Microsoft disses Adobe with comparison videos

Chicago (IL) - In the latest chapter of the ongoing feud between Microsoft and Adobe, Microsoft has now released a collection of videos on its Web site that gives viewers a head-to-head comparison between Dreamweaver 8, Adobe’s site building application, and Microsoft’s offering, Visual Studio 2005. In the bevy of comparative videos, Microsoft shows 101 Visual Studio features as compared to Dreamweaver 8.

A somewhat uncharacteristically offensive move, Microsoft intros the feature with an attacking message. "The gloves come off in this feature by feature video comparison of Visual Studio 2005 and Dreamweaver 8. We’ll pull no punches as we tale an in-depth look at each winning bout," it says on the site hosting the videos.

With an obviously slanted viewpoint, the videos, which are broken down into categories, like code editors, design notes, and CSS, shine a sense of doubt on Dreamweaver’s capabilities. For example, the video on "login controls" showcases Visual Studio’s integration with Microsoft’s proprietary ASP.NET controls. "The ASP.NET login controls are specific to Microsoft .NET Framework and are not supported by Dreamweaver Version 8," is all that the video voice-over says.

However, when there is a feature that is currently exclusive to Dreamweaver, Microsoft was sure to add a footnote. The video for "document windows and panels" makes reference to Dreamweaver’s Split View capability, a highlight for the Adobe application. The video says there is a "hybrid two-pane layout, called the Split View...when I select one of the HTML elements, the corresponding design element is also selected. And vice-versa."

Since this is a worthwhile, unique feature to Dreamweaver, the video ensures the viewer that this won’t be the case for long. "This Split View feature is unique to Dreamweaver today, but the same functionality will be added to the next version of Visual Studio," the voice-over quickly clarifies.

These somewhat petty comparisons are drawn out over 22 videos. This comes in spite of the fact that Microsoft originally shied away from making comparisons between Visual Studio and Adobe’s Dreamweaver. Now, Microsoft apparently wants consumers to know that its software is superior.