That's all fine, until you need to remember the password for your IRS account 12 months since you last used it, or the dozen or so other passwords for secure services such as insurance companies, credit card accounts, on-line banking, mortgage, et cetera.
I like the idea of using a smart-card, but I fear that each service would only accept its own card, and I'd have to put up with a dozen different cards (sort of like discount shopper cards now).
And, of course, each service will undoubtedly charge you full price plus a hefty mark-up for the cards, because this is the way the banking and financial services industries treat their customers in the USA!
I can just see the lawsuits against the wireless router makers also.
That's not going to be a problem. There's already legislation in the works that require "smart" broadband routers and wireless access points that can only be accessed by their registered owners identified by RFID tags implanted under the skin on the back of the hand, and sensors built-in to all keyboards by government mandate.
Get a cheap computer up on some fax software and you can auto-filter your faxes. Not to mention the savings you'll get from not using any toner. Then just lazer print anything worth keeping.
Excellent idea! Good thing my laser printer runs on over-ripe banana peel!
Software Assurance is only available with Microsoft volume license programs. With Software Assurance you pay an additional 50% up-front and receive all upgrades to the licensed product for two years. You do not automatically receive the upgrades, but instead must order the upgrade media (about $35 per set) when it becomes available.
You say you save 50% off the retail price. At distribution there's a $10 difference between Office 2003 Standard Retail and Open License Program licenses (no Software Assurance). For 100+, that difference widens to about $30 per license.
Software Assurance ADDS 50% to the purchase price. This is only slightly higher than the generally-accepted 20% annual maintenance and support, but unfortunately Software Assurance does not add any support. Also, you need to buy the installation media (about $30) for new versions.
Not fair. There is a significant learning curve from Office 97 to 2003. Different menu layouts, different commands, different terminology, etc. That is not to say that the migration would not be even more costly to OO, but it is a consideration.
That's because a fresh, out-of-the-box, consumer-grade machine from Dell (or HP or Compaq) DOES come with Spyware/Adware installed.
For example: WildTangent games, RealOne Player, MusicMatch, et cetera. The manufacturers get PAID to put these on customer PC's and get COMMISSIONS for each conversion to the full-featured product.
If you think I'm making this up, then go out to Best Buy, Circuit City, Staples or CompUSA and look at any of the systems they sell. Dell's consumer-level stuff is no better or worse in this regard.
Nobody seems to be able to shut-down these browser hijacking scumbuckets, so it seems the perfect place to host PlayFair and other contra-DMCA packages. Maybe CWS can incorporate PlayFair into the next version of their browser hijacker code, thereby actually providing some value in their service.
If for no other reason, it ought to be interesting to watch the legal circus that would result.
I don't feel comfortable putting all my financial information online in one place
But, in fact, when you file your return you are transmitting that information to Intuit, who acts as the clearing house prior to forwarding the return to the IRS. So if you don't trust Intuit's on-line program, what is the basis to trust it's off-line program? Unless you don't file electronically, which doesn't make much sense IMHO
I used to use TaxCut. Then one year they completely changed the UI, some might say simplified, I say dummied-down. But the result was I didn't feel the program was as comprehensive and, accordingly, wasn't as confident in the result. I know, that's subjective, but I think a financial program should instill confidence. Besides, every year the state version was delayed for weeks or months, which was a PITA.
So I tried switching to TurboTax, and wasn't entirely confident in that brand either. And again, the same delays getting the state version.
Eventually, I just brought everything to a CPA, and not one of the refund mills run by seasonal part-timers with a week's worth of free training. It cost me less than $200 and I actually got that back in more in the extra deductions and credits he uncovered.
That was back in 1999, and I haven't seen any reason to change my mind. My return is done by a professional, with real, live knowledge of the law and how it applies to my situation. The information is transferred electronically to the IRS. I get my refund, if eligable, in two weeks or less. The CPA keeps a copy of my return, which I had to retrieve once for a mortgage application when my files were not accessible. And, if I ever do get audited, the CPA will provide advice and be available to answer questions on how my data was calculated.
