Challenging Microsoft on the Desktop 129
Dotnaught writes "As Microsoft moves to offer software-as-a-service with Windows Live, online companies are moving to challenge Microsoft on the desktop. In a decision that would have been seen as foolish a few years ago, file sharing and social networking company TransMedia plans to release desktop productivity apps (in conjunction with online ones) as lightweight Microsoft Office alternatives. Google, meanwhile, through its deal with Intuit, is colonizing desktop apps as it has done with browsers and search toolbars. Microsoft used to have a home field advantage on the desktop, thanks to Windows. Lately, operating system ownership is looking a lot less valuable."
I cant wait to see how the compare... (Score:1)
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As for web browser, I'll probably stick to FireFox.
Problem is, google is not unknown for somewhat shady practices on occasion, and with them being in an excellent position to bias things (they are a search engine after all - ever search with "web", "internet", "net", and "browser" could have the first result become GoogleUseItOrDieWebBrowser or someting).
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It reminds me of Mozilla before Firefox
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What about Abiword [abisource.com]?
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I'd prefer FCKEditor on a simple web page than OO Writer. OO Writer tries to do everything on all platforms, and it became heavily bloated.
I don't mind OO writer, but I can see where others might. One thing I'd like to see that might help mitigate that kind of bloat is something like the system services on OS X. They've added spell checking and a dictionary/thesaurus that can be accessed by any application and a grammar checker is supposed to be built into Leopard. I also use a more comprehensive collec
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Is this new? (Score:5, Interesting)
I don't see how this is unique threat to M$ either. From TFA's first sentence (underlining mine): A year after the release of its suite of online integrated media-sharing and social networking applications, Glide Effortless, TransMedia is redoubling its effort to challenge Apple, Microsoft, MySpace, and Google.
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I would really love to see some other office suite take a majority share. I've been using Office97 since, well, 1997, mostly because I don't care enough about my office suite to purchase an upgrade. I _could_ use OpenOffice, but really, most of my use for an office suite is to open my colleagues' files, and OpenOffice doesn't open
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But you can already run Word on the vast majority of desktop computers (Windows and Mac). And unix users have Openoffice. so why would a web based Word be significant? Who would anyone use it? A web based Word would suck. It would be 10x slower and bloated than a native solution.
The big mistake that these online app companies are making is that they are trying to reinvent common applications that are already available to
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But isn't that a double edged sword? I mean, if the OS is just a way of getting online, why would anyone bother switching OSes? They'd just use whatever is preinstalled.
Anyway, I hope it doesn't happe
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Can you give me an example of a web app that does make it possible to switch? Linux, for example, already had plenty of file editors, a few spreadsheet programs, email clients, etc. I can't think of one single existing or in-development web app that would allow someone to move from Window
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Yeah, we have that already. They're called Wikis. Maybe it woudl be nice to have more advanced inline wiki text editors, but Writely, as a general word processor, is lame. It is at least 10 years behind the state of the art.
-matthew
Online apps (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Online apps (Score:5, Insightful)
Fear not. This too shall pass. Just like it did the last three times somebody tried it.
Actually, to be fair, online applications do make sense in a controlled environment such as a workplace where you can deliver a basic windows system and apps on-demand from any platform of your choosing (read: Citrix) to a group of people who don't need any control over their systems (the typical office worker). It's just that sometimes vendors get it into their heads that EVERYTHING should be like that and they try to push it, fail, and get fired, leaving the next batch of marketroids and accountants to come in, eventually develop this "novel" idea, and repeat the entire process again.
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Great IT Myth Of The 20th Century: web browsers will become the platform of choice, thereby making the OS irrelevant. This will break Microsoft's hold on the desktop.
Great IT Myth Of The 21st Century: web browsers will become the platform of choice, thereby making the OS irrelevant. This will break Microsoft's hold on the desktop.
Reality: those who want something hard enough will be very frustrated indeed if they find that they c
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Re:Online apps (Score:5, Insightful)
There is not a chance in hell I would use an online app for something that runs fine on my local pc. Why add an unneeded security risk?
