Much like Microsoft’s Office Suite is to many, Adobe Photoshop is unreplacable - pure and simple. So for MS to successfully encourage folks to kick the Adobe habit could potentially fall on deaf ears. So it’s safe to say that a ‘pause’ is not going to make a whole lot of difference here.

Microsoft has temporarily halted development work on some aspects of its upcoming professional graphics application as it tries to bring companion tools and its next-generation Windows Vista operating system to market.

The application–called Expression Graphic Designer–was first released in test form in June last year, and is based on Expression, the tool Microsoft acquired with its 2003 purchase of Hong Kong company Creature House. But despite being widely seen as a rival for Adobe Systems’ Photoshop and Illustrator products, Microsoft does not see the product as a standalone offering.

“At the moment, there’s no great reason for us to release it as a standalone product,” Wayne Smith, the company’s senior product manager for Europe, the Middle East and African professional designer markets, said last week. Source: News.com

[tags]adobe,windows vista,photoshop,europe,expression graphic designer,professional graphics application[/tags]