View Full Version : Microsoft aims to double PC base
gettin2dizzy
19-04-07, 05:09 PM
Microsoft software will sell for just $3 (£1.50) in some parts of the world in an attempt to double the number of global PC users.
Didn't apple just get bollocked for selling itunes songs cheaper to europe than us? Microsoft have a lot of catching up to do with apple! no wonder they're panicking.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6571139.stm
kwak zzr
19-04-07, 05:10 PM
microsoft have been charging to much for years.
How are they panicing :confused: Looks more like they are trying to get a foot in the door of developing countries who wont even know what iTunes is and they are not selling software cheap to users, just goverments with conditions :rolleyes:
Governments in developing countries can purchase the cut-price software, if they provide free PCs for schools.
gettin2dizzy
19-04-07, 05:34 PM
How are they panicing :confused: Looks more like they are trying to get a foot in the door of developing countries who wont even know what iTunes is and they are not selling software cheap to users, just goverments with conditions :rolleyes:
i'm just anti-pc really ;) Itunes is becoming pretty standard for music, i'd love it if apple offered a good word processor to challenge office. Microsoft Word winds me up so much! i use excel daily and its a pain too, reasonably powerful but with such niggles. Apparently office '07 is completely different, a complete revision. Reviews have been mixed...
Moffatt666
19-04-07, 05:42 PM
If you don't like microsoft's offering, why not try an open source package like Open Office.org?
gettin2dizzy
19-04-07, 05:47 PM
thought about it, but just used microsoft out of habit. Is it any good? I just find that word and excel are full of dumb@ss features. It tries to correct everything you do, making things worse!
gettin2dizzy
19-04-07, 05:49 PM
http://www.pcd-innovations.com/infosite/images/att2.gifhttp://www.pcd-innovations.com/infosite/images/att3.gif
i'm just anti-pc really ;)
So get a MAC and install Open Office :rolleyes:
Apparently office '07 is completely different, a complete revision...
It is but to get all the good bits you'll be needing a few more bits, starts with a Windows 2003 Server :thumbsup:
If you don't like microsoft's offering, why not try an open source package like Open Office.org?
;)
thought about it, but just used microsoft out of habit....
As do 99% of the people who use MS products and moan about them, alternatives have been available for a long time :rolleyes:
gettin2dizzy
19-04-07, 11:19 PM
well i've used a mac for a while (i was a skeptic, but really...they are better...way better...) but i find that the microsoft version of office conflicts enough with mac one, that using open office would only cause more problems. But i'll give it a go :)
The management at our company were too tight fisted to fork out for MS Office licences for all of our machines. I'm glad they were.
As a result, almost everyone runs OpenOffice. It has complete MS Office compatability, and does stuff that MS Office doesn't.
I love the fact that I can export any document I like to a PDF directly inside OpenOffice.
MS Office does look more appealing to the eye though. But then, form vs function.
gettin2dizzy
20-04-07, 07:09 AM
word does that too, just in an odd way. You have to 'print' it to a pdf.
word does that too, just in an odd way. You have to 'print' it to a pdf.
Last time I used MS Word, you had to seperately install the PDF Printer, then click about a million buttons to get the thing to spit one out. Maybe they've bundled it with MS Office now.
With OOffice, File > Export to PDF > Options page with a couple of options > Save. Done.
Jelster
20-04-07, 08:08 AM
Not that I'm an MS lover either, but sometimes employers dictate what you use as an office package, and 99 times out of 100 it will MS Office.
To work in this type of environment you MUST have MS skills, I would certainly think twice about employing somebody who hadn't. At my last job I got fed up of people asking me "how do I ?" when it came to Word, Excel or Powerpoint.
It's all well and good saying that there's better out there, but you need MS Office skills to work in a corporate organisation.
.
Not that I'm an MS lover either, but sometimes employers dictate what you use as an office package, and 99 times out of 100 it will MS Office.
To work in this type of environment you MUST have MS skills, I would certainly think twice about employing somebody who hadn't. At my last job I got fed up of people asking me "how do I ?" when it came to Word, Excel or Powerpoint.
It's all well and good saying that there's better out there, but you need MS Office skills to work in a corporate organisation.
.
I take exception to that. SOME corporate organisations yes. Hell, most quite likely.
Take this company I work for as an example. For years, everything has been MS based.
We write software under the framework of WebObjects (made by Apple). Apple have decided from their next version, they're not going to support their software under Windows.
That leaves us is a potentially sticky place. Do we continue setting up customers on Windows servers, knowing we don't have a full support system behind us? Or do we think about moving multi-million £ contracts over to another operating system (which carries it's own risks). The latter is further complicated by the fact that there are a grand total of 3 people who even know other operating systems exist.
