November 21, 2009

Finally Office is catching up to the real world


With more and more need to share information among users and businesses we have been forced to seek solutions that require a separate app or a long about way to accomplish the task. Sharepoint came along and help ease some of the pain but there was still a piece missing. Microsoft may have mended a solution in the upcoming Office 2010. Time will still tell how well they develop this suite but they are definitely headed the right direction this time.


Integrating share and Skydrive seems to be one of the best features I have seen an Office suite offer yet. I know there are many other options and new features that has been improved upon but this is actually breaking ground for a Microsoft Office product. I don't know how many times I have been at a family affair and asked if I could borrow a family members PC to get a doc out that someone asked me for. It is still in the works but I can soon edit that doc right online with a Word Web App and send it on its way. Lets face it carting around the notebook everywhere gets old. Editing a doc on the cell is still in infancy. The web is the best choice for out of the office work.

Even though I have used Google Docs and countless other solutions before now it is finally time Microsoft has come of age and is delivering. I have to say that 2009/2010 is the age Microsoft has finally listened to the customer and developed decent products that has worth to its customers. If they stay on point and don't get lazy they may improve their image some and gain some stock in the mean time.

Why all the hype Positive and Negative on the latest Windows OS's


All across the web we see Pros and Cons to Microsoft's latest Windows 7. Every blog, tech site, and news feeds have put out their input on the product. It has become such a heavy topic that it has drawn controversy from every corner. When the reality of the whole thing is; Microsoft has done the best their staff and developers can to produce a product within the business model they put together in delivering an OS around the every three year mark.



The many MS haters and Apple haters out there are going to criticize the OS and produce one sided opinions all day long. The end result will have very little to play on Microsoft's bottom line. Take a look at a couple of things Microsoft has to consider when they create a new OS. They know that no Mac user is going to fully convert to Microsoft. So they either conscious or subconscious (don't work for them so no facts) produce a UI that Mac lovers will purchase and run with bootcamp or completely virtual. You will not get that from Apple nor should you expect that. Microsoft is software centric. If the previous OS fails then they need to listen more closely to the community and fix what failed. While keeping in mind they're not going to please billions of users individually. If that were the case then they would lay the OS out like a Linux distro and you pick your favs. They attempt to at least put out a few versions with different options and price range but they keep to the core market they are approaching with each. They did that while improving compatibility in Windows 7. Microsoft is business first and consumer second. Their product has to fit the business model first and then adapt to the consumer. It has lacked to do this properly with Vista. That is why they had to go back to the drawing board and re-engineer Windows 7. I don't know of many businesses other than small businesses that ever upgraded to Vista.

The opinion that Vista was the worst OS: Well I upgraded when Vista came out and personally I would not completely put it on the worst side. Is it fast? Depends how much hardware you have! Is it slow? Depends on your tolerance! For those who say that Windows 7 is the greatest well guess what. It is only an improvement on the kernel from Vista. Sure some better code, performance tweaks, and UI changes have set it aside and to the norm people believe that it is a complete overhaul. So why should Microsoft not market it as such. Vista was a huge risk that Microsoft needed to take to make a serious change in their OS. I give them props for making that shift. We did at least get a more improved kernel. Vista was not the greatest but it functioned and provided some needed security that lacked from previous OS's. It is not like you have to upgrade from Windows XP or Vista to Windows 7.

To conclude; Microsoft is by no means a perfect solution. There is no perfect solution when it comes to computers. There never will be. There are only options and niche. If you love Apple then you sacrifice some gaming and office solutions. If you love Microsoft then you sacrifice simplicity, media to a point, and elegant design. If you love Linux then you are going in your own path the same way the three big names did in the beginning. So hype! Yeah that is why these three guys did their own basement work to begin with. They wanted it their way. To be known for what they think the OS should be. Like it or love it you at least have an option to have your OS of choice and they are almost to a point running along the same hardware. So I get the fanboyism. Though the post may look fanboy on the Microsoft side, I use variants of all three OS's everyday and IMO they are what they are and should stop being compared. They are OS's sure but each serve a different purpose.