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Google To Add Presentations

Posted by kdawson on from the looking-office-like dept.

A number of readers (some from the audience at Web 2.0 Expo) wrote to let us know that Google is adding presentations to their Docs and Spreadsheets package. With the announcement the company revealed that they have purchased Tonic Systems to help with the new presentation software. It's expected to be ready by summer. Google's CEO Eric Schmidt was asked if Docs and Spreadsheets will compete with MS Office, and he said, "We don't think so. It doesn't have all the functionality, nor is it intended to have the functionality of products like Microsoft Office."

135 of 184 comments (clear)

  1. Won't work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    99% of the time most people use the "standard" features of MSOffice. GOffice will be fine with this. Unfortunately, for the 1%, everyone uses a different piece of advanced functionality and get annoyed that THEIR pet feature is missing. Good to have an alternative with intarwebbiness built in though I guess.

    1. Re:Won't work by cmacb · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The question is, once large organizations figure out (if they are actually interested in saving money let's say) that this one percent phenomena exists, how valuable will it be for them to buy everyone in the organization a $200+ piece of software "just in case" they need it?

      The more appropriate response will be for Office to be looked upon in the same way that a compiler is, something that just a few people, specialists, need to have a copy of, while everyone else can make use of much simpler web-based alternatives.

      As people start to use "Google Office" at home for its ease of sharing documents, etc, the same argument that made Office a standard will start to apply to Google Apps: "Hey, all these people right out of school already know Google Apps, let's just standardized on that so we don't have to teach them Office".

      I don't think I've run MS Office in three years, and my use of Open Office is starting to fall off quite a bit as I just load things people send me into Google Docs from the get-go. I'm also noticing that the only thing I'm storing on my PCs are music files and photos, with more and more photos being stored online as well. This is great!

    2. Re:Won't work by EnsilZah · · Score: 1

      Could be easily solved if Google offered a good API and mechanism for importing plugins.
      Missing some features? Check if there are open source plugins or maybe some closed source ones that you can buy for micropayments.

    3. Re:Won't work by UbuntuDupe · · Score: 1

      The more appropriate response will be for Office to be looked upon in the same way that a compiler is, something that just a few people, specialists, need to have a copy of, while everyone else can make use of much simpler web-based alternatives.

      You can compile code online, and most people really don't need to do otherwise?

      *feels disconnected from the modern world*

      --
      Apology to Ubuntu forum.
    4. Re:Won't work by fuego451 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Yeah. Isn't "office" an emacs mode or something?

      I don't know. I run emacs just for the games.

    5. Re:Won't work by hysbyrd · · Score: 1

      I can agree with this. I honestly have the same feeling.

    6. Re:Won't work by suv4x4 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      You're making some huge mistakes. First, the cost of office software is nothing for a corporation, compared to its other expenses (taxes, salaries, hardware, office bills and so on and so on).

      Second, those Google Apps are suitable for some purposes, but for heavy or advanced usage, they're totally unfit. So far we're looking at a bunch of online toys trying to pretend they're Office. They will replace Office exactly as the "web OS" sites will replace Windows.

      Third, if a company is desperate to save from licensing costs, they can use OpenOffice. As much as OpenOffice lacks certain functionality, it's a desktop app, and ages ahead of Google's apps.

    7. Re:Won't work by Serpent+Mage · · Score: 2, Interesting

      You're making some huge mistakes. First, the cost of office software is nothing for a corporation, compared to its other expenses (taxes, salaries, hardware, office bills and so on and so on).

      Second, those Google Apps are suitable for some purposes, but for heavy or advanced usage, they're totally unfit. So far we're looking at a bunch of online toys trying to pretend they're Office. They will replace Office exactly as the "web OS" sites will replace Windows.


      1) for the larger companies this is correct. in fact they have a special budget just for this stuff and if they don't spend it they lose it. they are not saving anything at all in larger companies.

      2) for small and medium size business this will be a huge savings and *that* is the purpose of GOffice.

      Targetting corporations is pointless. They have to run all email and software inside their walls and they sometimes won't even allow you to use something like gmail while at work. Small and medium size businesses don't have that kind of infrastructure and bureaucracy yet and will benefit greatly from this type of online office suite.
    8. Re:Won't work by 99BottlesOfBeerInMyF · · Score: 2, Interesting

      You're making some huge mistakes. First, the cost of office software is nothing for a corporation, compared to its other expenses (taxes, salaries, hardware, office bills and so on and so on).

      I disagree. The cost of software for a company includes the cost of licensing, license management, maintenance, file transfer, the potential cost of license noncompliance, and support. Google docs mitigates more than just the flat license cost. These savings may not be considered significant and inefficient bureaucracies in large, american companies will probably resist the change for a long time, but that is not the same thing as the cost itself being nothing.

      Now consider smaller companies that don't have well established license management schemes. The cost becomes more significant. Now subtract from the per seat cost a Windows license, which is no longer needed because Google docs runs fine on Linux. Now consider foreign companies that spend a fraction of the cost on labor and who may or may not be complying with the law, but many of whom are being pressured to do so. Does Google docs support chinese?

      So far we're looking at a bunch of online toys trying to pretend they're Office.

      Actually, they serve a different purposes. I use a google doc spreadsheet to track a competition I'm participating in along with a few friends. They all use it as well because while we only need basic spreadsheet capabilities, we do need the ability to collaborate easily and with Google docs that is much, much, much easier than setting up some sort of a server with versioning that we can all access. Google docs is for casual, home use and for collaborative use. That is how it is different from MS Office, which I think everyone in the competition has access to, but which does not allow easy ad hoc collaboration from different people in different companies.

      Third, if a company is desperate to save from licensing costs, they can use OpenOffice. As much as OpenOffice lacks certain functionality, it's a desktop app, and ages ahead of Google's apps.

      I'm all for OpenOffice, although it sucks pretty badly on the mac right now. What you might be missing is that this is not an either/or proposition. Google docs supports ODF so you can write something in OpenOffice and upload it to Google docs, or collaborate on something in Google docs with a bunch of friends, then download it an modify it in OpenOffice. Google docs targets a different segment. It is easier to e-mail a link to a Google docs file to my mother and let her edit it, than it is to e-mail her an OpenOffice created ODF file and instruct her in how to open it, save, it and attach it to another e-mail to send it back to me, even assuming I've installed OpenOffice on her machine in the past (which would run like a dog on her ancient 500Mhz box).

    9. Re:Won't work by iron-kurton · · Score: 1

      This is great!

      Yeah, this is great until servers start dying, and you won't be able to retrieve that 100-page dissertation you're working on when you need it. I realize that hard drives crash too, motherboards die, and memory blows up, but at least you can do something about it and not depend on a third party (i.e., make backups, liveCD, take your HD for data recovery).