I pity the poor, lonely people who have so little self-esteem, self-respect, joy or involvement with others in the real world that they feel driven to waste their lives and their money on such bullcrap.
But worst, I detest the greedy, self-centered vultures who exploit people who really need a good psychiatrist or psychologist, not another enabler.
You don't need to have Microsoft Office to view PowerPoint presentations or Word documents. Free viewers are available for both formats from Microsoft. Go to Office Updates and search for "Viewer".
The license cost includes phone support from Microsoft; while you may not use it, there are many who do.
Wrong. Review the thread, do your homework. Next.
Passport is unrelated to Office
Wrong. Cannot register without MS-Passport. Cannot obtain volume license key without MS-Passport. Next
Version upgrades just add features, different products require relearning (paraphrased)
Wrong. You apparently haven't lived through most of the past Office upgrades.
Which of those support Microsoft Exchange Server
You don't need any client to use Exchange server, it works perfectly well in a web browser. This is off-topic, it wasn't addressed in Microsoft's document. But there are numerous alternatives to Exchange. More monopoly thinking.
You may be able to do something with the source code, but you'd be in a very, very small minority
Read the thread
If Microsoft wanted to make sure that no one else could play, I can think of many ways
Which is exactly what Microsoft has done with each successive release: break it just enough to permit data exchange where it benefits Microsoft and penalizes existing MSO users for not upgrading or attempting to switch horses.
From an engineering perspective, perhaps 9% isn't worth considering. But, I can tell you from a business perspective, 9% is AN ENORMOUS DIFFERENCE! If you don't think so, please give me a chance to bid on your next project!
Do you think it would be better or worse for communications if ATT and Verizon each designed and developed phone technology independently of each other, meaning interoperation didn't happen?
But they already have: Cellular telephone service.
Have you ever seen an estimate of the cost to roll out new software to (say) 1,000 corporate desktops? The cost of the software itself is a pittance compared to the time and trouble and, by extension, opportunity costs.
Yes, occasionally. More often I'm in the SMB market, around 50 - 200 desktops. And implement them as well. Last month I did 200 desktops and 20 notebooks, and the costs breakdown went something like this:
$70K New Application Licenses (1 app)
$ 5K Test existing apps, forms, templates
$ 2K Hardware inventory & validation
$22K Software Distribution System licenses & implementation
$ 8K Platform development & testing
$ 6K Pilot deployment & changes
$ 2K Full deployment
$ 6K 4-days on-site training
$ 2K Documentation and review
I guess we disagree on what constitutes a "pittance."
As for most the rest, it seems you haven't read Microsoft's publication, so you're moving way off topic. You use HTML all the time: E-Mail, websites, intranet/extranet portals; many of these are "business documents." I don't know what you do for a living, but how often do you need to edit a document received from an external user? Normally, I don't WANT my external users to be able to edit my documents, so.PDF is ideal.
Support is not bundled in the price of office: You get installation support and two free usability incidents, then its $245 per call to Microsoft to speak to someone at an outsourced call center who hasn't even been in the same building with the source code to any of the office applications.
And finally, MS-Outlook does not provide GROUPWARE functions. Outlook is PIM, and there are many PIM's on the market as open source, shareware and traditional commercial products. Microsoft EXCHANGE provides the groupware functions, which can be used without Outlook (i.e., via the OWA web interface) or with other client apps. There are also other groupware packages, both commercial and open source (the latter, web-based).
a statement or assertion of verified information about something that is the case or has happened; "he supported his argument with an impressive array of facts"
an event known to have happened or something known to have existed; "your fears have no basis in fact"; "how much of the story is fact and how much fiction is hard to tell"
a concept whose truth can be proved; "scientific hypotheses are not facts"
A statement or piece of information that is true or a real occurrence.
If the TCO is about $10.K +/- 20% then those prices aren't very significant by definition!
Statistically speaking, you are almost correct!
