“The rivalry between Microsoft and Adobe heated up more recently, as Microsoft poaches another key exec from the embattled Adobe.”
Microsoft has hired Mark Hamburg, a 17-year-veteran Adobe programmer whose work includes Adobe Systems Photoshop and Lightroom, will be leading work to give Microsoft Windows a better user interface.
The Hamburg’s move on Monday was confirmed by both Microsoft and Adobe Systems, but Microsoft would not share major details at the time, beyond saying Hamburg would work on “user experience” for the company.
Though, Chicago photographer and Photoshop consultant Jeff Schewe, who took a plane to California to be present at Hamburg’s going-away party, shared a lot more on his blog.
“He was deeply recruited by Microsoft and given an unbeatable opportunity to work outside his normal digital imaging field,” Schewe said. “Mark was invited by (Microsoft Chief Technology Officer) David Vaskevitch to come lead a team working on the future of operating system user experience at Microsoft.”
This probably means he will work on developing the user experience of Windows, which he seems none too happy with.
“Now, given that I find the current Windows experience really annoying and yet I keep having to deal with it, this opportunity was a little too interesting to turn down,” Hamburg is quoted as saying. “I cannot imagine doing serious imaging anywhere other than Adobe, but, I needed to do something other than imaging for a while.”
“His last day at Adobe was April 23, and there is no word as to when his work would begin at Microsoft.”
In a blog post April 25, Martin Evening, who follows Adobe, said Hamburg “joined Adobe in the fall of 1990, not long after Photoshop 1.0 was released, and was instrumental in devising many of the ‘wow’ features we have all come to love and rely on daily when we work with Photoshop.”
Ever since Photoshop 7 was announced, he moved his attention to lead Shadowland, the project that became Photoshop Lightroom. That software, which is used to edit and catalog photos, is a major break from Photoshop when it comes to user interface.
In a statement, Microsoft stated, “Hamburg is a legend in the creative professional software world, a pioneer behind the development of Photoshop, and … Microsoft is excited to have Mark on the team tasked with leading the next revolution and wave of innovation in the creative professional software market.”
After the release of Windows Vista that met with intense criticism for its similarity to Mac OS X, the recruitment of Hamburg is seen by many as an attempt by Microsoft to steer its Windows platform in a different direction.
Photoshop senior manager John Nack appeared to suggest that although losing Hamburg was tough, Lightroom will move on. “The cool thing is that having recently launched the Lightroom 2.0 beta, Mark leaves the product in excellent shape and excellent hands,” he said. “We are really just getting warmed up.”
So what does Hamburg’s move signify? It is a long drawn assumption to say Microsoft will be better able to counter the widespread opinion that Apple’s Mac OS X is superior, but Hamburg’s Adobe work sheds some light on the new possibilities.