Tom Foremski: IMHO

Tom Foremski

Firms seek replacement for Microsoft and Adobe software

By Tom Foremski | January 28, 2010, 2:36pm PST

Summary: Tight IT budgets are forcing large numbers of companies to look at swtiching to free enterprise software.

I didn’t realize the backlash against Microsoft and Adobe was quite this bad:

A survey commissioned by Global Graphics found that one in four firms of 1,000 employees and more, are looking at free software to replace Microsoft applications.

About 40 percent of those firms are looking for software to replace Adobe.

The survey questioned 300 CIOs in the US, and 100 CIOs in the UK. Tight IT budgets were the main reason for the switch.

The full report is here.

Global Graphics offers a free PDF creator aimed at enterprises.

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Topics

Software, Adobe Systems Inc., CIO, Firm, Microsoft Corp., Survey, Global Graphics, Tools & Techniques, Marketing Research, Management, Marketing, Tom Foremski

Tom Foremski reports on the business and culture of Silicon Valley at the intersection of technology and media.

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We Switched to Bullzip PDF Writer

DocNasty 2nd Feb 2010

We have completely weened ourselves off of Adobe already. We did this for 2 reasons. To write a pdf file, it costs too much for the software, and for our reader, we ditched adobe for FoxIT.

Mainly, the Adobe software is too bloated, integrates itself to unsafe levels, and is just way too much for our needs. I really don't care about 90% of the stuff in Adobe, and it doesn't help us.

Because of this, we were immune to the huge security holes of Adobe PDF.. specifically the attacks of crafted pdf files that are pushed thru certain flash advertisements.

I would like to see us eventually switch to Google Documents. Open office is nice, but it just looks too 'old tech' for the users to embrace it.

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"Looking at" and "Replacing" are two different things.

Qbt 28th Jan 2010

If a businesses are not looking at alternatives, then they are incompetent. They need to stay up to date with current solutions to their IT business needs.

That doesn't mean that they will automatically replace MS and Adobe software. They first need to actually find an alternative that is worthy as a replacement.

So to call any business's action of staying current with what is out there a "backlash" is rich.

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Free scan to PDF utility?

Rick_R 28th Jan 2010

About two months ago I tried to find a FREE application that could scan to PDF. The only thing I found was Scan2PDF and it just didn't work. I have yet to see ANY free Windows utility that supports scanners (e.g., GIMP). Most of the low-cost "output to PDF" software available just creates a virtual printer, it does not perform scan-to-PDF. (Although most scanners on the market include scan-to-PDF software, that doesn't help companies with older scanners, e.g., "all-in-one" inkjet scan/fax/copy/printers.)

And that doesn't even consider the "Swiss Army Knife" functionality of Acrobat, e.g., secure/certified PDF's, built-in OCR, create forms, etc.

Although we have a copy of Acrobat Standard (ver 6), we generally use VERY limited functionality, mainly occasionally scanning documents to a PDF to attach to an email. I also often print to Acrobat's virtual printer, although doPDF and a number of other free utilities can provide that functionality.

I also have Nuance PDF Converter Pro, which seems to be functionally equivalent to Acrobat Standard 9 (which I have at home).

Of course, that is completely separate from replacing Photoshop, which we don't use. When I need to do graphics editing (infrequently), I use Paint Shop Pro.

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I guess I'm missing something

wkulecz Updated - 29th Jan 2010

I've never seen the need to scan to PDF. OCR I can understand, but don't need in my work. Document scans to jpeg meet all my needs.

What am I missing here?

Ubuntu Xsane software has a scan to pdf feature but it creates absurdly large files that ultimately don't look any better than a jpeg scan of the same document.

--wally.

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Document Exchange

ozchorlton 31st Jan 2010

I use scanning to pdf for document exchange.

e.g. My bank sends me a form, that needs signing, I sign it, scan to pdf, then email it back to them.

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Check out the report

Rick_R 28th Jan 2010

Check out the report. By "free software" they are mainly talking about things like Adobe Reader, Java, Flashplayer, Quicktime, etc. Although Open Office is listed, it is the only heavy-duty application listed that competes with "business" applications.

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Global Graphics offers an alternative

honeymonster 28th Jan 2010

to Adobe Acrobat and produces a report saying that 40%
"are looking to replace" it.

Now, what's wrong with this picture?

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RE: Firms seek replacement for Microsoft and Adobe software

sammy.mah@... 29th Jan 2010

What i hate about Adobe Reader is all the crap that installs with it...Adobe.com, Adobe download manager, and all the crap it puts in on the user startup. FoxIT is nice and lite. I'd pay for FoxIT pro. The problem is the name, and it is not a common program, and in the end, my users have more trouble using FoxIT because they can't make the association that FoxIT and Adobe Reader do the same thing.