Freetype Lands In... Microsoft Office? 212
Posted
by
CmdrTaco
from the share-well-everyone dept.
from the share-well-everyone dept.
phy_si_kal writes "Now Microsoft must love free software. Indeed, Office 2011 for Mac (beta 5 at least) uses Freetype! Somehow they figured out the free software 'clean room implementation' of their own (patented) TrueType technology must better suit their needs."
Must burn. (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't know who wrote TrueType but MS using FreeType must burn them up. I know it would tick me off.
Overblown (Score:3, Insightful)
This is an overblown summary. Come back to us when they switch the version of Office for Windows to using Freetype over Cleartype. This is clearly nothing but a way to save money by leveraging Freetype that already runs on Macs instead of wasting time and money porting Cleartype.
Am I missing something? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Must burn. (Score:5, Insightful)
Why would it burn them up? There is no financial justification for porting Cleartype when they can just use for Freetype for their Mac version. If they were switching the Windows version to Freetype that would actually be a story.
Re:Am I missing something? (Score:5, Insightful)
How is this anti-Microsoft? I think it is a good thing that Microsoft is using Freetype.
Re:Am I missing something? (Score:3, Insightful)
Yeah, but only for the Mac version. This summary is trying to make it seem like Microsoft or the Office team is dumping Cleartype for Freetype which is not true.
Re:Am I missing something? (Score:2, Insightful)
No, it's not.
Re:Am I missing something? (Score:4, Insightful)
Yes it is. The implication is quite clear in this sentence:
Somehow they figured out the free software "clean room implementation" of their own (patented) TrueType technology must better suit their needs."
This is nothing but Microsoft saving time and money by using Freetype that is already ported to the Mac instead of doing the work to port Cleartype. This a non-story at best.
You misread his comment. (Score:4, Insightful)
The OP was talking about the authors of TrueType, not FreeType.
Re:Must burn. (Score:3, Insightful)
If its a success on the Mac, it'll make its way to Windows soon enough.
And you make this claim based on what evidence? Oh wait, none.
They wouldn't want to test it on Windows - if its a massive failure it'll hurt the Windows image... But not on a Mac!
Well of course. The Mac ports have pretty much always been a second-class citizen to the Windows version.
Re:Am I missing something? (Score:4, Insightful)
Yes it is. The implication is quite clear in this sentence:
Somehow they figured out the free software "clean room implementation" of their own (patented) TrueType technology must better suit their needs."
This is nothing but Microsoft saving time and money by using Freetype that is already ported to the Mac instead of doing the work to port Cleartype. This a non-story at best.
You mean, it is like FreeType "suits better Microsoft's needs" when porting MS Office to OSX??
And they indeed dumped ClearType for Freetype for this OSX version; that is a true assertion. The fact that they decided to compile others code instead of use their own is exactly that.
Re:Must burn. (Score:1, Insightful)
I don't know who wrote TrueType but MS using FreeType must burn them up. I know it would tick me off.
Yeah. Presumably some poor bastard slaved their heart out over TrueType and the boss decides FreeType is better.
"Sorry for putting up with my BS all these years ... but you suck!" -- Your Boss
Re:Truetype is Apple's technology (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Must burn. (Score:5, Insightful)
If they were switching the Windows version to Freetype that would actually be a story.
Good point. I was presuming there already was a Mac version of TrueType. If there isn't one already, you are absolutely right.
Re:Must burn. (Score:3, Insightful)
I thought Apple invented TrueType, but maybe I'm trapped in the reality distortion field.
Re:Add To That (Re:Must burn.) (Score:3, Insightful)
The focus on "web inter-op" and publishing. If they are striving for "looks the same on PC, Mac and on the web", their chances are better if they start using a font typeset that is freely distributable to those platforms.
If that's the motivation and MS starts pushing back on some of its other in house technologies substituting OSS versions... if I had been an MS developer writing the original versions I might read that as a vote of "no confidence" from my own managers. That would prompt me to look for other work because what I was doing at MS would not be valuable to either MS or the industry as a whole.
But, I don't work at Microsoft. And other posters have pointed out this may not be at all what is happening in this case.
Re:Must burn. (Score:1, Insightful)
Doubt it, the Mac version of Office is actually a port done by an external organisation.
I doubt the Mac version functions as some kind of test-bed.
Re:Must burn. (Score:5, Insightful)
are you sure?
it certainly used to be built by a Mac group within MS. I have heard stories of the crazy corporate environment that surrounded them...
ATSUI is not for Windows 7 (Score:5, Insightful)
What I find odd is that they don't just use ATSUI – apple's built in true type font rendering, which is rather better than both freetype and cleartype.
ATSUI and the Core Text that replaced it in Tiger are Mac-exclusive. If Microsoft used it for Office, it wouldn't be able to ensure consistent document appearance between Mac and Windows versions of Office.
Re:How Do You Figure? (Score:3, Insightful)
Needs more +1 Funny. Are you going for the elusive +5 Flamebait?
Re:TrueType in Mac OS 7 (Score:3, Insightful)
*cough*Helvetica 14px "mnr"*cough*
Ok, I'm going to get modded down, but could we stop with the "cough cough" thing? Just say, "like Helvetica 14px." Like a normal human being writing a normal forum post. The "cough cough* thing, assuming it was ever funny, hasn't been funny in years. Now it does nothing but make your post harder to read, and make me think you have no actual sense of humor.
That said, good, informative, post.
Re:They can, in matter of months (Score:3, Insightful)
Maybe five years ago, it would still have made a difference. These days, the damage is done: Office alternatives are compatible enough, and people don't need to replicate Microsoft's idiosyncrasies precisely anymore because nobody expects them to work always (they don't even work consistently between Windows and Mac, or different Windows versions).
Re:Hold Me, I'm Scared (Score:3, Insightful)