First of all, TCO is not $10K +/- 20%, it is $4.7K +/- 20% (Gartner: Desktop TCO Update 2003 , please ignore their conclusions re: TCO for WinXP/StarOffice and Linux for now). That would make 370-480 statistically significant at about 9%, assuming no software upgrades during the 3-year PC lifetime.
Second, I think it's hard to argue that an average savings of $425 per desktop is "not very significant." This is much easier to claim than to practice. Even using your worst-case TCO estimate, that's 3%. But this is not an academic exercise. All things being equal, there is not an intelligent person in the world who would not jump at an offer to save $370-480 per desktop. If you're a small business with 5 PC's, that's the price of a firewall. If you're an enterprise with 5,000 PC's, that's equivalent to 6 mid-level IT staff for three years, fully loaded.
Virtually the remainder of your post consists of insightful and "well formed" hypothesis. I cannot recall any circumstance where either MSO or OO.org broke third-party apps. Data testing is a push. Your theories on macro restrictions and the relationship between macro use and decades-long upgrade cycles are, well, fantastic.
$245: I wasn't aware that "normal" phone support incidents with Microsoft were so high. But the point of my "counter argument" on support is that after paying Microsoft $245 for support, I believe I should receive prompt service from an understandable representative who has in-depth product knowledge and access to the developers. That is not what I get from Microsoft. However, with OO.org, I can talk to someone who knows the source code, or go out and read it myself (assuming I had the skill).
If you look back at the history of Microsoft Office, and how it became the dominant office productivity suite, you realize that it was PORTABILITY and little else that started Microsoft on the road to success.
In the mid- to late-1980's, Macintosh was making significant inroads due to its domination of the graphics, desktop publishing and creative marketplaces, and also the educational market's predisposition towards Apple (due to Apple's historic program of huge academic discounts and donations). At the time, WordPerfect was the dominant word processing app, and MS-Word for DOS was a clunky and insignificant competitor. Lotus 1-2-3 was the spreadsheet of choice, with Borland's Quattro pro a distant 2nd place.
On the Mac, however, Word and later Excel were the dominant players. And Microsoft capitalized on this as they capitalized on the GUI and hardware independence provided by Windows. Although competitors ported or brought out new apps for Windows, Microsoft's products had the advantage of cross-platform compatibility between Mac and Windows. This means that the business people and creative people could share documents, and this helped Microsoft take the lead on the PC.
ARGUMENT: License cost is only a small part of the total cost of ownership.
FACT: License cost is a significant part of the cost at $369-479 per PC (per CDW.com) for MS-Office 2003 Standard/Professional.
ARGUMENT: Installation and deployment costs
FACT: Many of the same methods used to deploy MS-Office work equally well, or better with Open Office. There are no software keys or other serial numbers to deal with in Open Office. You do not need to invest time and money into administering software licenses, audit trails and license compliance reports with Open Office. You do not need to worry about entering 25-digit CDKey codes on each PC or performing Microsoft Product Activation. You do not need a Microsoft Passport or the risk of associated unintentional information disclosure to use Open Office.
ARGUMENT: Existing MS-Office users will need retraining to use Open Office.
FACT: Like the retraining necessary when MS-Office 95 users were forced to move to MS-Office 97? And again to MS-Office 2000? And again to XP/2002? And, though to a lesser extent, again to 2003?
What happens when students, either due to school policy or an individual effort to save money, grow up using Open Office instead of Microsoft office? Won't this argument then get turned on its head?
ARGUMENT: Open Office does not have an email client, so customers may incur cost to get one.
FACT: Netscape? Mozilla? Pheonix? Eudora? Pegasus Mail? Outlook Express? Need I go on?
ARGUMENT: Businesses need to exchange documents with other businesses.
FACT: HTML and PDF are the two most widely used formats for sharing documents with other businesses, and both are natively written and read in Open Office, without the need to spend $200 more on Acrobat Writer. Microsoft's argument exposes their belief that they should and do monopolize the office productivity marketplace, or else how could they argue that MS-Office format files are more portable than PDF or HTML?
