After reading Roddy Scheer’s article on “Microsoft’s Rich Media Group” (Spring 2006, page 12), I’m wondering how much MS funds your publication. There’s a lot of “Vista will have” while Vista doesn’t even exist at this time, and maybe not until 2007 or later, if at all. And to state that PCs are cheaper to buy and maintain is a joke. Comparable PCs are more expensive to purchase than Macs, and the cheapo PCs are not adequate for image processing. This whole article smacks of a fantasy puff piece written by someone in Microsoft’s employ. With Bill Gates on the cover, your magazine should be called “Microsoft PhotoMedia for Windows Amateurs.”

Robert Liles
Portland, Ore.

The editor responds:

Thanks for the name-change suggestion, but neither PhotoMedia nor Roddy Scheer received any form of compensation from Microsoft for the article. The article merely set out to cover the features of an upcoming photo editing software product that we feel could have a significant impact on the industry, just as we would cover any other legitimate photo product. In fact, in the same issue, we ran two stories (one by Steve Broback, the other by Richard McEnery) about new digital workflow software that will compete with Microsoft Vista, including Apple’s Aperture, iView’s Media Pro Version 3, Extensis’ Portfolio 8 and Adobe’s Lightbox.