      When I first went on business travel, I dropped my laptop and I couldn't boot up the system. Thanks to Knoppix, I was able to access more than half of my hard drive and move the data to an external hard drive I then bought. Can you do this when Google goes down? How many of you have gotten the "Server unavailable" message from Google on Saturday nights???

      --
      Change is inevitable, except from a vending machine -- Robert C. Gallagher
    10. Re:Won't work by Chaos+Incarnate · · Score: 1

      You can make backups of Google documents, too; they support export in a variety of formats (some suitable only for display like PDF, others suitable for editing with standalone office software).

      --
      Benford's Corollary to Clarke's Law: "Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced."
  2. Quick! by twenex27 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Remove the chairs from the building!

    1. Re:Quick! by 6Yankee · · Score: 1

      No, Steve, not through the window!

  3. So... by Impeesa · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They wanted to offer a new product, and bought a company to do so? Isn't that sort of a Microsoft thing?

    1. Re:So... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It is a business thing.

    2. Re:So... by QuantumG · · Score: 1

      Exactly. Why build when you can buy?

      --
      How we know is more important than what we know.
    3. Re:So... by Sancho · · Score: 4, Informative

      Depends.

      If you want to start offering a product or service, and it's going to cost you more to develop that product/service than to buy a company which already offers it, the choice is obvious.

    4. Re:So... by geekoid · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Only if they buy them to remove them from competing.
      Otherwise it's a sound business move.

      --
      The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
    5. Re:So... by Bongo+Bill · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The reason Microsoft is so rich is because that strategy works. It should be no surprise that Google behaves similarly.

      --
      ...but is it art?
    6. Re:So... by bradkittenbrink · · Score: 4, Funny

      do what now?

    7. Re:So... by MadnessASAP · · Score: 2, Insightful

      No, Buying a company that is already in a market your going into is business. Then buying/suing every other company trying to get into or currently in the market is a Microsoft move.

      --
      I may agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to face the consequences of saying it.
    8. Re:So... by xoundmind · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Only if they buy them to remove them from competing. Otherwise it's a sound business move.

      Buying them to remove a competitor is a sound business move.

    9. Re:So... by Kuciwalker · · Score: 1

      That's where Google Docs came from, too. And Picasa. And Google Earth. It's a pretty Google thing too, which makes all the flak MS catches for it pretty funny.

    10. Re:So... by quickgold192 · · Score: 2, Informative

      A lot of Google's products were previous companies: Google Docs: Writley Google Earth: Keyhole Picasa: Picasa Google Sketch up: Sketch Up I'm sure I've missed some but I'm sure you get it.

    11. Re:So... by markimusk · · Score: 1


      and it kills me, they are doing the same thing, yet Microsft is "Evil" and when Google does the same thing they are shitting Sunshine?

      oh the hipocracy that we call Slashdot...

    12. Re:So... by Bongo+Bill · · Score: 1

      I think the idea is that the monopolizing and utter disregard for standards is what makes Microsoft evil, not the embrace & extend tactics. Then again, I don't actually think Microsoft is evil, so what do I know.

      --
      ...but is it art?
    13. Re:So... by CandyMan · · Score: 1

      For a big company, buying a smaller company that produces something they want is not only an acquisition, it is also recruitment. Google have messed up in the past (see Google, Dodgeball) but they have also got some of them right (Writely, Google Analytics). Business as usual, nothing to see here.

      --
      http://barrapunto.com/ - News for nerds, en español
    14. Re:So... by pikine · · Score: 1

      Buying companies isn't just a Microsoft thing. Why do you think many dot-com boomers have this startup dream that they want to start a company only to be later bought by bigger companies and become instantly rich?

      What Microsoft practices this differently is that they often buy competitors and then dismantle it with no intention of acquisition of technology or talent, just so it no longer competes.

      --
      I once had a signature.
    15. Re:So... by JohnFluxx · · Score: 1

      The embrace-extend tactic usually refers to when MS embraces some technology/standard then extends it to break it for everyone else. e.g. kerberos, tcp/ip (evil 'extensions' in IIS), html, and so on.

    16. Re:So... by 99BottlesOfBeerInMyF · · Score: 1

      and it kills me, they are doing the same thing, yet Microsft[sic] is "Evil" and when Google does the same thing they are shitting Sunshine?

      You know both Charlie Manson and Charlie Chaplin inhaled air, but one is called "evil" and the other is considered a great actor.

      oh the hipocracy[sic] that we call Slashdot...

      Maybe you need to learn what hypocrisy is or maybe you need to learn to understand what it is that MS does that many consider wrong or detrimental and how what Google does differs from them. MS buys companies to kill the technology and make sure it does not undermine their monopoly. Google has no monopoly and when they buy a company they do so to bring that technology to market and continue to develop it. The latter is the free market in action. The former is a way to continue to prevent the free market from acting and stifle innovation in the industry.

    17. Re:So... by Bongo+Bill · · Score: 1

      I stand corrected.

      --
      ...but is it art?
    18. Re:So... by PMuse · · Score: 1

      I, for one, welcome our similarly-behaving, strategically-sound technological co-Overlords.

      --
      "We reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals." --The American President (20.1.2009)
  4. Lazy employees by TodMinuit · · Score: 4, Insightful

    With the announcement the company revealed that they have purchased Tonic Systems to help with the new presentation software.

    What exactly do Google employees do all day? Count money, play pool, and ride Segways?

    Furthermore, if this cannot export to PDF or PowerPoint, it's pretty much useless. When giving presentations, Internet access is rarely provided or is flakey at best.

    --
    I wonder if I use bold in my signature, people will notice my posts.
    1. Re:Lazy employees by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      OpenOffice exports to PDF (or Flash).
      I imagine it won't be hard for them to do the same.

    2. Re:Lazy employees by Matt+Perry · · Score: 4, Informative

      Furthermore, if this cannot export to PDF or PowerPoint, it's pretty much useless. When giving presentations, Internet access is rarely provided or is flakey at best.
      I'm sure it'll export to both. I've been using Google Docs and the word processor can export to HTML, RTF, MS Word, OpenOffice Writer, and PDF. The Google spreadsheet can export to CSV, HTML, OpenOffice Calc, PDF, plain text, and MS Excel.
      --
      Slashdot: Failed Car Analogies. Amateur Lawyering. Anecdote Battles.
    3. Re:Lazy employees by HockeyPuck · · Score: 2

      PDF doesn't always cut it as one often uses animations.

    4. Re:Lazy employees by ampathee · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I'd like to see it use the s5 format - then it could be saved as html+css.
      Take a look at the introductory presentation - it's pretty neat especially considering it's all standard html+css+js.

    5. Re:Lazy employees by Petrushka · · Score: 2, Informative

      Furthermore, if this cannot export to PDF or PowerPoint, it's pretty much useless.