ARGUMENT: Ensure their mission-critical data is protected from virus attack.
FACT: Like those pesky office macro viruses? Or the dozens of exploits for Outlook? Or the fact that VBScript does not properly implement sandbox security? And since when is Microsoft so concerned about viruses? Hell, they used to include antivirus software at no additional charge with Windows 3.x. We now pay 4x more for Windows and Microsoft REMOVED the antivirus features from the OS!
ARGUMENT: Microsoft... providing [support] resources where, when and how you need them. OpenOffice users have to search the web for answers.
FACT: I see no difference between searching Microsoft's website and newsgroups for answers than searching OpenOffice.org's, except that in Microsoft's case I get anectdotal answers (this worked for me) or (I learned this trick at work), whereas with OpenOffice, there's a chance I can talk to someone who KNOWS THE SOURCE CODE.
Of course, I can pay Microsoft for support if I really need it. After spending $125 I usually have to wait on hold for over an hour to speak with someone with an accent so bad that I have to get everything spelled to understand the answer.
ARGUMENT: MS-Office documents may not open properly in Open Office and visa-versa.
FACT: Isn't this Microsoft's fault? After all, they are the ones that keep changing their applications to make interoperability more and more difficult with each release.
Production costs for textbooks are nowhere near 60%. Try more like 10-20%. The rest is profit along a three-tier distribution channel and logistics, and the logistics are very low when dealing with school bookstores and required textbooks. And, as with every new media, publishers will (and currently do) charge a premium for the new convenience and technology (i.e., records --> cassettes --> cds; or vhs --> dvd) in spite of production cost savings.
Think of that next time you're at the busstop with nothing to read!
Great idea! I'll just wander down the street searching for an unsecured wireless access point and use my credit card to pay $10.00 for the electronic version of a $7.00 paperback, then miss my bus waiting for the download to finish. Fortunately, that will give me enough time to stop by the newsstand, not to buy a book of course, but to spend another $4.00 on batteries to read it once the next bus arrives.
Hopefully, the reader will come with a nice pleather belt pouch, so I can carry it right next to my cellphone, pager and Pocket-PC/GPS/Netstumbler, to fill-out my geek utility belt.
Seriously, I don't understand the marketing strategy on e-books. The reader costs $400, requires $4.00 worth of batteries every week, and serves no other purpose. Current PDA's don't have the screen size or battery life to make them attractive substitutes. The e-books themselves cost more than printed equivalents and are copy-proteccted, so you can't buy them "used," can't sell or even give them away when you're done, and can't even put them on a shelf to re-read or reference at a later date.
From a practical standpoint, I supposed that e-books would be an ideal alternative to school textbooks, but the electronics are too delicate to withstand the abuse a typical student would impose. And once again, cost and copy protection are impediments.
I just did a google search and found that you seem to have an unusual affinity for the word "ass."
Seriously, though, it doesn't surprise me that that the MyWay toolbar is adware. But you aren't required to use the MyWay toolbar, nor does MyWay make any attempt to install it on your system, other than the occasional mention of its availability as you use their website.
Everybody needs to make money. Even OSDN uses banner ads to fund operations. There's bandwidth, equipment, electricity and staff to pay. What I like about MyWay is that it's all low key.
As I said before, I've been using MyWay for about a year, have never been prompted to install the MyWay toolbar, and have observed no ill effects.
MyWay does not have POP3 access.
Yes, MyWay is very much similar to Yahoo!, but with three big advantages:
NO POP-UP ADS
NO BANNER ADS
NO BILLBOARD ADS
NO SKYSCRAPER ADS
NO FULL-PAGE INTERMEDIATE ADS
NO FLASH ADS
NO NOISEMAKING ADS
NO GRAPHICAL ADS WHATSOEVER!
No personal info to register
Not (yet) a target for spammers
Blaziingly fast (did I mention no graphical ads?)
I dumped Yahoo! years ago. I couldn't handle the distractions. Yes, I know everyone's got to make a living, but places like Google and MyWay seem to get by fine without taking-up 1/3 of my screen (or life) with blinking, flashing, noise-making billboards.
