BlorfMaster: Meh.

I got an old machine I run ms word 5.5 for DOS on. As far as im concerned it is the apex of their word processing line.

I'd have to give the crown to Word 4 (Mac). Small, fast, did everything I actually needed it to do without hundreds of farking "who the fark would ever use this?" features.

All through college, I carried one floppy disk -- one -- with Word 4, spell-check glossaries and several documents. Wherever I happened to be, if there was a Mac around (and there usually was), I could get my shiat done.

/I new MS had lost it's corporate mind when Office started shipping on more floppies than Windows.

gnobesav: theurge14: If OpenOffice is the best open source can come up with then that is a big reason why there will never be 'The Year of Linux on the Desktop'.

No platform has a chance in enterprise environments unless it can communicate with Exchange servers. Entourage 2008 (the Mac Outlook equivalent) only supports 2/3rds or so of Exchange's feature set, and I highly doubt that's an accident.

Not really. I've worked in two offices that ran on Lotus Notes. If anyone thinks Outlook is bad, spend a week on Lotus Notes and try not to kill yourself.

Every new version of Office makes it harder for me to do my job. Unfortunately, they're making us upgrade at figurative gunpoint. (It's a clause in my outfit's service contract.)

The Office 2008 for Mac generates files that are often incomplete if you send them to PC users. DO NOT USE THE .docx format and send files to PC users. Our university creative staff had to resort to sending text via emails because Word no longer can reliably be used to create text files.

Periods, spaces, and other characters routinely drop out when sent across platform. It seemed like an isolated anomaly at first, but as people started discussing the issue, it turned out to be widespread.

And Excel/Word Mail merges can create the same situation. Missing data. It just disappears.

It microsucks!

jonny_q: The whole Gnome vs. KDE kinda ticks me off. KDE is definitely has superior UI. I'm anxious to try KDE 4(.1) in July.

The Gnome vs. KDE thing is kind of weird, especially with how it can polarize people.

Case in point - I don't think KDE is terrible but I definitely prefer Gnome. I think it's great that you can choose between the two of them. You're not stuck with Luna, Aqua, or Aero.

That said, what do you have against OpenOffice's UI? I mean, stuff is in different place sometimes, and they've been missing a few real features, but I've never had a problem with its UI.

OpenOffice is a double-edged sword. On the pro side it's really great for people who don't use Windows, don't care to pay out the ass for Office, or don't care to pirate a copy of Office out of scruples or practicality. It gets the job done and - for everything I've ever had to use it for - it does it quite well.

On the con side let's be blunt: it's a rip-off of Office. That's what it's designed to be. However as a consequence it doesn't bring anything new in terms of functionality and is naturally missing all of that .NET bullshiat. Furthermore any difference is chalked up to being a poor copy rather than being a great free alternative.

Plus the other problem with competing against Microsoft is that they also has the battered wife syndrome working for it like a champ. Sure, they abuse you all the time, but deep down they don't mean it. Besides, it's your fault as a user for them doing it. If only you didn't cause so many errors and complain about questionable business practices. Who are you to complain anyways? They're farking Microsoft and you're just a nobody. One day things'll get better. Besides, where else are you going to go - going to be a douche Mactard or worse, a Linux mouthbreather? Because that's what OpenOffice is. It's stupid and I think it needs to leave now before Microsoft finds out about this and gets angry.

t3knomanser: MusicMakeMyHeadPound: You're not stuck with Luna, Aqua, or Aero.

Aqua is dead, by the way. "Unified" is the default Mac theme.

Cool. I did not know.

That said- I can run KDE or Gnome on OSX.

That's a good point, I forgot about that. It's just the Windows users left in the dust again.

MrSteve007: gnobesav: theurge14:

I'm sorry guys, but I have to tell you. Compared to a decent installation of IMAP and Postfix running on a Linux box, Exchange sucks donkey balls. From an uptime standpoint. I kept 300 users fat dumb and happy for 10 years with Postfix and Courier. I'd go out for a few weeks at a time on vacation. My assistants could fix things. The puppy just ran.

Exchange never really "ran" for our operation. I kept it from imploding. Ever since I left, people at the office ask to to call or fax. "The email is down" is more or less assumed to be the default state.

/me Has nightmares to this day about the Mail storage engine...
//ONE BIG FARKING FILE???!!!???
///WITH A 60gb LIMiT?@?~?~!

////And yes, I am MS certified

t3knomanser: MusicMakeMyHeadPound: It's just the Windows users left in the dust again.

You can run them on Windows too. Cygwin makes it possible. Clunky, but possible.

//Once ran KDE in Cygwin via WINE under Gnome.

I'll have to try that using Parallels running under OSX

Evil Twin Skippy: t3knomanser: MusicMakeMyHeadPound: It's just the Windows users left in the dust again.

You can run them on Windows too. Cygwin makes it possible. Clunky, but possible.

//Once ran KDE in Cygwin via WINE under Gnome.

I'll have to try that using Parallels running under OSX

In VMWare on Windows.

xtex:so the resulting format didn't match what MS already had been using.. This isn't really Microsoft's fault.

MS have been doing this to partners and developers since day one. On purpose. My heart bleeds buckets of piss for them.

SomeGuyFromColorado: Yes, I concur that what we need from MS Office is a lot more features. Their current lack of features has significantly impacted both my creativity and my productivity. And, on a more global scope, I think it is fair to say that the rest of the world hates us for our features. Therefore, in order to win the war against software-ism, we need more features. It almost goes without saying, really..


Softchoice (latest feature iteration) has told me as much and helped me call the shots in my feature-rich enterprise solution! By leveraging the key strengths of our legacy platform and diversifying our infrastructure we have become the go-to leaders for great freedom. All your base etc.

TheCid: People are now looking at the other standards organizations. I think it's IETF that requires that there be two competing implementations of the standard before they approve it.


A standard that actually has to be a standard before it gets certified?

UNPOSSIBLE

idsfa: TheCid: People are now looking at the other standards organizations. I think it's IETF that requires that there be two competing implementations of the standard before they approve it.


A standard that actually has to be a standard before it gets certified?

UNPOSSIBLE

Er... yeah. I should have said "it requires that there be two competing implementations of the proposed standard before they approve it".

odf

I really do like the improvements on Office 07. The blogging support is nice.

I'm also quite pleased with the changes in OneNote. The drawing tools, table feature, and ability to search text in pictures (like photos of business cards) is very cool.

My favorite tweat so far, though, is that in Excel you can access the Sort options though the right click memo. I wish they did that years ago.

I don't use MSOffice. I will never use MSOffice unless it's the only thing around. My resume has never seen the inside of a word processor -- I keep it in HTML format, PDF or RTF available upon request.

/OOXML? In my computer? It's less likely than you think