There are four main advantages:
For the most part, I agree that I won't be using these services and my company sure doesn't want me collaborating on work projects that get stored by a third party. My backups are good enough and I already host my own server on my workstation when I collaborate on documents (SubEthaEdit). This might, however, make sense for others I know who like to casually collaborate or who know how to use a Web browser and Web mail and don't want to be confused by anything else. To some people, the Web browser is the only application they really run. This might be fine for them and they don't care if someone else steals the Senior Citizen Arts and Crafts schedule, or the erotic sci-fi short story they are co-editing with their old college buddy.
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Reliability - until your network connection goes down. Then it's pack up your computer and track down another connection.
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Reliability - until your network connection goes down. Then it's pack up your computer and track down another connection.
True enough, though those are different kinds of reliability. One is the whether your document will be accidentally destroyed and the other is whether you will be able to view/edit it at any given point. There are a lot of drawbacks to office applications as services as well, although in truth I hope all office suites or operating systems begin offering a remote server mode so that I c
I have been using the Internet for 15 years. (Score:2)
If you take into account that most of my life has been spent in developping countries, then the above anecdote is more interesting.
And since I have been in the UK I have not been without net access at all for the last 8 years. Not even a single day.
So I frankly fail to see your point.
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I recently moved between states in the U.S. For the duration of the trip (2 days) I was completely without internet access. When I arrived at my new home, the internet wasn't available for two weeks. Granted, I could go to the library and wait an hour to get on to one of their machines. However, I don't feel comfortable typing in passwords to my e-mail accounts, bank accounts, etc. on public machines --- for obvious reasons.
So, the point is, not everyo
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True, but for more and more people, if their Internet connection is down, you might as well throw the machine away. Other than typing papers for school, what non-Net things do people do anymore other than play games (which are now network-dependent such as WoW)? There are still the Quicken hold-outs, but now that all banks offer online service and everyone takes debit cards, what's the
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Right. Computers were little more than expensive paperweights before the advent of the internet. Thanks for the history lesson.
Other than typing papers for school, what non-Net things do people do anymore other than play games (which are now network-dependent such as WoW)?
Are you serious? Ever hear of computer programming, web-page design, accounting, word-processing, modeling and simul
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The market. (Score:3, Insightful)
And lets not even mention lawsuits.
Well, what the heck, lets do it: lawsuits.
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Yeah, because everyone knows that Office 95 stopped working when the next version came out.
The thing is, people who need to do that kind of thing (work on the same file
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Yeah, because everyone knows that Office 95 stopped working when the next version came out.
But it does not have bug fixes or improvements that many of us want to keep up with the times. I want vector graphics in my resulting PDFs. If a free word processor will give them to me, but I have to pay to upgrade from Office 95, well one is superior... for those that need or want that option. Staying with old, outdated software is not a good option for a significant number of users.
The thing is, people who nee
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There have been free patches released for Office 95. And in case you haven't noticed, even Office 95 is lightyears a head of a
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There have been free patches released for Office 95. And in case you haven't noticed, even Office 95 is lightyears a head of anything you can find online, so your arguments about features only exist in a hypothetical space.
But we're not talking about what you can find online, we're talking about online word processors in general. Since the only offerings right now are fledglings at best, you can't predict the reason people might switch to online word processors based upon solvable, normal issues with ne
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secure remote login? (Score:2)
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Let me tell you.... (Score:5, Informative)
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The only advantage to online applications is being able to access your files from wherever you are, from any computer that you choose. This is not however a feature that everybody needs, or that we need for every file. If you do use multiple computers however, it can quickly become frustrating maintaining
Re:Online apps (Score:4, Informative)
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If you save your file
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OS owneship (Score:5, Insightful)
This could not have been true-er. First, I substituted MS Office with OpenOffice*. After Google came out with spreadsheet and document solutions of its own, I do not even use OpenOffice anymore. What more, it does not matter anymore if I am on Windows XP or Ubuntu or Suse - as long as I have a relatively mainsteam browser with me, I am good to go.
*I am talking about my home environment where I do not user "Office" applications that heavily, and online solutions available to me satisfy ALL my needs.