On the downside:
No calendar
No forums
No web directory
For some reason, won't save logon with FireFox
Questionable parentage (see below)
MyWay is run by iWon. Yes, I know what you're all thinking, and I thought the same thing. But I've been using MyWay for a year and have seen no evidence of spam, adware or other agressive advertising as a result of using MyWay. The only negative is the heavily-sponsored results in their search engine, but I always use Google to search anyway, so it doesn't generally bother me.
The reason why MyWay is null-routed in many blackhole HOSTS files is because of their association with iWon. I just comment-out the references for MyWay and have seen no ill effects.
My only complaint is that, about 6 weeks ago, they changed something on their site dealing with how they save or read their cookie to automatically login to your customized portal site. Now FireFox does not automatically logon. This problem is not reproduced in either Mozilla or MSIE on the same PC. Minor inconvenience IMHO.
As I said, I've been using MyWay for around a year, and I've never seen or heard of any downtime. That said, I would no sooner rely on MyWay than Yahoo! or HotMail for my primary email, but that's my opinion. I'd rather spend $60 a year and get 300MB disk space, unlimited POP3/HTTP email accounts, webhosting, domain registration and 5GB/mo transfers.
Slashdot Mirror
That's all fine, until you need to remember the password for your IRS account 12 months since you last used it, or the dozen or so other passwords for secure services such as insurance companies, credit card accounts, on-line banking, mortgage, et cetera.
I like the idea of using a smart-card, but I fear that each service would only accept its own card, and I'd have to put up with a dozen different cards (sort of like discount shopper cards now).
And, of course, each service will undoubtedly charge you full price plus a hefty mark-up for the cards, because this is the way the banking and financial services industries treat their customers in the USA!
I can just see the lawsuits against the wireless router makers also.
That's not going to be a problem. There's already legislation in the works that require "smart" broadband routers and wireless access points that can only be accessed by their registered owners identified by RFID tags implanted under the skin on the back of the hand, and sensors built-in to all keyboards by government mandate.
That's worth +2: 1 for funny, plus 1 more for the obscure and subtle reference (http://www.badgerbadgerbadger.com/).
Software Assurance is only available with Microsoft volume license programs. With Software Assurance you pay an additional 50% up-front and receive all upgrades to the licensed product for two years. You do not automatically receive the upgrades, but instead must order the upgrade media (about $35 per set) when it becomes available.
You say you save 50% off the retail price. At distribution there's a $10 difference between Office 2003 Standard Retail and Open License Program licenses (no Software Assurance). For 100+, that difference widens to about $30 per license.
Software Assurance ADDS 50% to the purchase price. This is only slightly higher than the generally-accepted 20% annual maintenance and support, but unfortunately Software Assurance does not add any support. Also, you need to buy the installation media (about $30) for new versions.
Not fair. There is a significant learning curve from Office 97 to 2003. Different menu layouts, different commands, different terminology, etc. That is not to say that the migration would not be even more costly to OO, but it is a consideration.
That's because a fresh, out-of-the-box, consumer-grade machine from Dell (or HP or Compaq) DOES come with Spyware/Adware installed. For example: WildTangent games, RealOne Player, MusicMatch, et cetera. The manufacturers get PAID to put these on customer PC's and get COMMISSIONS for each conversion to the full-featured product. If you think I'm making this up, then go out to Best Buy, Circuit City, Staples or CompUSA and look at any of the systems they sell. Dell's consumer-level stuff is no better or worse in this regard.
Nobody seems to be able to shut-down these browser hijacking scumbuckets, so it seems the perfect place to host PlayFair and other contra-DMCA packages. Maybe CWS can incorporate PlayFair into the next version of their browser hijacker code, thereby actually providing some value in their service.
If for no other reason, it ought to be interesting to watch the legal circus that would result.
