Microsoft is beta-testing "an innovative illustration, painting and graphics tool that provides exciting creative capabilities for designers working in print, web, video, and interactive media" called Acrylic. Apparently Microsoft’s attempt at capturing a chunk of the design market, Acrylic is the result of Microsoft’s acquisition of Creature House and their vector graphics program Expression back in 2003. While not uniformly bad, Acrylic’s reviews — conveniently round up by CGexplorer here — haven’t exactly been effervescent. "If MS is trying to target the low-end user market, mainly people who want to do simple photo editing for family pictures and such," one blogger wrote, "then Acrylic is going to be too complicated for them even if its priced much cheaper than Photoshop. However, if MS is trying to create a product that is for the professional market, Acrylic doesn’t have anything positive to offer graphic designers that they don’t already have with Photoshop."
The beta version of Acrylic can be downloaded from Microsoft, but you’ll have to register for Passport (or use BugMeNot) — and have XP Service Pack 2 — for the privilege.