Those two unlikeliest of bedfellows, Microsoft Corp and Quark Inc, have announced a strategic alliance where desktop publisher Quark will adopt Microsoft technology as the reference platform for future Quark technologies. The deal seals Quark’s long quest to re-invent itself away from its Apple Macintosh roots over to a full-blown Microsoft software house, a journey which must now be viewed as complete. Although Quark moved its core QuarkXpress layout application over to Windows some years ago, it’s still better known for its Mac version. Quark, always known as an uncooperative company even in its Apple days, seems to have changed its tune with Microsoft, and has agreed to architect their systems using Microsoft’s COM and DCOM object models, participate in alpha and beta programs, and insure its products are certified for BackOffice and Windows. The two will work together on technology, business development and joint sales and marketing. Quark is also making the move away from desktop applications towards client-server, and calls its new business, which is still aimed at publishers, digital asset management.
