I was forced to fill out an XFA form (that was pretending to be a PDF) from the Canadian government and the experience left me feeling completely subjugated. The lengths that Adobe go to to make sure that you have the most frustrating experience possible is unbelieveable. Searching for alternatives or help leads you to either: be forced to buy their premium software (or a licensed equivalent) or subscribe for Adobe’s online tools. Why is this propriety format allowed in government forms? What is so fantastic/irreplaceable about this format?
We like to say “nobody ever gets fired for buying [Microsoft|Adobe|Oracle]”. Basically, if you buy shitty proprietary stuff from a company that is known for making shitty proprietary stuff, it’s not a surprise. If you take a risk on an open alternative, you are somehow staking your own reputation on the success of it. We’ve been burned countless times by the corporate software world, but we keep crawling back because nobody in the government (or most orgs) cares about software freedom.
