|
WebWord Weblog Posting Posting Date: May 11, 2003 Is There Any Reason To Buy Microsoft Anymore? -- "Almost everything enterprises once found unique to Microsoft they can now find somewhere else -- without some of the baggage that comes with Microsoft purchases, like ongoing security concerns and mystifying licensing practices."
Reader Comments...
You need to create a software monoculture as a platform for ease of virus infection. http://www.heise.de/tp/english/inhalt/te/8129/1.html Posted by: on May 11, 2003 11:14 PM
Deal with average users in the real world, not techies. You will find that they don't want to change from their MS Office apps. Period. They don't care about "software monoculture", whether MS is or is not a monopolist, or any of the rest of the stuff that keeps the chattering class occupied. They have learned to get their work done with those tools and they don't see a reason to change. You want people to switch, create a better product. Give people a reason to change, other than political correctness. It's not price, most of these folks don't see the cost and aren't willing to change for a few bucks each per year. Remember, you want them to be happy at their work. Almost as good won't do it (Open Office). You usability folks pride yourselves on objective testing to prove points. Go do some testing on Open Office and MS Office. Find out what people prefer. I bet the answer is that people like the MS product. At best Open Office is comparable to MS Office of two or three generations back. What a great incentive to switch! I've tried Star Office and Open Office over the last two years, and when I have work to do I go back to MS Office to get it done. Posted by: mcw on May 13, 2003 09:33 PM
As painful as it sounds..Microsoft is going from strength to strength as is & will be evident from the new products that Gates & co. are slated to introduce in the forthcoming quarter(insider news from a close friend at Microsoft).Don't get me wrong I am no MS fan but as they say : "Love us OR hate us..but u can't ignore us.."..very apt and though I've seen scores of my colleagues/friends switch over to other products..they still have a MS product tucked in somewhere and invariably..they HAVE TO go back..some time or the other...:)
I just updated my resume. Just for kicks, I used the event to try out OpenOffice Write and AbiWord (both on top of WinXP). Note that I don't mind learning curves. I've used one or more versions of WordStar, WordPerfect (on DOS), MS-Word (on DOS), Word for Mac, Word for Windows, Ventura Publisher, Volkswriter, InDesign, FrameMaker, MS Publisher, PageMaker, Apple Works, and probably a few others. My favorite overall wordprocessor, to date, has been Word for Windows 6.0. (The Word product has pretty much been all downhill since then.) Unfortunately, both OO Write and AbiWord aspire to be nothing more than bad Word knockoffs. That's too bad, because Word's usability stinks. I ask you: Would it be so hard to come up with an alternative to deeply nested dialog boxes for style management? I figure Word's dominance is secure for the time being.
Home | Moving WebWord | Cool Books | Hot Web Sites
URL: http://webword.com/weblog/ ©1998-2005 by WebWord.com. All rights reserved. |