Is it time to ditch Microsoft Office and move online?

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Permalink Reply by Brian Wyrick on December 9, 2008 at 8:59pm

From what I have seen, a lot of recent college students and grads have already moved past MS Office.

Check this out:

http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/256515/Australian_schools_dum...

Brian

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Permalink Reply by Dr. Bryan Bingham on December 9, 2008 at 9:06pm

I have been in the process of purchasing practice management software and a few companies have gone online with their software. I demoed a couple of the programs that were web based and I really disliked the lag time between the click and the result. I never thought of myself as old fashion, but there is something that I like about having native software.

I do use a great to-do list which is web based (toodeldo) which I love because I can access it from anywhere. The major benefit I see for web based applications is the ability to access it anywhere.

I believe that these services will become more usable when higher speed internet is no longer cost prohibitive for the individual and the small business.

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Permalink Reply by Brian Wyrick on December 9, 2008 at 9:10pm

I think the real key right now is native applications that connect to the "cloud" I use Google apps, but I connect to the mail over iMap, and the calendar with with Apple's iCal. I am curious though, if the practice management software you where looking at was just poorly built :)

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Permalink Reply by Douglas Denney on December 9, 2008 at 10:00pm

I vote to ditch MS, but I think they'll maintain their dominance. Right now, the web and world seem to be Microsoft focused, to the point where if you don't use a MS product, you end up not being able to share documents with friends or co-workers, or you get strange results on some websites. For example, I just downloaded and installed Google Chrome and am trying to enter this reply via the Chrome browser. It's working, but it looks a bit different than when I was in IE. One link that I clicked earlier was also completely garbled. So, is it Chrome's issue or a MS issue? Anyway...Microsoft doesn't follow the rules for adhering to standards - they make their own.

As for native x86 apps, I just saw this link and thought it appropriate for this conversation:

http://www.informationweek.com/news/internet/google/showArticle.jht...

Imagine running native x86 apps inside a secure browser window.

Doug

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Permalink Reply by Brian Wyrick on December 9, 2008 at 10:39pm

That is a great article, thanks for sharing. I have successfully ditched MS Office, with the exception of OWA at my office, and I work in an all windows environment, with exception of a few of us macs... of course, I do use Pages and Keynote often, so I am still using desktop software :)

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Permalink Reply by Joe Dager on December 9, 2008 at 10:31pm

MS will be with us for a while, but if Microsoft keeps changing operating systems the shift to online apps will get accelerated. Another "Vista type" change in the near future may do it. Software has become to expensive and to numerous to upgrade.

I believe we will just license software from Adobe, Microsoft, Google, etc. in the future. Downloads may even become non-existence. Am I crazy? you tell me.

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Permalink Reply by Erik Deckers on December 9, 2008 at 11:22pm

I think Office will dominate, although I plan on keeping my copy of Pages for Mac for as long as possible. Since my Mac and I are often mobile, and I don't always have access to a wireless network, I need to be able to work anywhere. My resident word processor lets me do that.

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Permalink Reply by Mark R Platt on December 10, 2008 at 9:11am

I think MS will dominate with Google being the next rival. Google will have to get over its only running in beta though eventually. Although if you ever get a chance to see their Data Center it is amazing along with their green story using hydro-electricity.

Although if you look at virtualization; VMWare came out and over took MS in that vertical and in my opinion MS has still not caught up. MS does offer a better virtualization tool built in with the release of Server 2008, but it is still not as robust as VMWare. VMware is not web-based though, but the same could happen in that area most likely with a start-up going after the Sharepoint market. I guess my point is that it can happen, but I would hate to think of how many start-ups tried to go after the MS market and got crushed.

I think for Businesses in the Fortune (pick your number) will still use MS, but up-starts and for entertainment or social networking we will see more web-based applications and cloud computing/hosting.

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Permalink Reply by Nicki Laycoax on December 10, 2008 at 9:54am

I have tried to migrate away from MS because of the cost. I found that I became extremely unorganized once I did not have the luxury of Outlook. If for nothing else, I will always be an MS Outlook client.

For documents, MS makes it so much easier to create docs. I've used Google Docs and Open Office-they don't compare.

There will have to be some extreme advancements in the web office apps before I decide that I am done with MS.

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Permalink Reply by Erik Deckers on December 10, 2008 at 10:12am

You just hit on a big thing for most people, and that's Outlook. I won't say I "love" my Outlook in the same way that I love my new MacBook. But I certainly can't live without it. Maybe if Apple's iCal became as useful and robust as Outlook, I'd use it for a personal calendar.

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Permalink Reply by Bob Burchfield on December 10, 2008 at 11:56am

I am probably not the most unbiased person to reply to this discussion, because I make a good 2nd income teaching Office 2007 five times a year at UIndy. I was annoyed when I first had to make the switch from Office 2003 to Office 2007, because I had reached a comfort level with the older software. But after using Office 2007 for about a year now, I realize that it is an outstanding software program. Its ability to pop an Excel chart into Word or PowerPoint (or to embed those charts in the other programs so that they update automatically when the Excel data is subsequently changed) is excellent! The mail merge features in Word, Excel, and Access enable me to get my work done quickly, more efficiently, and with a significantly higher level of productivity. When I learned how to use Queries in Access, for example, it cut the time it takes me to issue an adjunct faculty contract (one of my OTHER hats!) by an average of FIVE DAYS!! And Outlook 2007's capabilities are just superb -- in addition to the e-mail functions -- for everything from mail merge to Tasks to Calendar to Address Book to RSS Feeds to group e-mails (for newsletters, etc.). And how about that great new feature in 2007 -- SmartArt? Or if you are a college student, check out how easy it is to use Word 2007 to insert a citation, footnotes, and a bibliography -- all in the correct style that your instructor requires (APA, MLA, Chicago, etc.). How much time have you spent trying to correctly structure a Bibliography in a term paper when you were in college? Now it's TWO mouse clicks. Honest!

So I am a big fan of Office 2007 because it enables me to get my work done faster and have time to take care of a lot more tasks that also need my attention. To me, the analogy here is like Firefox compared to Internet Explorer. Firefox has made a dent in IE's user base, but IE remains the dominant browser. I think the same is probably going to be true of these emerging apps that you have mentioned. I think they will make a dent, but I expect Office 2007 to remain the dominant office application suite. Why? Because it is REALLY good at what it does. And there are several ways to obtain it legally without paying the full retail price, most notably if you are affiliated with the colleges and universities around Indy.

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Permalink Reply by Mark R Platt on December 10, 2008 at 12:31pm

Yes if you are in College check your bookstore as I believe that you can recieve MS 07 for about $5. If you are a business check with your IT Provider and if they are a Microsoft Partner and you should be able to recieve a discount through them also. Mr. Burchfield is correct that the offerings and capabilities in MS 07 are much more user friendly then in past MS offerings.

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