To: "Bill Skeet" , "Rex Ballard" 
Cc: loundy@lightside.com, online-news@marketplace.com
X-Mailer: VersaTerm Link v1.1.4
Status: O
X-Status: 
Content-Length: 2587
X-Lines: 50


>>> Rex Ballard wrote:
>>>
>>> >That's WONDERFUL.  Can I get a copy for my Sun?  How about for LINUX.  I
>>> >have about 30 VaxStations running VMS?  How about my 10 HPs?  What about

>>Well, if adobe is willing to give away readers (download them like you do
>>Mosaic), and enough PCs get direct access to the internet without firewall
>>restrictions, and the readership doesn't swamp the link, and the stock

>>traffic.....and the moon is full and it's tuesday :)  People might
>>actually go for it.

>
>Rex,
>
>I just don't understand your skepticism.  Mosaic took people by storm and
>it was first available for UNIX, but didn't take off really until the Mac

>I believe there is already a considerable amount of interest in Acrobat.
>One of its most powerful features is that publishers do not need to invest
>in new creation tools--any application that is postscript compatible can
>create a PDF file.  This saves many people money (for new creation apps.)
>and time (from learning new apps).  Illustrator is NOT the only option.
>
>Acrobat works with the most popular off-the-shelf software in the world. It
>takes 10 to 15 minutes to learn. Believe it or not.
>
>Bill

I have to agree with Rex's skepticism after following this debate (both
through this thread and personal experience). First of all, I happen to be
fortunate enough to own up-to-date versions of Illustrator, Photoshop, Quark
and Pagemaker, and use them daily. However, despite the current graphics
limitations, HTML editor is available FREE and quite simple to use. The
global social impact and power of the WWW and Mosaic (including the various
helpers and editors) is (and will continue to be) due as much to its
accessability -  independent of personal financial status - as its ease of
use. The fact is that many of the people generating the most creative and
interesting Web pages today are students, artists, writers and home-hackers
- traditionally of the "starving artist" but with
plenty-of-time-to-experiment variety. To deny these people the freedom to
create  (whether intentionally or not) is to deny the Web the originality,
inventiveness and surprises that have grown it this far. It also goes
against everything I thought the net stood for.  
-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+--+-+-+-+--+-+-+-+--+-+-+-+--+-+-+-+--+-+-+-+--+-+-+-+-
gstephan@netcom.com IS gregg stephan                 "I'm anti-semantics:
Editorial Director - Travel Media Corp                  a word Nazi!"
Boston, MA 617.242.0090 Fax 617.242.4524
-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+--+-+-+-+--+-+-+-+--+-+-+-+--+-+-+-+--+-+-+-+--+-+-+-+-

From jvncnet!marketplace.com!owner-online-news Tue Nov  8 16:14:00 1994