I don't feel comfortable putting all my financial information online in one place
But, in fact, when you file your return you are transmitting that information to Intuit, who acts as the clearing house prior to forwarding the return to the IRS. So if you don't trust Intuit's on-line program, what is the basis to trust it's off-line program? Unless you don't file electronically, which doesn't make much sense IMHO
I used to use TaxCut. Then one year they completely changed the UI, some might say simplified, I say dummied-down. But the result was I didn't feel the program was as comprehensive and, accordingly, wasn't as confident in the result. I know, that's subjective, but I think a financial program should instill confidence. Besides, every year the state version was delayed for weeks or months, which was a PITA.
So I tried switching to TurboTax, and wasn't entirely confident in that brand either. And again, the same delays getting the state version.
Eventually, I just brought everything to a CPA, and not one of the refund mills run by seasonal part-timers with a week's worth of free training. It cost me less than $200 and I actually got that back in more in the extra deductions and credits he uncovered.
That was back in 1999, and I haven't seen any reason to change my mind. My return is done by a professional, with real, live knowledge of the law and how it applies to my situation. The information is transferred electronically to the IRS. I get my refund, if eligable, in two weeks or less. The CPA keeps a copy of my return, which I had to retrieve once for a mortgage application when my files were not accessible. And, if I ever do get audited, the CPA will provide advice and be available to answer questions on how my data was calculated.
I pity the poor, lonely people who have so little self-esteem, self-respect, joy or involvement with others in the real world that they feel driven to waste their lives and their money on such bullcrap.
But worst, I detest the greedy, self-centered vultures who exploit people who really need a good psychiatrist or psychologist, not another enabler.
> When will people start lobbying for patent reform?
That is scheduled for Tuesday, 12 March 2120, at the new United Nations world headquarters in Bejing China.
Note that the schedule is subject to change, depending on the outcome of the earlier protest against the repeal of copyright fair use rights.
You don't need to have Microsoft Office to view PowerPoint presentations or Word documents. Free viewers are available for both formats from Microsoft. Go to Office Updates and search for "Viewer".
Wrong. Review the thread, do your homework. Next.
Wrong. Cannot register without MS-Passport. Cannot obtain volume license key without MS-Passport. Next
Wrong. You apparently haven't lived through most of the past Office upgrades.
You don't need any client to use Exchange server, it works perfectly well in a web browser. This is off-topic, it wasn't addressed in Microsoft's document. But there are numerous alternatives to Exchange. More monopoly thinking.
Read the thread
Which is exactly what Microsoft has done with each successive release: break it just enough to permit data exchange where it benefits Microsoft and penalizes existing MSO users for not upgrading or attempting to switch horses.
But they already have: Cellular telephone service.
"Can you hear m... [call dropped]"Have you ever seen an estimate of the cost to roll out new software to (say) 1,000 corporate desktops? The cost of the software itself is a pittance compared to the time and trouble and, by extension, opportunity costs.
Yes, occasionally. More often I'm in the SMB market, around 50 - 200 desktops. And implement them as well. Last month I did 200 desktops and 20 notebooks, and the costs breakdown went something like this:I guess we disagree on what constitutes a "pittance."
As for most the rest, it seems you haven't read Microsoft's publication, so you're moving way off topic. You use HTML all the time: E-Mail, websites, intranet/extranet portals; many of these are "business documents." I don't know what you do for a living, but how often do you need to edit a document received from an external user? Normally, I don't WANT my external users to be able to edit my documents, so .PDF is ideal.
Support is not bundled in the price of office: You get installation support and two free usability incidents, then its $245 per call to Microsoft to speak to someone at an outsourced call center who hasn't even been in the same building with the source code to any of the office applications.
And finally, MS-Outlook does not provide GROUPWARE functions. Outlook is PIM, and there are many PIM's on the market as open source, shareware and traditional commercial products. Microsoft EXCHANGE provides the groupware functions, which can be used without Outlook (i.e., via the OWA web interface) or with other client apps. There are also other groupware packages, both commercial and open source (the latter, web-based).
your arguments are just as good as Microsoft's - that is, they aren't well formed
Then I appreciate your taking the time for the lesson, although my post wasn't intended to be an academic dissertation.