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And this is just a beginning. Earlier, due to unavaillibity of a lot of applications on non-M$ (read Linux) OS, I had practially no way of getting myself rid of XP. Now, there is only one application (Creative soundblaster music reciever driver, and sadly, I dont see them doing anything for Linux users.*). So, at least the ball has been set to roll, and appear to gather the critic
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Sorry, but I find it hard to believe that the mediocre little browser based applications that Google and f
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True. And let me come clean on this. I am in the middle of switching from XP to Linux. So, I am your classic Linux noob. Now, I am not saying that such apps were not available to me on Linux, what I am saying is that now consistant behavior of such apps delivered over the browsers have eased the pain of switching between interfaces while at work or at home, and I am more confident on
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Nothing personal. It is just that so many people on Slashdot act like browser based applications such as Google spreadsheets provide some amazing new capabiiies that non-Windows platforms have never had before... thus making the transition easier. When, in fact, users of OSes other than Windows are generally satisfied with what is available to
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I belieive that should read: "This could not have been more true."
Thanks, and have a great day
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It has been MS office more than Windows for years (Score:2, Interesting)
Even the ones who know they run "Windows XP" as opposed to some other version don't know what that means. They do know and use Outlook, Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Visio, and Access. Why do they know ? Because they start those applications frequently and a splash screen tells them what they are running. The equivalent to the splash screen for the o
Re:It has been MS office more than Windows for yea (Score:5, Insightful)
Many vendors could easily out-do MSFT in application space. MSFT did not get its marketshare and lead by simple technical superiority of its product or coding skills. It got it by better business tactics. Infact every flag ship product that is minting money for MSFT started out as a pale copy of some other better program. WordPerfect, QuattroPro/Lotus, Harvard Presentation Graphics, Dbase/Foxbase etc. Then the marketing muscle, clever tricks to prevent interoperability, agreements with vendors to throttle competition and naivity of its user base that confused interoperability with PC-compatibility got MSFT the market share and lead. If the OS advantage is removed and the playing field is leveled by demanding true interoperability and compatibility to standards, (standards not wholly owned and manipulated by MSFT) you will see what other vendors are truly capable of.
The key is Open STANDARDS. Do not confuse it with Linux/Mac/Unix or Open Source or Free Software or Gnu or GPL. If the users demand true portability of their data and their applications the playing field will be leveled. My docment, my macros, my scripts are mine. I want them to work whether I choose to run MSOffice or OpenOffice. Only when owners of the data assert their ownership and refuse to be locked into a particular vendor's format the playing field will be level.
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But why should Microsoft care? There aren't enough OOo or WordPerfect users out there for their voices to add up to anything more than a fringe. What is needed first is for people to become less fearful of using non-Microsoft software...but every time something fails to render properly, people run back to what they were using for years.
I know it sounds strange applied to MS, but the market responds to customers. A lot of customers want the advantages of open standards and are tired of promises to bring t
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Kind of like WordPerfect was an imitation of WordStar. 1-2-3 was an imitation of VisiCalc. Etc. The reality is, is that while Microsoft's products are far from perfect, in many cases they really are better. Over time Microsoft really does get shit done. It's the advantage of having operating capital and being ab
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When Word out did WordPerfect, it was through bundling it with OS, getting steep discounts on the price of OS to the OEM installers if they DONT install or sell WordPerfectb by throttling the revenue stream of WordPerfect by leveraging MSFT's monopoly in the OS space. That is how it w
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WordPerfect lost in the marketplace long before it was common to bundle applications with a computer. They lost because their product and their company (WordPerfect Corp - 2 owners ago) had a philosophy that was in conflict with the new trend
Not strictly correct (Score:2)
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My assertion is that a corporate IT department could substitute any operating system and users would barely notice as long as they could continue to use Outlook, Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Visio, and Access.
To tone it down a little, I'd say that surely they'd notice that there was a difference insofar as the UI was different. However, it is true that:
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huh? (Score:1)
right?
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I'm glad (Score:1)
What I do not like to see, however, is that most companies that do so play catch up and do not even provide a better user experience for the users, making it harder for the already comfortable users to make the switch.
Faster network (Score:1)
I Smell a Dot-Bomb 2.0 (Score:5, Informative)
"Mr. Leka established strategic partnerships with industry leaders including Apple Computer and Microsoft and throughout the HealthSCOUT Syndicated Network of over 3,000 sites (e.g. Yahoo, USA Today, NBCi, iWon, Juno, AT&T, Prodigy). Previously, Mr. Leka was a co-founder and Executive Director of The Fultz Foundation in Washington, DC where he was instrumental in securing funding from the George Soros Foundation and USAID among others. Mr. Leka developed and directed various international projects focused on business development and management training including telecommunications and the internet." http://www.transmediacorp.com/about/board.htm [transmediacorp.com]
Sounds like he's successful at shaking money out of wealthy people's pocket because http://www.fultzfoundation.org/ [fultzfoundation.org] is little more than a placeholder and the dot-bomb marketing speak is so 1998.
