Comments on: New Year, New Software

By: brendan

brendan — Tue, 17 Jan 2006 19:45:23 +0000

Navid. How come your list manager plugin doesn’t work with WP2.0? Huh? Huh? I’m waiting for an answer here.

By: Navid

Navid — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 05:57:14 +0000

Michael, I think this is the second time you’ve mistaken my website for FYAD. I’m not sure if I’m supposed to be honored or appalled.

By: Michael

Michael — Mon, 09 Jan 2006 21:38:14 +0000

MRGGH

By: Queen Bee

Queen Bee — Mon, 09 Jan 2006 02:25:00 +0000

Navid, I agree with you wholeheartedly. You have a nice butt.

By: Navid Azimi

Navid Azimi — Sun, 08 Jan 2006 20:12:04 +0000

GreyDuck: I definitely agree with you. But I believe the driving motivation behind OSS for most people is price. And since price never dictates quality, people’s preference for open source becomes a socioeconomic one. It doesn’t provide any statistical information regarding the quality of commercial software vs. open source. Therefore, by extension, since people have not put any monetary resources into open source products their tolerance for degraded performance and productivity is certainly acceptable. Do you see what I am trying to say?

Brad: I also agree with you. Office has a steep price for the consumer market because Microsoft’s primary source of income on Office is from corporate licenses. Therefore, even if they put off X number of consumers (like yourself) by it’s steep price, they are still unfortunately winning in the end. I hope you understand the business logic here. It seems unfair but I think it’s pretty much in-tune with corporate wellbeing. But there are ways you can improve your predicament: as students, for example, you can get a lot of Microsoft software for free (or heavy discounts) through MSDNAA at big discounts or even simply as free downloads. I know at my university I was able to download Windows XP, Windows 2003, Word, Visio, etc all for free.

As far as Office 12 is concerned, it’s definitely revolutionary to a certain extent. I think if your work depends on productivity suites, the return on investment regarding Microsoft Office will be staggering.

By: Brad

Brad — Sun, 08 Jan 2006 17:50:53 +0000

I am still a fan of MS Office and some of the Microsoft products. Let’s just say that as great as Windows XP is, there are WAY too many bugs in the code. That being said, the only problem with MS products is the price. Would you rather spend $200-$300 for a Office Suite and another $350 for an operating system? I’d rather get them for free.

I look forward to seeing Office 12, but I assume it will be priced a little to steeply for my budget.

By: GreyDuck

GreyDuck — Sat, 07 Jan 2006 19:19:00 +0000

As much a fan as I am of open source software efforts, I’m very much of the mindset that the best way to advocate OSS is to adopt the software that actually works, not just anything-and-everything that happens to be OSS. Apache, PHP, OpenOffice, yes. A lot of the crud out there? Not-so-much. I’m a big “use the right tool for the job” kinda guy. (On par with O97? Dunno about that, but I know that I can salvage files that Powerpoint and Excel 2000 have given up for lost.)

You’re not a morning person either, I take it? I’m supposed to be at work between 8:30 and 9:00am. On a good day I get there at twenty past nine… *cough*

By: Queen Bee

Queen Bee — Sat, 07 Jan 2006 00:05:32 +0000

Best oxymoron ever: Microsoft Works.

By: Navid Azimi

Navid Azimi — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 08:51:04 +0000

Brad, although I commend your efforts, I’ll have to remind you that Open Office is on par with about Office 97. And let’s not even talk about the much anticipated Office 12!!

[note: this message may be biased]

By: Brad

Brad — Tue, 03 Jan 2006 04:28:09 +0000

My software resolution for 2006 is to go more open source. Open Office is so much better than MS Office.

The best resolution though, is to make it out of 2006 alive.

By: Queen Bee

Queen Bee — Mon, 02 Jan 2006 05:33:44 +0000

Engorgingly is not a word. Good luck with those resolutions, though.