makes use of the 64 chip for the OS only.

[NOOB!]

damn u guys with all ur computer talk scaring people off. :D

the only technical things i know about comps is whether they are fast or slow :p

[jimiphoenix]

lol, I'm not too hot on the technical side myself Noob, but I'm planning to build my own PC soon - the best way to learn ;)