      Where does the information that it can't export to PDF or PowerPoint format come from? I can't find that in TFA. Google Documents and Spreadsheets can certainly export to MS Office, OpenDocument, PDF and other formats, so it would certainly surprise me if this couldn't too.

    6. Re:Lazy employees by thrawn_aj · · Score: 1

      What exactly do Google employees do all day? Count money, play pool, and ride Segways? They don't hire the best graduates to do trivial things like make office suites :P. There are programmer drones to do that kinda stuff. Besides, the concept is so old now that the last ounce of novelty has been squeezed out of it. It would be like hiring a Beethoven to write elevator muzak :D.
    7. Re:Lazy employees by .Chndru · · Score: 1

      It exports to both PDF and powerpoint. See demo of the product right here: http://beta.tonicpoint.com/demo/

    8. Re:Lazy employees by brilinux · · Score: 4, Insightful

      But we do not yet have the technology to have computers electricute or shoot people who want to use animations in presentations, so the best that the programmers can do is disallow the presentations from being exported to filetypes that allow animations, hence pdf.

    9. Re:Lazy employees by Darkforge · · Score: 2, Informative

      PDF doesn't always cut it as one often uses animations.

      Sadly, and disturbingly, PDF files can do animations.

      --

      When I moderate, I only use "-1, Overrated". That way, I never get meta-moderated!

    10. Re:Lazy employees by garcia · · Score: 2, Interesting

      From what I understand from rumors heard before the departure of Dennis and Alex, formally of Google's Dodgeball, they are tied up in endless meetings and conference calls rather than having the opportunity to work on their project.

    11. Re:Lazy employees by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      What exactly do Google employees do all day?

      Delete spamblog links from Google search results and take turns washing the company jet.

    12. Re:Lazy employees by dinther · · Score: 2, Informative

      Check their web-site...

      http://www.tonicsystems.com/ won't give you much but the web archive does:

      http://web.archive.org/web/20060820002948/http://w ww.tonicsystems.com/

      PDF seems one of the things they do.

    13. Re:Lazy employees by LoudMusic · · Score: 1

      When giving presentations, Internet access is rarely provided or is flakey at best. I disagree. Anyone who comes to my company to present gets internet access. And practically every time my people have gone somewhere else they're provided internet access. And if there is a computer in the presentation center already it most likely will have internet access.

      That doesn't mean that this product doesn't need export capabilities, I'm just arguing against your internet comment (:
      --
      No sig for you. YOU GET NO SIG!
    14. Re:Lazy employees by Petrushka · · Score: 1

      "If" can be a lot more nuanced than you think. There are numerous types of conditionals, the main categories being "simple" ("If A is true, then B is true") and "contrary to fact", also known as "unfulfilled" ("If A were true, then B would be true, but A is not true"). The ggpp's sentence is clearly of the first type (its avoidance of the subjunctive is not the determining factor, as people rarely use the subjunctive in English; but people do use other similar periphrases for unfulfilled conditions). Moreover, a new paragraph starting, "Furthermore, if ..." carries a clear implication that the premise is not in any doubt: "If it is indeed the case that A is true, then ...". I stand by my comment, though posting this one without a karma bonus as it's off-topic.

    15. Re:Lazy employees by UtucXul · · Score: 2, Informative

      PDF doesn't always cut it as one often uses animations.
      I use animations in pdfs (made from LaTeX) for all my presentations. pdfanim is pretty damned reliable. Sadly the results don't quite work with xpdf at the moment, but Acrobat or Acrobat Reader have been available for every talk I've given.
    16. Re:Lazy employees by Barraketh · · Score: 1

      What exactly do Google employees do all day? Count money, play pool, and ride Segways?

      As a Google employee let me just say... yes
    17. Re:Lazy employees by glwtta · · Score: 3, Informative

      Furthermore, if this cannot export to PDF or PowerPoint, it's pretty much useless.

      Yeah, and if it doesn't let you type the letter "e", that will be bad too. Also, it shouldn't give you cancer - I think it would be bad if it gave you cancer.

      --
      sic transit gloria mundi
    18. Re:Lazy employees by thrawn_aj · · Score: 1

      Wait until the next big thing in the office market comes along, and soon we'll all be talking about how we can't live without the feature(s). You miss my point. I'm sure there are hitherto undiscovered features in a wordprocessor that will make life easier for us. I'm just saying it's not a glamorous field of innovation. Sorta like the difference (in physics) between working on high temperature superconductivity versus inventing new plastics.

      Also, there is a hidden assumption with people today that every field necessarily always has something new to discover. That is just wishful thinking. Fields do die out in terms of innovation and are superseded by other realms of enquiry. What works for science works for the IT world as well. To my mind, the field of wordprocessors has become sterile in terms of innovation. Sure you can add bells and whistles and html editors and whatever. However, that is hardly a wordprocessor feature. Sometimes, things really are simple and you can indeed predict the final set of core features that you will be left with in a piece of software.

    19. Re:Lazy employees by suv4x4 · · Score: 1

      But we do not yet have the technology to have computers electricute or shoot people who want to use animations in presentations, so the best that the programmers can do is disallow the presentations from being exported to filetypes that allow animations, hence pdf.

      The problem isn't in animation, but in poor utility. People say they hate absolutely every site that uses Flash, "Flash garbage!" and then go to watch the latest videos on YouTube.

    20. Re:Lazy employees by Derek+Pomery · · Score: 1

      ... which is a silly use of flash anyway, and only necessitated by the lack of a set of a good quality standard video codecs.
      Still could be done better in applets anyway.

      --
      -- perl -e'print pack"H*","6e656d6f406d38792e6f7267"' /. ate my old sig. Bastards.
    21. Re:Lazy employees by suv4x4 · · Score: 1

      .. which is a silly use of flash anyway, and only necessitated by the lack of a set of a good quality standard video codecs.
      Still could be done better in applets anyway.

      Yea, it's much better apparently to decode with a bytecode decoder written in Java (a 20MB runtime) vs a light binary decoder in Flash (1 MB runtime).

      You should jump and do your own YouTube right now.

    22. Re:Lazy employees by enomar · · Score: 1

      Uh, they're working on this.

      --

      :wq
    23. Re:Lazy employees by blamanj · · Score: 1

      What exactly do Google employees do all day?

      Exactly what Microsoft has been planning for them to do for all these years. The people who write presentation code are working around bugs in IE; the people who write backend stuff are working around bugs in Outlook, Word, Excel, etc.; and the people who do apps are working around bugs in XP/Vista.

      Microsoft doesn't introduce bugs because they're sloppy, it's a business strategy to keep there competitors occupied while they "innovate."

    24. Re:Lazy employees by Derek+Pomery · · Score: 1

      I find it amusing you are complaining about the size of the JVM given until recently many people were routinely spawning an applet per hover button (yes, stupid people). Still was treated as completely normal, and isn't like people don't already have it on their machine, probably already spawned. Heck, until recently, it was more likely to run successfully on all platforms.
      Why handicap one's self with flash?