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http://www.redherring.com/Article.aspx?a=16146&hed =TransMedia+Site+Goes+Social [redherring.com]
There's this link where it claims it will do magic with a PDA
www.pdastreet.com/articles/2006/5/2006-5-22-Glide- Mobile-Extended.html
I'm not sure how a single library/ies will magically make all of this interoperable because I've seen what it takes from an engineering side to attempt this sort of thing and it ain't pretty. I haven't eve
What? A deal with Eskimos? (Score:2)
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They will lose because they are in MS's backyard (Score:2)
Re:They will lose because they are in MS's backyar (Score:1)
Not really, a 5 percent market share on the Windows platform beats 100% share on OSX/LINUX, and the LINUX market is still hampered by the stigma of being the platform that people associate with free software. Seriously, how many of the folks here running LINUX have spent a $200 bucks on a software package?
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A lot of Linux distros come with OOo installed by default, don't they? If you're getting the same thing free with your free operating system, why replace it with a $200 program?
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Me personally or my workplace. Personally the biggest ticket purchase has been $100 for a copy of VMWare 1.0 obtained at a special price at a trade show when it first appeared. Lots of smaller purchases though, especially when Loki was still alive and kicking.
Here at work though we will write a check if it is the only way to get the job done. Hell, we got in as a beta site on our library automation and
Re:They will lose because they are in MS's backyar (Score:2)
The only thing that keeps Intuit alive is their tax software.
As much as I despise the program, Quickbooks has a pretty huge installed base. Not to mention all the obnoxious nickle-and-diming they like to do for "added value" (payroll, merchant accounts, etc.)
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Finally! (Score:3, Funny)
Lately, operating system ownership is looking a lot less valuable.
Yay, Netscape!!!
Oh. Wait...
MjM
Why I'm sticking with my MS Office (97)... (Score:5, Interesting)
- It still works with people using Office 2003
- It doesn't take a registration key
- The CD is quite easy to copy for friends and family
- The built-in VB stuff is completely (safely) broken when you just run it off a file share
- It never phones home (and there's no Internet component)
- It installs in under 100MB
- If any new features have been introduced since 1997, I don't need them
- It doesn't try to figure out my advertising profile from the documents I work with
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Well, MS better have good auto-save (Score:2)
They just admited it... (Score:2, Informative)
You will boot flash memory
Your machine will go to MS
Your machine will then run what MS thinks you need
Your machine will tell MS where you went and what you downloaded
Your machine will tell the NSA where you went and what you downloaded
Your machine will stop error when your isp has a hickup
Your machine has MS
--
Stupid people should not breed
megahard doors.... (Score:1)
They could call it something similar, like
"Tired of Microsoft Windows' lack of security? Try out our free Megahard Doors (tm) operating system for increased security!"
Opens up many possibilities (Score:2)
I agree with some of the previous comments that many users are running MSFT Office because they're familiar with the products and, right now, they have to be running Windows to use those products (okay, WINE users aside). Where I see the blurring between desktop and internet apps having the most impact is at the low end of the PC market. A $125.00 laptop...or whatever the $100.00 laptop is up to now...would stand to benefit greatly from the availability of online applications.
It may not make a big dent
Microsoft just can't win (Score:1)
Google and Intuit? (Score:1)
Maybe Google can teach Intuit how not to be evil.
Moo (Score:1)
The pull of Microsoft is it's stability and the way everything fits together. Another online app might not be enough on its own to challenge Microsoft anywhere.
Then again, as we move further into the Internet age, and the people are more and more Internet oriented, it could be people will specifically want online ap
Article is meaningless, msft has same stranglehold (Score:3, Interesting)
2) Aside from running apps that most desktop users want, windows also works with the hardware that most users want: multi-function printer/scanner/copier things, win-modems, ipods, etc.
3) Lots of popular web site will not work correctly on anything except msie.
4) DRM & multi-media.
As much as I dislike msft, I prefer to be realistic and admit that linux has no chance of being popular on the desktop for the forseeable future.
an egg might have just been laid (Score:2, Informative)
why the obsession (Score:2)
If developers really want to get people to use open sourc