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Discussion Board -> Desktop Wallpaper, Art, etc. -> Microsoft Codename "Acrylic" Beta Released
Morwyn. Microsoft has a reputation for designing software that claims to have the features that other software has but they don't actually deliver. Their stuff usually looks great but tends to make assumptions about what you want, so they don't have to make their stuff as configurable as the software they're imitating. So when Word came out it had fewer features than Wordperfect but the ones they had were easier to use if you didn't want to do anything complicated. This is what I expect from their latest release. I doubt for example, that Nathan is going to be using their software to do his frames. If you can get Paintshop or Photoshop I would say get them and leave Microsoft and their .NET passport alone. You can bet the .NET passport does more than they admit to.
I'm reminded of when Internet Explorer came out, and we installed it only to find out that it was transferring packets of information from our computers to Microsoft. They claimed it was a bug, but I don't believe them.
Microsoft's dominance has brought stagnation to the point where features availale 25 years ago are still not present in the market leader's products, and Microsoft is so secure in its control that they no longer feel the need to respect their customers' demands or even their customers themselves. No competition, you see.
Now I'm no fool, and I acknowledge the market dominance of Microsoft's products. I even have made my career programming them, but as they say in Texas, "This ain't my first rodeo." I know that other better products have been made available through the years and have been co-opted or driven out of existence by Microsoft who can afford to bombard the smaller companies with predatory lawsuits until they fold out of financial inability to protect themselves when the U.S. government won't. Those of us in the industry can't help but feel a little bitter and distrustful towards a company who will have to be broken up one day the same way the railroads and the phone company were.
Although formal support is not offered for this beta, we have set up a forum to solicit feedback and help get your questions answered by the Acrylic community.
Find out if you're ready to download and install Acrylic (Windows XP Service Pack 2 required)!
Download and Get Info Here