      Oh, and:
      $ ls -lh /opt/netscape/plugins/libflashplayer.so
      -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 6.8M 2007-01-19 14:21 /opt/netscape/plugins/libflashplayer.so

      Not sure where you are getting the 1M runtime from - not to mention the fact that of the 39 libraries libflashplayer links to, several were loaded exclusively for it.

      --
      -- perl -e'print pack"H*","6e656d6f406d38792e6f7267"' /. ate my old sig. Bastards.
    25. Re:Lazy employees by suv4x4 · · Score: 1

      I find it amusing you are complaining about the size of the JVM given until recently many people were routinely spawning an applet per hover button (yes, stupid people). Still was treated as completely normal

      Excuse me but why exactly do we take as a reference what do stupid people consider for "normal"?

      Oh, and:
      $ ls -lh /opt/netscape/plugins/libflashplayer.so
      -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 6.8M 2007-01-19 14:21 /opt/netscape/plugins/libflashplayer.so.

      Not sure where you are getting the 1M runtime from.

      You're really good you know that? The Windows runtime is 1MB. Which is what most people use, since surprisingly that's the dominant desktop OS (and most of the Linux installations are servers, which surpisingly don't need Flash).

      The reason Mac OS Flash is bigger (2-3 MB) is because it's a MacTel version, and for similar reasons the Linux version is biggest, since it has to run on a bunch of distros, with a bunch of media subsystems and a bunch of sound subsystems, I really don't wish multimedia app implementation for Linux to be given to even my worst enemy.

      Ok, to sum it up: it's normal to use Java applets for rollover buttons, using Flash over Java is "handicapping" yourself (what exactly so crucial for a web app is Flash missing?), and let's take Linux as the desktop OS for reference, since it's the most spread one. I feel smarter.

    26. Re:Lazy employees by Derek+Pomery · · Score: 1

      Point re: the java applets was that they are still ubiquitous, thus is very likely someone will have a JVM spawned, besides that, it clearly is not that onerous given the example I gave.
      I'm trying to be polite, but you really are a strain on that.

      I can't check the 1MiB runtime, so I'll just take your word for it. Implementing multimedia under Linux is not that hard anymore. ALSA has stabilised significantly and making that a requirement would not have been such a big deal.

      And not crucial for a web app, we were discussing media streaming. But just typing this makes me feel tired. Feels like you are looking for a fight, so... Goodbye.
      http://java.sun.com/products/java-media/jmf/index. jsp

      --
      -- perl -e'print pack"H*","6e656d6f406d38792e6f7267"' /. ate my old sig. Bastards.
    27. Re:Lazy employees by suv4x4 · · Score: 1

      Point re: the java applets was that they are still ubiquitous,

      Last time I saw a Java applet (and I browse the net a lot, it's kinda an aspect of my job) was two years ago on some dubious casino game site.

      And it wouldn't run since of course I didn't have the JRE plugin enabled. They were in the process of converting their site to flash which was noted in an excuse note in the page footer.

      Last time I saw Flash was 1 min ago.

  5. Export by Mateo_LeFou · · Score: 1

    Export to ODF. I suspect one of the billion or so people who don't think Office is God's Gift to Whomever will figure out how to go ODF->pdf, or ->flash, or ->DHTML, or something even better.

    --
    My turnips listen for the soft cry of your love
    1. Re:Export by SheeEttin · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Interestingly, I recently noticed that my school has installed OpenOffice(.org) on all the computers--but the shortcuts only appear on teachers' desktops.

      At least I don't have to convert to MS' .doc format any more. Just tell them to open it in this "OpenOffice.org thing".

    2. Re:Export by misleb · · Score: 1

      So you export to ODF and convert to PDF.... with what? OpenOffice? Why not do the presentation in OpenOffice in teh first place and have a much richer presentation?

      -matthew

      --
      "THERE IS NO JUSTICE, THERE IS ONLY ME." -Death
  6. Re:Do you want it to replace MS Office? by grantek · · Score: 3, Interesting

    "We don't think it'll compete with Office - we just want the customer base that uses it"

  7. I don't get it by geek · · Score: 5, Insightful

    First Apple says they don't want their office app to compete with MSOffice, now Google says they don't want to compete with MSOffice. When will someone man up and compete? OpenOffice is nice but it has a HUGE number of flaws still. We NEED competition here.

    1. Re:I don't get it by java_dev · · Score: 1

      Silly rabbit, of course they're competing. This is called positioning. Schmidt is happy to say Google's apps won't have all the functionality that Office has because he knows 80% of it is crap most people don't need.

    2. Re:I don't get it by mysticgoat · · Score: 1

      First Apple says they don't want their office app to compete with MSOffice, now Google says they don't want to compete with MSOffice.

      This is only their way of saying MSOffice is no longer relevant, that's all.

    3. Re:I don't get it by archen · · Score: 2, Insightful

      You mean like Corel Office, or the dozens of other Office Suite carcases left by the roadside in application history? MS has a stranglehold on the entire market right now. As soon as someone brings up Open Office everyone bitches about quirks with importing MS formats - comparisons on its own merits are usually secondary. The reality is that with Microsoft's position, everyone tries to carve out a nitch as best they can and hope that MS doesn't bundle something that further expands its reach.

    4. Re:I don't get it by LoudMusic · · Score: 1

      First Apple says they don't want their office app to compete with MSOffice, now Google says they don't want to compete with MSOffice. When will someone man up and compete? OpenOffice is nice but it has a HUGE number of flaws still. We NEED competition here. By not declaring that they are competing they can not fail to compete. Truth is, their product has the same end result as the Microsoft product - they are competing.
      --
      No sig for you. YOU GET NO SIG!
    5. Re:I don't get it by suv4x4 · · Score: 1

      First Apple says they don't want their office app to compete with MSOffice, now Google says they don't want to compete with MSOffice. When will someone man up and compete? OpenOffice is nice but it has a HUGE number of flaws still. We NEED competition here.

      Because none of them is ready to compete with Office yet. We've seen our share of "Linux takes over Windows this year!" claims, and they've all been forgotten, and lately even laughed at.

      It doesn't mean they aren't gearing up to compete with Office.

    6. Re:I don't get it by PHPfanboy · · Score: 1

      Competition is just a business strategy. Why do you think we NEED competition with MS Office?
      Don't you think that if there was a real business opportunity there would be loads of competitors?
      I am using it less and less as the google stuff makes the collaboration much easier and Word and Excel start to become irrelevant for the 90% of what I need from them.

      --
      29 mpg. YMMV.
    7. Re:I don't get it by hey! · · Score: 1

      Step back, take a deep breath.

