Despite the "ranting" element of what Psychorant writes, he is basically correct.
On EVERY occasion in my memory when Microsoft has brought out a new version of Windows or Office, an update or patch for Acrobat to keep it up-to-date as well has been "nowhere to be seen".
For example, when Windows 7 came out, even several months later, in the regular updates for Acrobat 8 they were still not even mentioning whether the software was compatible with Windows 7 or not, and yet Windows 2000 or 98 were still well described! I got a similar feeling when Office 2010 came out. Adobe made no mention of it and just mumbled that they would "get to that later" i.e. with a new Acrobat release which would cost me.
Frankly put, Adobe does not want to "do its job" and stay up to date as other vendors do, it wants us to 'hang around' wait for a patch which often never comes and then force us to buy a complete new version.
Due to its repetition, this seems to be a DELIBERATE policy of Adobe's to consistently keep Acrobat out-of-date either with Windows or Office releases, with the message that "we'll get to it it our next release" - (i.e. you will have to purchase yet another version of Acrobat for no good reason). This to me is an abuse of its market position, and yes, I too would be happy to join a class action about this is one came up,
To have to pay, at a minimum $149 every couple of years to update a relatively small part of my software from my point of view (i.e. one which holds the 'print image' as a file electronically instead of sending it ot the printer) clearly looks like monopollistic abusive behavior to me. You can buy a whole new Office 2010 suite of 5 or more programs for $220, one which I had not done for 7 years (since 2003), so $149 every couple of years for a single Adobe program because Adobe deliberatley chooses not to keep its products compatible is a true rip-off to me.
When multiple companies, many much smaller than Adobe can have their 'patches' for Windows 7 or Office 2010 ready around the time of the new Microsoft release and yet Adobe, often with vastly more resources than others does NOT, it smells of deliberate market manipulation.
For $149 I purchased Windows 7 complete operating system updates for two PC's (could have worked for three!), and yet I have found frequently myself facing that same purchase cost amount or more with Adobe every couple of years simply to keep my Acrobat compatible with Microsoft software updates. I can do about as much with Acrobat 5, 6, 8, or 9 for my purposes, so these additional costs have brought me, in effect, nothing. I still "print a spreadsheet" or document in Acrobat instead of to paper. Where is the innovation or benefit for all that money? There is none, in effect for me. The only "benefit" is in actually keeping whatever I had previously, so I'm having to pay this money to stop whatever I have being taken away (is this like protection money?)!
These "things which annoy us" with our software becoming suddenly obsolete more often than not do not typically happen "by accident". Big corporations with market dominance like Adobe employ enough MBA's and marketing managers to know exactly which segmenets of the market will need the patches or updates, and when, and then they make a simple profit calculation of how many users will be p***sed off enough to go out an buy the latest Adobe software becausee they feeled forced to, and how many will instead simply put up with it not functioning fully. This is not being "customer oriented" at all, despite big companies' PR regular claims to the contrary.
For Adobe to try and whine and say "it's got to modify a lot of it's programs, and it should not be expected to be up to date with all the Microsoft changes" is simply B*S. Theirs looks like a is deliberately chosen policy to me. I will certainly be checking out other products which make .pdf's simply because to spend yet another $149 or more each time on new Acrobat versions and so frequently [5,6,8,9,(now 10?) etc] as Adobe conveniently "plans" for us to do is not something I intend to do.
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AdChoices
I found Adobe's answer to the question as below somewhat troubling, especially given the time that Office 2010 has been in either beta or release version:
Q: Will Acrobat 9 be updated to support Office 2010?
A: “Adobe plans to add support for its Acrobat PDFMaker technology for Office 2010 in the next major version of Acrobat.* We have not made any announcements about updating Acrobat 9 PDFMakers for Office 2010.”
I seem to remember similar issues with Acrobat around previous releases of Windows or Office. I would therefore appreciate knowing the details of Adobe's updates required for both Acrobat 8 and Acrobat 9 to ensure full compatibility with Office 2010, and if these can be available before the end of June 2010, by when I believe Office 2010 will already be on the retail market.