Microsoft snags key Photoshop developer from Adobe

Microsoft has hired Mark Hamburg, a 17-year-veteran of Adobe's Photoshop product and most recently its new Lightroom product.

Although Microsoft did not confirm independently to BetaNews at press time, news reports indicate that Hamburg's likely new job is the "Future of OS User Experience" group at the company.

His last day at Adobe was April 23, and there is no word as to when his work would begin at Microsoft.

This likely means he will work on developing the user experience of Windows, which he seems none too happy with. Microsoft also apparently heavily recruited him, and he believed he had done what he wanted to do with Adobe.

"Now, given that I find the current Windows experience really annoying and yet I keep having to deal with it, this opportunity was a little too interesting to turn down," Hamburg is quoted as saying. "I can't imagine doing serious imaging anywhere other than Adobe, but, I needed to do something other than imaging for a while."

Such comments strike down speculation on other news outlets that he may be working on Microsoft's upcoming answer to Lightroom, code-named "SmartFlow." In all likelihood, his work will be more on the future of the Windows UI itself, and possibly in Windows 7.

Photoshop senior manager John Nack seemed to suggest that while losing Hamburg was hard, Lightroom will move on. "The cool thing is that having recently launched the Lightroom 2.0 beta, Mark leaves the product in excellent shape & excellent hands," he said. "We're really just getting warmed up."