Our companies IT policy is being dictated by those that we rely on to do business, we're looking at migrating customers away from Windows, because when things go pear shapped, we want to have the get out of "Sorry, not our software, it's WebObjects (or whatever framework we're using at the time), sue Apple, not us!" :D
Like I said above, our management don't see the point in paying for software, when we can get the same use out of something for free. Having said that, they've just forked out £32,000 for software that will run on only 3 machines, because it was deemed necessary to the business.
Jelster
20-04-07, 09:09 AM
I take exception to that. SOME corporate organisations yes. Hell, most quite likely.
Take this company I work for as an example. For years, everything has been MS based.
We write software under the framework of WebObjects (made by Apple). Apple have decided from their next version, they're not going to support their software under Windows.
That leaves us is a potentially sticky place. Do we continue setting up customers on Windows servers, knowing we don't have a full support system behind us? Or do we think about moving multi-million £ contracts over to another operating system (which carries it's own risks). The latter is further complicated by the fact that there are a grand total of 3 people who even know other operating systems exist.
Our companies IT policy is being dictated by those that we rely on to do business, we're looking at migrating customers away from Windows, because when things go pear shapped, we want to have the get out of "Sorry, not our software, it's WebObjects (or whatever framework we're using at the time), sue Apple, not us!" :D
Like I said above, our management don't see the point in paying for software, when we can get the same use out of something for free. Having said that, they've just forked out £32,000 for software that will run on only 3 machines, because it was deemed necessary to the business.
With respect mate, you work for a software/development house, that's not the case in 99 out of 100 (see above) organisations.
Your staff would tend to have the ability to pick up the skills anyway, having an understanding in software. Finance, telecoms, retail, manufacturing etc just don't have the time or money to do anything else but "run with the norm".
I've been selling into corporates for over 20 years, and MS Office has such a hold it's scary really. Lotus Notes/Domino was so much better than Outlook/Exchange 5 years ago, and it's only now that MS is getting some of the same functionality.
However, if there were 3 or 4 major "office" packages around, everybody would have to learn how they all work, at least with one dominant product it's easier to train or learn than if you had to spread yourself across 3 or 4 different applications.
.
Moffatt666
20-04-07, 09:31 AM
thought about it, but just used microsoft out of habit. Is it any good? I just find that word and excel are full of dumb@ss features. It tries to correct everything you do, making things worse!
It's similar to MS Office in usage but it has less of the irritating stuff with updated versions available every few months.
Bluesteel
20-04-07, 09:39 AM
http://www.pcd-innovations.com/infosite/images/att2.gifhttp://www.pcd-innovations.com/infosite/images/att3.gif
I just wee'd myself a little.
I just wee'd myself a little.
I actually had a little laugh when I got to the office today.
This machine is multi-boot, today, I'm using Windows XP. Sat down at the machine, clicked the icon to login, expecting my password prompt. Bugger, I hit "Guest" instead. Oh well, it'll kill time whilst the kettle boils.
Then I got the prompt "Your password has expired, you must change it." So I did. Hit OK, then I got "You have insufficient privilages to perform the requested operation."
Hmm, now it's stuck in a loop. I can't login, I can't set the password. Interesting. Then I noticed that when you fill in the boxes (the old password was null), the Cancel button activates. Hit this, and I'm presented with the login screen again.
You have to love MS thinking. If a user can't change their password, why prompt them to do so?
gettin2dizzy
20-04-07, 04:23 PM
its like the prompt boxes that won't disappear when you click 'ok', and won't let you shut the program :P Apples 'force quit' is seems like a godsend now, no more waiting for 'end task' which seems to do ****all!
gettin2dizzy
20-04-07, 04:45 PM
i was speaking to a guy today about vista. He said he wouldn't have a mac in the past because of compatibility issues. But he's forced to have one now vista is out because its even less compatible! hehe. Microsofts one selling point and its gone...
then i found this
Users force Dell to resurrect XP
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/42825000/jpg/_42825199_dell-pa203.jpg Windows XP made its debut in 2001
Responding to customer demand Dell has restarted selling new PCs with Windows XP installed on them. The decision reverses a policy begun in January that meant Windows Vista was the only operating system available on almost all new home machines.
The change came after Dell's feedback site was swamped with calls for the return of the venerable software.
Moffatt666
20-04-07, 04:59 PM
I never thought I'd EVER see the general population berating Vista, I thought it was an anti-M$ thing.
I never thought I'd EVER see the general population berating Vista, I thought it was an anti-M$ thing.
I suspect Vista is another Millenium in the making, I have nothing against M$ (I'd not get paid what I do otherwise ;) ) just that they do make mistakes and on occasions think they really know what everyone wants when they don't :rolleyes:
northwind
21-04-07, 05:26 PM
Vista'll probably be fine once the current public beta's finished :mrgreen:
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