It might be true that the video is a little overreacted but it contains actual footage of Steve Ballmer, SEO at Microsoft. Although this video was added somewhere in 2005 it still represents the Redmond company, I mean Ballmer is SEO and Chairman, he is Microsoft. I don’t love Microsoft and I don’t hate Microsoft but watching this video makes me wonder at its policy.
Just compare: that guy being your boss at the office or working for Google that has it’s own spa, restaurant, gym, etc. for its employees.
Seriously speaking now, people tend to dislike the new operating system from Microsoft. For many a reason that is, but in the top there seem to be the incompatibility with a great deal of hardware devices, driver problems, installation problems, high requirements, etc.
We’ve all assisted Google launching the Premiere web applications package a few days ago. Some of us considered switching, some of us are still holding the grounds, but one thing is certain. There will be debates. Google is obviously trying to conquer Microsoft’s office suite market and they’re playing it rough. Let see a few reasons in favor or against the migration to the new service.
In favor:
* The price - Instead of paying ~$500 for the full Microsoft Office suite, you might as well pay $50/year to Google. I am not referring to the price per quality ratio right now. It’s strictly about the price. It’s cheaper, even on a long term basis.
* Remote accessibility - With Google, your documents will be accessible from almost everywhere. And you’ll see why I’m phrasing it like that a bit later. However, your data is accessible with every computer with an internet connection.
* Minimum computing power - Since everything is browser-based and you will not run any third-parties on your own machine, the computing power is reduced significantly, transforming even those old computers into something useful.
I am not going to discuss the so-called security advantages, since it’s all relative, but I am going to mention the fact that with Google office apps, you will get rid of those updating procedures you got used to with Microsoft, you won’t have to worry about license restrictions, and you won’t have to spend time and resources installing the suite when you feel like adding a few computers to the network. Read the rest of this entry »
While most of us ( including me) were focusing on Vista’s new features it looks that some were concentrating on the more boring but nonetheless important end user licensing agreement. You all know about it, it’s that big screen of text you never read but you have to agree to in order to install any software.
As I was saying there are some that read the fine print and think about it. And they should, for that agreement contains lots of information you bound yourself to when you use a certain software. In our case the software is Windows Vista and it seems that the new Vista EULA contains serious limitations and privacy issues.
As you can read here, the agreement allows Microsoft to check the legitimacy of software on a machine and to delete programs considered as dangerous without asking the user. Besides, when you activate Vista on a device the software is associated with that specific piece of hardware and it sends automatically information about your hardware to Microsoft.
This all might be a false alarm but I strongly advice that you read the ‘fine prints’ in ALL your software, and specially the Vista EULA as it might take from you the control over your own computer.
The official date for the big event was January 8, officials of Microsoft rejoice since the initial predictions noted the transition from IE6 to IE7 would be much slower. Now according to WebSideStory over 26 percent of visitors to U.S. Web sites are now using IE 7, this makes IE7 the second most used web-browser in the US after IE6.
The main competitor of IE7 is Firefox 2.0 from Mozilla. No data was published by Mozilla regarding the downloads made to date but initial prospects indicated Firefox 2.0 made 2 mil. downloads in the first 24 hours and IE7 made 3 mil downloads in the first four days. On the other side IE7 is embedded in the Vista operating system and is now a critical update for Windows XP.
Anyway the battle doesn’t end here, Firefox 3.0 is to be released this year and the IE 8 and 9 are in plan from Microsoft.
If you’re living in the United States, we have some good news for you. Microsoft will simply give out trial licenses for Windows Vista, and free copies of the 2007 Microsoft Office Professional System and the 2007 Microsoft Office Groove for the Launch Events 2007.
The Launch Events 2007 are special events organized by the Redmond company, in which Microsoft Office 2007, Windows Vista and Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 will be launched in the US, in 74 different palces.
“Offer good only to registered attendees of the event on the date they attend, while supplies last. This offer is nontransferable. Limit one item each per attendee. Taxes, if any, are the sole responsibility of the recipient. The free software will be distributed as a downloadable file. To download the software, an access code will be required. The access code must be claimed onsite at event.”
The trial licenses I’m talking about will be available in the following 15 cities of the US: NewYork, Phoenix, Tampa, Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington DC, Minneapolis, Chicago, Atlanta, Detroit, Houston, Philadelphia, Dallas and Seattle. The copies of Office Professional and Groove 2007 will be available on all of the locations. These free copies are not affected in any way by no trial sequence. They’re full versions offered to those who will participate to the Launch Events.
If you wish to have higher chances of getting your hands on one of the copies, sign up in the events.
The test drive is intended for evaluation purposes only. It requires Internet Explorer 6 or later, a browser plug-in, and a broadband Internet connection. A minimum 1024 x 768 screen resolution is recommended. It’s interesting that it wouldn’t run in Firefox at all.
It’s good to know that there is no product support for the test drive. You are welcome to participate in a Microsoft Windows Vista newsgroup to share your trial experiences with others and ask for advice. The Windows Vista version hosted in the test drive contains most of the functionality of the regular versions, but browsing the Internet is not enabled. Also, you may notice a slight delay or pause as you experience the product. This is due to the fact that this is a hosted trial and is dependent upon your bandwidth, local machine resources, etc. This does not necessarily represent the actual experience you will have with Windows Vista if it were installed on your PC.
Quite impressive for me. This is a great marketing tool to attract users. The test drive is free and you can try it for yourself if you like.
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