They don't have to be true to be facts. A fact simply exists irregardless of its validity to the real world.
define:fact
If the TCO is about $10.K +/- 20% then those prices aren't very significant by definition!
Statistically speaking, you are almost correct!
First of all, TCO is not $10K +/- 20%, it is $4.7K +/- 20% (Gartner: Desktop TCO Update 2003 , please ignore their conclusions re: TCO for WinXP/StarOffice and Linux for now). That would make 370-480 statistically significant at about 9%, assuming no software upgrades during the 3-year PC lifetime.
Second, I think it's hard to argue that an average savings of $425 per desktop is "not very significant." This is much easier to claim than to practice. Even using your worst-case TCO estimate, that's 3%. But this is not an academic exercise. All things being equal, there is not an intelligent person in the world who would not jump at an offer to save $370-480 per desktop. If you're a small business with 5 PC's, that's the price of a firewall. If you're an enterprise with 5,000 PC's, that's equivalent to 6 mid-level IT staff for three years, fully loaded.
Virtually the remainder of your post consists of insightful and "well formed" hypothesis. I cannot recall any circumstance where either MSO or OO.org broke third-party apps. Data testing is a push. Your theories on macro restrictions and the relationship between macro use and decades-long upgrade cycles are, well, fantastic.
$245: I wasn't aware that "normal" phone support incidents with Microsoft were so high. But the point of my "counter argument" on support is that after paying Microsoft $245 for support, I believe I should receive prompt service from an understandable representative who has in-depth product knowledge and access to the developers. That is not what I get from Microsoft. However, with OO.org, I can talk to someone who knows the source code, or go out and read it myself (assuming I had the skill).I got my version (MS Office 2003 Pro) from the MS website for $20 (American).
Where? What's the URL?
I take girls on dates for about that much...
I'd like the URLs for those girls, too!Kardar's reply should be MOD'd up as insightful.
If you look back at the history of Microsoft Office, and how it became the dominant office productivity suite, you realize that it was PORTABILITY and little else that started Microsoft on the road to success.
In the mid- to late-1980's, Macintosh was making significant inroads due to its domination of the graphics, desktop publishing and creative marketplaces, and also the educational market's predisposition towards Apple (due to Apple's historic program of huge academic discounts and donations). At the time, WordPerfect was the dominant word processing app, and MS-Word for DOS was a clunky and insignificant competitor. Lotus 1-2-3 was the spreadsheet of choice, with Borland's Quattro pro a distant 2nd place.
On the Mac, however, Word and later Excel were the dominant players. And Microsoft capitalized on this as they capitalized on the GUI and hardware independence provided by Windows. Although competitors ported or brought out new apps for Windows, Microsoft's products had the advantage of cross-platform compatibility between Mac and Windows. This means that the business people and creative people could share documents, and this helped Microsoft take the lead on the PC.
ARGUMENT: License cost is only a small part of the total cost of ownership.
FACT: License cost is a significant part of the cost at $369-479 per PC (per CDW.com) for MS-Office 2003 Standard/Professional.
ARGUMENT: Installation and deployment costs
FACT: Many of the same methods used to deploy MS-Office work equally well, or better with Open Office. There are no software keys or other serial numbers to deal with in Open Office. You do not need to invest time and money into administering software licenses, audit trails and license compliance reports with Open Office. You do not need to worry about entering 25-digit CDKey codes on each PC or performing Microsoft Product Activation. You do not need a Microsoft Passport or the risk of associated unintentional information disclosure to use Open Office.
ARGUMENT: Existing MS-Office users will need retraining to use Open Office.
FACT: Like the retraining necessary when MS-Office 95 users were forced to move to MS-Office 97? And again to MS-Office 2000? And again to XP/2002? And, though to a lesser extent, again to 2003?
What happens when students, either due to school policy or an individual effort to save money, grow up using Open Office instead of Microsoft office? Won't this argument then get turned on its head?
