"The more I think about Microsoft, the more I realise that they are, possibly for the first time, seriously cornered (or surrounded, depending on how you want to see it). A little history will clarify why I think so - and why I think that this might really be the beginning of the end for Microsoft."
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Member since:2006-12-07
You might be right about graphics, but you are completely wrong about programming. Windows offer tools for Windows specific development only. In other areas, like Java, PHP there is no advantage on Windows side. I am a professional business application developer, and I don't even think about developing Windows only application. My apps are cross platform, either web apps or Swing GUI apps. Once I considered learning .Net, but I concluded that it is not worth my time.
Last time I used Microsoft Office was in the past milenium, so I can't compare it to OO. Yes, MS Office have some extra features, but how many common users know how to take advantage of them ? It might be faster, but is that so important ?
If Microsoft goes out of business tomorrow, that would be something that I would learn from newspapers. Then there would be no need to test my apps with MS SQL server and Internet Explorer, so I would be able to free one partition on hard disc.
Speaking of alternatives, I could run IE on Wine and Sybase ASE instead of MS SQL (they are SQL compatible),
so I could completely remove MS Software from my computers without a problem.
Member since:2006-02-05
I was a J2EE developer for years, and the only place I used windows was to test what it looked like on IE, and to use some windows other windows only apps (like outlook or our bug reporting system)
Now however, I am doing freelance work for small to medium sized businesses, which ends up as a mixture of desktop and webapps. I looked at what was there, and really, the only choice is ASP and VB. Oldschool asp really sucked, but at this point I wouldnt use JSP for anything but the largest scale enterprise apps. Nothing I have ever used does such a good job of bringing OO methodologies to web stuff. It isnt perfect, but I wouldnt consider PHP or JSP even close. And VB has gotten a serious overhaul as well. When I get a new contract, I am still so suprised by how much functionality I can get done before I even start writing code.
All that to say, I agree with you up to a point.
I have only really used it to read specs, which is why i didnt give my opinion, I gave my girlfriends and my moms. My mom does lots of academic papers (that dont require equations), and she also has a small translation business going. She looked at OO.o, but she said it was around word 97, and vastly inadiquet for what she needs.
My gf is planning on getting a new computer, and I told her she should really invest in a new word processor while she is at it (she is on word 2000). I installed OO.o on my pimpin new HP Pavilion 9000 so she could give it a run, as she is on a limited budget and would really appreciate not having to spend an additional 300$. She gave it about fifteen minutes hunting down the features she uses, and her final opinion was that she could use it temporarily, but it would drive her nuts if that was more then a couple of months. I fired up the Office 2007 trial that came pre-installed on my machine for her, she fell in love with it and is now more then happy to shell out the extra money.
You are in one of the very few sectors that one can make money off of the platform. Computers are used in virtually every industry nowadays, and linux is not viable for the vast majority of them. Thats the point I was trying to make.
Member since:2005-10-06
IMHO he is wrong about graphics too. (I am a graphics pro, a good one.) I have not found any advantages in the Windows apps for a long time now. My daughter's Photoshop manual ( she is also in graphics and uses a Mac, but has no problems with my setup when she needs to use it) and my Gimp manual are the same size at around 1000 pages - not a lot of feature difference there.
Music? Well, since I introduced my musician friends to Linux there are two (so far) Windows installations lying unused in favour of 64studio Linux. They prefer it, and believe that pro quality sound is easier to achieve.
Member since:2007-03-06
Member since:
2006-02-05
The problem is that there are no real alternatives for people to go to other then windows. You have OSX, but the apple markup on hardware makes it unviable for office use. You have linux, but there is a real lack of professional apps on the platform.
Where is Adobe CS3? The gimp and inkscape, while coming very far in the last few years, dont even come close to PS and Illustrator. Where are apps like Cakewalk and Reason? The audio stack on linux is pure garbage, and even with kernel tweaks to decrease latency, the platform is still a few generations behind, and not usable for professional purposes. What about XSI or SoftImage? Sure, blender exists, but again, we need competitive professional products. As for OO.o vs Word, my girlfriend is in university still, and my mom is a professor. Both use word processors daily, and neither consider OO.o to be even close to word. Programming and server software are the only areas where you can professionally use linux (and I have), but where it really lags behind is in RAD stacks. There is nothing on the platform to compare to ASP.net or VB.net, so it is only really viable for larger scale projects which require more heavy duty technology.
The lack of killer home user apps and the complete lack of games is a side issue IMHO, the bigger problem is that you can't use it for 99% of what computers can be used for professionally, while with Windows or OSX you can. Where linux is king is servers, network devices (like firewalls), and in the scientific realm where osx and windows barely exist.