      Nobody in his right mind are going to take on MS in the office apps market. They own the file formats. They own the APIs. If you watch what MS does and try to outmaneuver them, you will lose because they have much more favorable moves open to them than you.

      On the other hand, you can find and exploit a niche MS is weak in. Instead of playing three games of simultaneous chess with them, you play one. In the short term, you can win in a limited way. In the long time, your goal is to disrupt the very definition of the office apps market.

      So instead of out competing office, your aim is to obsolete it.

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
  8. Is it Flash or lots of JavaScript? by VGfort · · Score: 1

    Or openlazlo? Powerpoint exports? Guess we'll have to wait and see.

    1. Re:Is it Flash or lots of JavaScript? by TodMinuit · · Score: 3, Informative
      From TonicSystems.com:

      Q. Who is Tonic Systems? What are their products?
      A: Tonic Systems is a San Francisco-based company that provides Java presentation automation products and solutions for document management - Tonic Systems Builder, Tonic Systems Filter, Tonic Systems Transformer, Tonic Systems Viewer, and JarJar Links. Features of their products included text extraction for indexing documents, presentation creation capabilities and document conversion tools.
      --
      I wonder if I use bold in my signature, people will notice my posts.
    2. Re:Is it Flash or lots of JavaScript? by beakerMeep · · Score: 1

      JarJar Links? really? no seriously, don't kinda around. really. someone named an application that? i mean really? really?

      --
      meep
    3. Re:Is it Flash or lots of JavaScript? by suv4x4 · · Score: 1

      ...that provides Java presentation automation products...

      Unless they plan to port it to Flash, buying this company and its product was a pretty dumb decision. Java applets are a long forgotten archaism from the early days of the web.

  9. Re:Do you want it to replace MS Office? by Nefarious+Wheel · · Score: 3, Interesting
    "We don't think it'll compete with Office - we just want the customer base that uses it"

    Got it in one. Add this to the commercial domain packaging Google is offering and it looks like the platform for a lot of small businesses. $50/user/year and you can throw away all your departmental Microsoft servers. If you get controlled logins, Gmail, Writely, spreadsheet and presentation as well as a portal with your own domain name, why bother with Microsoft? Oh and you can throw away all the operations support structure and those dusty MCSE's as well. That's gotta save you more than $50/user/year, and you get a reliable platform too. I mean, it isn't like Google doesn't have a bit of redundancy here & there.

    I'm an old and dusty MCSE/network engineer too and I don't see why a small business needs that kind of infrastructure or expertise any more than you should have a television engineer in your home to switch channels for you.

    I was once a Microsoft shill until I discovered my inner Fear of Flying Chairs...

    --
    Do not mock my vision of impractical footwear
  10. Tonic makes a good product. by vistic · · Score: 4, Informative

    I use the TonicPoint Viewer for Mac instead of OpenOffice or Powerpoint... it has way fewer troubles with fonts. If I open a Windows PowerPoint presentation in Mac PowerPoint, I usually end up seeing weird characters instead of bullets in lists... and equations with greek letters, etc. are almost always messed up.

    So at least now I believe Google Presently will be a decent product.

    1. Re:Tonic makes a good product. by hitchhacker · · Score: 1

      So at least now I believe Google Presently will be a decent product. man.. Google has been a decent product for like a decade now.

      -metric
  11. Re:Do you want it to replace MS Office? by larry+bagina · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I agree. Complain all you want about MS, I have a legal copy of Office (2000) on my computer and they can't take it away. I can save the files on my hard drive (in a variety of formats), and I can open files I created years ago. What if google cancelled Google Office? You're fucked. Or if they get busted on patent infringement. Or if they wreck the program with dubious features? (MS isn't the only one that does that). Yes, let's give the company complete control over our office documents. They promised not to be evil.

    --
    Do you even lift?

    These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.

  12. No, Google is pissing me off. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Open Office is a fine replacement. For office. Google you want to kill microsoft? Build a web app that kills Quicken/Money and ultimately Turbo Tax et al with secure banking. Gnucash is trash. I'm sorry, I'm sure a lot of people worked very hard on it, but it is. The spreedsheet and wordprocessor apps are of extremely limited functionality, fine, Open Office is pretty rich, runs nearly anywhere. Kill the things which pin people to Microsoft. Office applications aren't one of those things anymore.

    1. Re:No, Google is pissing me off. by dinther · · Score: 1

      Oh yeah, hear hear. Good one.

      I have been hoping, paying...no not praying.....hoping that Google would pickup money management and even accounting, why not tax forms and the like. I have switched over to Google completely. I abandened my spam infested Outlook, no longer use my legal copy of Word and excell and no matter where I go, I always have my entire office with me (If there is Internet that is)

      Lol, Don't keep the contact details of your ISP in your GMail address list because you can't call em when there is a connection problem. It really illustrates the point.

  13. An Access solution would be needed too... by not+already+in+use · · Score: 2, Interesting

    ...And it wouldn't be hard. Just use an existing OSS database as the back-end solution (mySQL, PostgreSQL comes to mind) and then create a front-end that makes it easy for the layperson to set up tables and create queries, forms and reports. Considering the resources Google has at hand, this wouldn't be too difficult and would have a free stable core already available to them.

    --
    Similes are like metaphors
    1. Re:An Access solution would be needed too... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      How about buying DabbleDB (www.dabbledb.com)?

    2. Re:An Access solution would be needed too... by misleb · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The LAST thing this world needs is an even more available Access-like product. It is amazing what kidn of abominations "laypeople" can come up with given these kinds of tools. And then they start relying on them. And then you have to support them... and perhaps try to export their hideous data structures into something else more sane later. That is IF you can manage to pry the tool from their cold, dead hands. No way, man. Lets keep some things difficult. There are just some things that should be left to professionals. Database design is one of them.

      -matthew

      --
      "THERE IS NO JUSTICE, THERE IS ONLY ME." -Death
  14. Re:Competing with MSFT by misleb · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I know what I mainly need from an "office suite" is just a good word processor, one that doesnt lag 10 keystrokes behind me typing a simple letter.


    WTF!? Computers haven't lagged behind keystrokes in like 15 years (although browser based apps chock full of Javascript aim to change that). What are you running, a Mac Classic or something?

    -matthew
    --
    "THERE IS NO JUSTICE, THERE IS ONLY ME." -Death
  15. But, everyone here says otherwise! by mattgreen · · Score: 1

    Odd, everyone here is so certain that GOffice will compete with MS Office. Competition is needed here, but I'm not amused. Surely someone has an explanation? I've been TERRIBLY deceived by all of you!

  16. Or they could use their own backend... by Reality+Master+201 · · Score: 1

    http://base.google.com/base

  17. Targeted ads! by iamacat · · Score: 4, Funny

    I would have to see ads for competitors show up during presentation of my product.

