- Look out for Excel bug. Get yours fixed.
- No Office 14 until 2010.
- Gmail has another outage. Meanwhile everyone still marching into the cloud.
- Steve Jobs is 54.
- Google jumps on the anti-MSFT EU case with Mozilla and Opera.
- Micron lays off 2000.
- Dick Tracy watch from LG.
- I list the MIT 10 Emerging Technologies for 2009. Can you spell bogus?
Right click here and select ‘Save Link As…’ to download the mp3 file.
Happy Birthday, Big Steve. Only one year away from getting a senior citizens bus card. Keep breathing.
I’m amazed at the steady progression of Office versions; it’s obvious businesses by the new versions, but I know companies and end users still using Word 97.
Surely there can’t be a huge demand for yet another version of Office?
Steve Jobs is 54?
Not for much longer…
Let’s see;
Office 14 – more bloat, “improvements” nobody seems to care about, incompatible with previous versions forcing an upgrade, minimal cost $200 / computer.
Open Office (www.OpenOffice.org) – does everything MS Office does. Full MS Office compatibility, ease of use, supported on multiple OS’s – like Windows and Linux, cost $0, use anywhere and everywhere
Like Windows, MS Office has outlived it’s usefulness in terms of cost and trustworthiness (security)- for me anyway. I have slowly migrated to Ubuntu (32 & 64 bit OS – free; there are other equally as good Linux distros available for free) – use Windows for a few items not directly supported by Linux – yet – this is more a case of my finding the application necessary (free) and installing it. When Windows 7 ($150 – $300 per computer) hits the streets – my copies of Windows goes out the window.
The point is not Windows bashing, but rather consider your options and weigh the cost. Do not follow Microsoft’s cue blindly. Think. Is the Microsoft path worth the price?
I still haven’t got used to the ribbon on the current version.
#6,
To my annoyance I had a business computer burn up over the weekend(It was a pentium 3 computer, so what… thats 5-6 years old?). Um, if I cared enough, I could probably make it work again on the cheap.
I hopped on newegg, ordered a new computer, got the new computer special version of Office. It should arrive at my office today.
The longest part of my install in the field will be taking it out of its box, and plugging all the little bits in… Er scratch that, that store is a hour and half drive. The longest part of the install will be driving to and from the location.
Oh and we are currently in the process of migrating away from Google Docs and to Office with a WebDAV service provider. (It turns out a plain old WebDAV server was a better fit for us than sharepoint) Those of you who have tried using Google Docs among more than a few users will understand why we are leaving Google Docs.
The closest thing to that sort of replacement schedule is an Apple computer running OS X. Linux isn’t on my radar. But this whole replacement, software as well, will cost less than the lowest end Apple computer. The $300-400 dollars I am spending on Microsoft software is well worth it if you consider my time, and the premium I was have to pay to make sure my computer properly supported Linux.
As soon a Linux offers a upgrade path as seamless and easy as windows is the day Microsoft should worry. But that isn’t today.
@GregA
For now Linux is for people that have more time than money. However, Linux distributions are evolving at an amazing pace so keep your eye on them. As far as I am concerned Windows XP and and Office XP (2002) are the last Microsoft products I personally will use. I may have to support them at work though … unfortunately.
#9,
I have two asterisk systems that I use to do key systems on the cheap. I know what linux is, and what it is good for. I make sure to check out the desktop version du jour at least once or twice a year. I agree Linux is changing quite a bit over time. However, I disagree that it is getting better.
On the other hand, Microsoft is now pimping their new voip key system at people just like me, and you know what? I am perplexed. However, I know better than to go with an early version of a Microsoft product when I have a working thing already in place. I will check it out when the sales reps offer to buy me dinner if I switch.
Has linux ever gotten you free lunch?
I wish my bosses would stop taking free lunches and drinking the cool-aid. I have to support the crap they buy when this happens. Our “management” is penny wise and pound foolish. I just had to suffer through a company wide e-mail transition because we changed providers. Nobody is happy and Outlook doesn’t seem to like their servers but it is “cheaper”.
#11,
Outlook seems f’ed in all situations but for when its connected to an exchange server. But then Outlook doesnt really work like your typical email client, it seems more kin to groupware applications than email.
For what its worth, internally we use phones and voice mail. Then the little bit of customer facing email that we do is handled with yahoo store redirector and a couple of gmail accounts.
But then we are a privately held company and we don’t have to keep backups of all our email forever…