  18. Re:Competing with MSFT by Asm-Coder · · Score: 1

    Obviously you haven't used a unkempt computer in a while. Most of my friends computers are so full of junk, no matter what you are using to type, there is lag. I prefer to keep my computer very clean, virus scans once a week and etc. Also, I noticed that my Linux box never has any problems like this.

    But next time remember that not everyone can (or will) take care of their computers.

  19. Google declares war on learning by Statecraftsman · · Score: 1

    Didn't we already decide that Powerpoint was bad for learning?

    Evidently, Google doesn't read our beloved /.

  20. The horror by Mathness · · Score: 1

    Q. Who is Tonic Systems? What are their products?
    A: Tonic Systems is a San Francisco-based company that provides Java presentation automation products and solutions for document management - Tonic Systems Builder, Tonic Systems Filter, Tonic Systems Transformer, Tonic Systems Viewer, and JarJar Links. Features of their products included text extraction for indexing documents, presentation creation capabilities and document conversion tools. *shudders* Had a horrible flashback there, read it as Jar Jar Binks.
    --
    Carbon based humanoid in training.
    1. Re:The horror by TechForensics · · Score: 1

      It is often, however, too late for panic to do you any good.

      --
      Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others.
  21. Google Office Ajax13 by popo · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I know Google has the public relations dollars, but one would think on Slashdot we'd be discussing
    the many (IMHO far better) online office suites. I have a hard time looking at Google Docs
    and thinking anyone would find it compares to say "Ajax13" ( http://www.ajax13.com/ ) or other
    independent offerings.

    Likewise, Google's webtop pales in comparison to far slicker applications like DesktopTwo
    ( http://www.desktoptwo.com/ ). -- which by the way uses a web based java version of OpenOffice
    which is also slicker than any of Google's office apps.

    I'm all for "free" and "freely distributed" web applications replacing the MS Office tax that
    we're all forced to pay, but I'm also for the best man winning. And IMHO, Google's not exactly
    deserving of the top spot here.

    --
    ------ The best brain training is now totally free : )
  22. Re:Do you want it to replace MS Office? by Petrushka · · Score: 1

    ... and I think they've made a pretty good start. I'm now finding that my students are e-mailing assignments to me (which they're not supposed to do, but that's another story) in OpenDocument format. That in itself tells me they're not using MS Office. But what's more, the layout in the document makes it pretty clear that they weren't using OpenOffice either -- all the manual line-breaks look suspiciously like ... a web interface, maybe?...

  23. Google and MSFT and Misdirection by TechForensics · · Score: 1, Insightful
    Google's CEO Eric Schmidt was asked if Docs and Spreadsheets will compete with MS Office, and he said, "We don't think so. It doesn't have all the functionality, nor is it intended to have the functionality of products like Microsoft Office."

    I like this kind of modest understatement. It understates the threat Google poses to Microsoft. Smart PR move IMHO.

    --
    Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others.
  24. Add Quickbooks to that list by transporter_ii · · Score: 1

    Some people might get huffy and puffy at work if we swapped to Open Office, but I bet we would be able to manage it. But what would keep us on Windows is Quickbooks and our Remote Desktop server.

    A good Quickbooks replacement that wasn't even free but ran on Linux, would go a long way toward us being able to ditch Windows.

    Transporter_ii

    --
    Doctors destroy health, lawyers destroy justice, universities destroy knowledge, religion destroys spirituality
  25. Re:Competing with MSFT by ZombieRoboNinja · · Score: 2, Interesting

    When I'm editing a 200-page Pages document, I get up to five seconds of lag per keystroke on my G4 Powerbook.

  26. Re:Do you want it to replace MS Office? by Atlantis-Rising · · Score: 1

    When did firefox get a patent on tabbed browsing, pray tell?

    Because there's TONS of prior art there. I would hardly call that 'patent infringement', as any patent so issued is obviously defective.

    --
    "It is possible to commit no errors and still lose. That is not a weakness. That is life." -Peak Performance
  27. Re:Competing with MSFT by corychristison · · Score: 1

    I know what I mainly need from an "office suite" is just a good word processor, one that doesnt lag 10 keystrokes behind me typing a simple letter.

    I don't want to buy or install a whole office suite, just the apps I need. Why does it all have to be bundled with junk I dont care about?
    You, my friend, are in need of AbiWord.
    I only have experience with it on Gentoo Linux, so I have no idea how it performs on other operating systems. However, the experience I have had with it has been quite pleasant. Especially if all I want to do is create a quick document
  28. Re:Wild guess by cecil_turtle · · Score: 1

    Yeah I agree except maybe the offline functionality - but I think instead I foresee another Google appliance for business use - run your own Google Office server (the "GO" appliance), only $30,000!

  29. Presentation software is different by ukemike · · Score: 1

    The point is that presentation software is different from word processing. You need the program to be local on your computer so that you can make the presentation, in someone else's office, and without access to the net. For this to be useful, at the very least, google will have to make the slideshow part of this program available to live on your local PC. Maybe something analogous to Adobe Reader.

    I do training frequently and use powerpoint as one of my tools. The laptop that I use most often doesn't even have wireless networking, because it doesn't need it. Often I train in places where the internet wouldn't be available at all without major hassles. I hope that google gets it right.

    --
    -- QED
  30. Hmmm.... Confidentiality? by notaprguy · · Score: 1

    Who in their right mind would use this for any presentation that included anything remotely important? I think concerns about confidentiality will make this a hard sell to most corporations - those are the majority of the people who use PowerPoint.

    1. Re:Hmmm.... Confidentiality? by th3rmite · · Score: 1

      I agree with you 100%. I use MS Office products about 4-6 hours a day at work. Google will never be able to replace Office in my organization mainly because 99% of the documents I generate are classified. I'm not about to go to jail for typing my stuff on Google. Although my mother's business might be able to do this, but she needs a guarantee that her work will be available 24/7 and Google can't guarantee that kind of uptime for free, but OpenOffice can.

  31. Easier said... by encoderer · · Score: 2, Informative

    That's a lot easier said than done.

    I don't know if you've actually USED Docs but the last time I did--about 2-3 weeks ago--it didn't even have find & replace capability. All it had was "replace all" and even that had "experimental" warnings all over it and couldn't be undone.

    So saying "All they need is a good API and a mechanism for plugins" when they can't even do find & replace is just a little silly, in my opinion.

    Maybe. In about 2 years. At the earliest.

    1. Re:Easier said... by jrockway · · Score: 1

      Your post doesn't make sense. "They can't implement a feature that could be implemented as a plugin, so plugins are a bad idea."

      What?

      --
      My other car is first.
  32. Java vs. Javascript by trimbo · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    Hey ./ commenters, you're supposed to be IT experts. So pretend you know the difference between Java and Javascript.

    But here's a tip: if you don't really know or care what the difference is, you can just say "Web 2.0" and all of the buzzword lovers will nod in silent understanding and tell you that Microsoft is doomed by Web 2.0.

  33. Why should I care about this by goodie3shoes · · Score: 1

    when Docs doesn't work on my Linux + Firefox 2.0.0.3 setup (no cursor, can't type anything). Sheesh. Get the basics fixed first.

    --
    BSA: "Would you like a free Software Audit"? me: "No, thanks. My software is all Free".
    1. Re:Why should I care about this by Serpent+Mage · · Score: 1

      when Docs doesn't work on my Linux + Firefox 2.0.0.3 setup (no cursor, can't type anything). Sheesh. Get the basics fixed first.

      Funny, I'm running ubuntu with Firefox 2.0.0.3 and everything in docs (including shared collaboration) work great no tweaking or anything at all. I use it all the time. Especially the spreadsheet stuff. I've never had more then 3 people working on a single document of mine at the same time so far but at least up to 3 people simultaneously works great as well.

      I think perhaps you went in there and disabled javascript or added an add-on or something else to break yourself cause out of the box it works.
  34. Good or Bad? by lukateake · · Score: 1

    I can't remember: is Google good or bad this week here on /.?

  35. I will boycott Google's PowerPoint by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    I will boycott Google's PowerPoint because they acquired it from Tonic Systems, which used to make a Java product called ... Jar Jar Links. Bad puns must not be encouraged.

  36. S5 is very handy by DusterBar · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I have used S5 for my presentations for a while now, and mainly for two reasons:

    1. I almost always have an internet connection (or network connection) and thus can get at any of the presentations I need. I also can let the viewers see the presentation any time they want - just need that browser...
    2. The ability to have both the printed and presentation form in one simple text document is so nice. Editing, updating, version control, etc. is just so much easier. And with the document being usable by all users, I don't need the "Windows" or "Mac" (and, rarely, the "Linux") compatible presentation system - I just do it all in one place and it just works.
    I think Google may have something here. For most presentations (those that don't look like a 1990's MTV spot) this stuff just works. I just hope that they do something similar.
  37. Hat trick!!! by Duncan3 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Awesome, now I need my laptop to work, the projector to be in a good mood, _AND_ an internet connection... in a place i've probably never been until the presentation.

    Things are hard enough as it is, but good grief!

    --
    - Adam L. Beberg - The Cosm Project - http://www.mithral.com/
    1. Re:Hat trick!!! by 99BottlesOfBeerInMyF · · Score: 1

      Awesome, now I need my laptop to work, the projector to be in a good mood, _AND_ an internet connection... in a place i've probably never been until the presentation.

      Not really. I'm sure like the other Google doc tools, nothing will prevent you from downloading a local copy in common and open standards. The difference in my opinion is that now when creating the presentation, it is easier to collaborate on it and instead of uploading it to the Web after the presentation, you just make it public/add access for people. Also, when you go into the meeting where you are presenting, and those four people logging in via teleconferencing can't see the presentation for some reason, you no longer have to e-mail it to them, just include the presentation URL in the invite to the meeting.

  38. Re:Do you want it to replace MS Office? by Dr.+Spork · · Score: 1

    Yeah, plus as a bonus, Google gets to mine and index all of your company's data for use in Google's future superbrain. My god, their plan might really work!

  39. Re:Google Office Ajax13 by yoasif · · Score: 1

    ajaxWrite doesn't support Safari; I'm guessing it doesn't support Konqueror either. Nice to see that they recommend Firefox, however.

  40. Okay troll, I'll bite by LinDVD · · Score: 1

    Don't you have better things to do than make assumptions about other people's posts? Maybe you don't. In any event, you add NOTHING to why I got modded down, but I sound more like an EV-DO commercial probably.

    --
    Just because you get modded "insightful" on Slashdot doesn't mean you actually are in real life.
  41. Now that Google has a PowerPoint type app by ClosedSource · · Score: 1

    is it no longer true that you don't need one?

    I remember years ago when Scott McNealy mocked MS about needing a word processor, forbid the use of PowerPoint at Sun and made a big show of handing out whiteboards and markers to his employees .. until StarOffice came along. The suddenly he thought that "office" applications were great.

    1. Re:Now that Google has a PowerPoint type app by ClosedSource · · Score: 1

      They didn't, many Slashdotter's have.

  42. Re:Do you want it to replace MS Office? by Nefarious+Wheel · · Score: 1
    Yeah, but if you can't trust the governments of the world, who can you trust?

    -- Albert Einstein (Yahoo Serious).

    --
    Do not mock my vision of impractical footwear
  43. translation by nanosquid · · Score: 1

    asked if Docs and Spreadsheets will compete with MS Office, and he said, "We don't think so. It doesn't have all the functionality, nor is it intended to have the functionality of products like Microsoft Office."


    That's a nice way of saying "oh, no, we wouldn't want it to be that bloated and complicated" :-)
  44. Are these softwares really usable ? by file-exists-p · · Score: 1

    I never used seriously one of those fancy AJAX softare for more than 10 minues (except Google Maps) and my feeling was that even on a decent PC they are sluggishly slow, and lacking a lot of features. Now I read in many places that Google is a real contender for the office applications and I do not understand how that can be possible beside the mail.

    It reminds me 1997 when we were supposed to have Corel Office in java: There was such a discrepancy between what I could read in the news and the true experience of using the betas.

    Is there somebody here who used / is using these on-line softwares seriously and could tell me what I missed ?

  45. JarJar actually works well by grahamsz · · Score: 1

    It takes a number of Jar files and links them together into a sort of uberjar.

  46. Nice PR by saisuman · · Score: 1

    "We're not competing, we're just kids. MS Office rocks." That's a smart thing to say while you siphon off whatever customers you can. A much smarter thing than, say, Andreessen's famous "Netscape will reduce Windows to a poorly debugged set of device drivers" statement. Evil or no evil, Google is definitely clever.

  47. Re:Google Office Ajax13 by Graywolf · · Score: 2, Informative

    Desktoptwo seems to be using a VNC applet to render Acrobat and OpenOffice application GUIs, so no "web-based Java version of OpenOffice", just horribly compressed visuals in a laggy VNC window to a machine running OO.

  48. I'm converted! by mjrobinson · · Score: 2, Informative

    I've just been spending the last week moving all my documents to Google Docs and I think it's great.

    I want to keep my docs forever
    I moved everything over simply because my docs are spread across multiple machines some of which are ancient. I suddenly found myself wanting an ancient document that was stored on a laptop that didn't have any Internet connection. Luckily it still worked but it was a game getting the docs to a more modern PC. With Google docs I won't care what media the docs stored on, nor what computer or OS.

    Backups
    Sure I can all hear you smugly saying just get it off your backups but in those days I'd probably of used a plate sized floppy disk and would now be wondering where I insert the thing into a modern PC. Now I don't have to care about backups as they do it for me.

    Accessibility
    I can access all my files from any computer, any OS, anywhere in the world (as long as I have some form of Internet connection).

    Sharing
    I can keep my docs private or give access to specific people. I can also make them public if there is anyone out there sorry enough to read my ramblings.

    Collaborate
    I can work with others on the same documents.

    Permanence
    OK Google might not be here for ever but I bet they'll be here longer than MS and certainly longer than any of my PC's will last.

    Features
    I'm one of those users who probably only uses 80% of the features in Word so a reduced feature set doesn't matter to me. The formatting features are roughly the same as those offered by web based email systems.

    Is it perfect
    No - it can be a bit clunky in places and it seems to prefer shorter documents to larger ones. I figure it will probably get better over time and I was happy to switch with just the benefits as they stand at the moment. Oh, did I mention it was free?

  49. Re:Google Office Ajax13 by Serpent+Mage · · Score: 1

    I have a hard time looking at Google Docs
    and thinking anyone would find it compares to say "Ajax13" ( http://www.ajax13.com/ ) or other
    independent offerings.

    yet it doesn't support safari, konqueror, or firefox 2.0 running under linux either.

    thanks but no thanks. think GOffice will work much better. People other then windows users are able to use it. Sort of the key point I would think.
  50. Re:Competing with MSFT by Tickletaint · · Score: 1

    Sigh.

    --
    Make Slashdot readable! See journal.
  51. ? Time to take a class..... by encoderer · · Score: 1

    Time to take a class on reading comprehension, bro... Seriously. If you're going to be a fanboy shill, at least try to make sense.

    1. You put quotes around something that certainly wasn't a quote. You do realize they're called "quotation marks" for a reason, right?
    2. I didn't say plugins are a bad idea
    3. I didn't say that they CAN'T implement find & replace

    So basically, you misunderstood, it seems, each and every sentence I wrote.

    Are you always this dense or do you save it all for us on slashdot?

  52. Summer by alexgieg · · Score: 1

    I'd wish /. editors would use unambiguous terms, such as months, quarters or the like. I live in the Southern hemisphere, and whenever I read something that mentions seasons I must check to where it's referring, and if it's to the Northern hemisphere, mentally translate the northern season name into its southern equivalent. Not nice, really.

    --
    Conservatism: (n.) love of the existing evils. Liberalism: (n.) desire to substitute new evils for the existing ones.
  53. Re:Competing with MSFT by Peaker · · Score: 1

    When you enable Changes' tracking and have lots of "advanced features" (tables, images, etc) in a large document -- you definitely get some keystroke lag, even on pretty modern machines.

    I used to turn off changes' tracking so Word would not be so slow on my larger documents.

  54. Re:Do you want it to replace MS Office? by danpsmith · · Score: 1

    If you get controlled logins, Gmail, Writely, spreadsheet and presentation as well as a portal with your own domain name, why bother with Microsoft?

    Because Writely isn't even half as good as having a real word processor, MS Word, Open Office Writer or otherwise. It's buggy, I've experienced a bug with hitting enter and getting two blank lines every time that hadn't been fixed the last time I tried it. I really wanted online office to be worthy of usage because it is practical and nice, but Google's apps seem to be subpar at best.

    --
    Judges and senates have been bought for gold; Esteem and love were never to be sold.
  55. Google Presentation and gtalk by wallcrawler78 · · Score: 1

    I hope that they included some form of: 1. IM or VOIP in the same page as the presentation 2. A presenters view vs. attendee view 3. The ability to distribute invites. 4. Ability to make the presentation download able if necessarily 5. Maybe embed media from Google images or Google video in the presentation... and have accessible media stock. 6. Publish the presentation or link it to a Google group along with other docs and etc. 7. Maybe purchase technology from companies like VNC or logmein.com for remote desktop control (support, training, etc) just to check the box when compared to webex. 8. Web based creation tool kit that can be used to create presentations online with out need for MS Powerpoint. With a nice AJAX drag and drop interface that has the ability to change and edit slides in the middle of a presentation without interruption by using a new window or tabbed interface. 8b. Be able to share the ability to present and edit. ie. one person can do the talking while another is making edits. 9. Ability to create a follow up questionnaire with links to additional information. Then they would have a webex killer. That would be my wish list :) any thoughts? If Google needs a dreamer, send me a job offer LOL, cuz the sky is the limit when you have as much money as they do. If Google doesn't do it, sourceforge it and lets make it happen. Unfortunately i wont be any help since i have no idea how to program.. Just a dreamer here :)

    1. Re:Google Presentation and gtalk by wallcrawler78 · · Score: 1

      Sorry I did not realize i needed to insert break tags in my text...


      I hope that they included some form of:
      1. IM or VOIP in the same page as the presentation
      2. A presenters view vs. attendee view
      3. The ability to distribute invites.
      4. Ability to make the presentation download able if necessarily
      5. Maybe embed media from Google images or Google video in the presentation... and have accessible media stock.
      6. Publish the presentation or link it to a Google group along with other docs and etc.
      7. Maybe purchase technology from companies like VNC or logmein.com for remote desktop control (support, training, etc) just to check the box when compared to webex.
      8. Web based creation tool kit that can be used to create presentations online with out need for MS Powerpoint. With a nice AJAX drag and drop interface that has the ability to change and edit slides in the middle of a presentation without interruption by using a new window or tabbed interface.
      8b. Be able to share the ability to present and edit. ie. one person can do the talking while another is making edits.
      9. Ability to create a follow up questionnaire with links to additional information.

      Then they would have a webex killer.
      That would be my wish list :) any thoughts? If Google needs a dreamer, send me a job offer LOL, cuz the sky is the limit when you have as much money as they do. If Google doesn't do it, sourceforge it and lets make it happen. Unfortunately i wont be any help since i have no idea how to program.. Just a dreamer here :)

  56. bullshit by nanosquid · · Score: 1

    You're making some huge mistakes. First, the cost of office software is nothing for a corporation, compared to its other expenses (taxes, salaries, hardware, office bills and so on and so on).

    $200 saved per employee is $200 saved. Big corporations are as sensitive to that as little corporations.

    Second, those Google Apps are suitable for some purposes, but for heavy or advanced usage, they're totally unfit.

    Neither is Microsoft Office; Microsoft Office is merely bloated and slow. Most people don't know what "heavy and advanced usage" is (you sure don't), and that is why Google Apps will be good enough for them (Google needs to do a little more work but not a lot), just like Microsoft Office is good enough for them.

    So far we're looking at a bunch of online toys trying to pretend they're Office. They will replace Office exactly as the "web OS" sites will replace Windows.

    MS Office and MS Windows are already dead, they just don't know it yet. Google isn't the only thing that's killing them, but it is certainly one nail of many in their coffin.