ARGUMENT: Open Office does not have an email client, so customers may incur cost to get one.
FACT: Netscape? Mozilla? Pheonix? Eudora? Pegasus Mail? Outlook Express? Need I go on?
ARGUMENT: Businesses need to exchange documents with other businesses.
FACT: HTML and PDF are the two most widely used formats for sharing documents with other businesses, and both are natively written and read in Open Office, without the need to spend $200 more on Acrobat Writer. Microsoft's argument exposes their belief that they should and do monopolize the office productivity marketplace, or else how could they argue that MS-Office format files are more portable than PDF or HTML?
ARGUMENT: Ensure their mission-critical data is protected from virus attack.
FACT: Like those pesky office macro viruses? Or the dozens of exploits for Outlook? Or the fact that VBScript does not properly implement sandbox security? And since when is Microsoft so concerned about viruses? Hell, they used to include antivirus software at no additional charge with Windows 3.x. We now pay 4x more for Windows and Microsoft REMOVED the antivirus features from the OS!
ARGUMENT: Microsoft ... providing [support] resources where, when and how you need them. OpenOffice users have to search the web for answers.
FACT: I see no difference between searching Microsoft's website and newsgroups for answers than searching OpenOffice.org's, except that in Microsoft's case I get anectdotal answers (this worked for me) or (I learned this trick at work), whereas with OpenOffice, there's a chance I can talk to someone who KNOWS THE SOURCE CODE.
Of course, I can pay Microsoft for support if I really need it. After spending $125 I usually have to wait on hold for over an hour to speak with someone with an accent so bad that I have to get everything spelled to understand the answer.
ARGUMENT: MS-Office documents may not open properly in Open Office and visa-versa.
FACT: Isn't this Microsoft's fault? After all, they are the ones that keep changing their applications to make interoperability more and more difficult with each release.
Production costs for textbooks are nowhere near 60%. Try more like 10-20%. The rest is profit along a three-tier distribution channel and logistics, and the logistics are very low when dealing with school bookstores and required textbooks. And, as with every new media, publishers will (and currently do) charge a premium for the new convenience and technology (i.e., records --> cassettes --> cds; or vhs --> dvd) in spite of production cost savings.
Think of that next time you're at the busstop with nothing to read!
Great idea! I'll just wander down the street searching for an unsecured wireless access point and use my credit card to pay $10.00 for the electronic version of a $7.00 paperback, then miss my bus waiting for the download to finish. Fortunately, that will give me enough time to stop by the newsstand, not to buy a book of course, but to spend another $4.00 on batteries to read it once the next bus arrives.
Hopefully, the reader will come with a nice pleather belt pouch, so I can carry it right next to my cellphone, pager and Pocket-PC/GPS/Netstumbler, to fill-out my geek utility belt.
Seriously, I don't understand the marketing strategy on e-books. The reader costs $400, requires $4.00 worth of batteries every week, and serves no other purpose. Current PDA's don't have the screen size or battery life to make them attractive substitutes. The e-books themselves cost more than printed equivalents and are copy-proteccted, so you can't buy them "used," can't sell or even give them away when you're done, and can't even put them on a shelf to re-read or reference at a later date.
From a practical standpoint, I supposed that e-books would be an ideal alternative to school textbooks, but the electronics are too delicate to withstand the abuse a typical student would impose. And once again, cost and copy protection are impediments.
I just did a google search and found that you seem to have an unusual affinity for the word "ass."
Seriously, though, it doesn't surprise me that that the MyWay toolbar is adware. But you aren't required to use the MyWay toolbar, nor does MyWay make any attempt to install it on your system, other than the occasional mention of its availability as you use their website.
Everybody needs to make money. Even OSDN uses banner ads to fund operations. There's bandwidth, equipment, electricity and staff to pay. What I like about MyWay is that it's all low key.
As I said before, I've been using MyWay for about a year, have never been prompted to install the MyWay toolbar, and have observed no ill effects.
I dumped Yahoo! years ago. I couldn't handle the distractions. Yes, I know everyone's got to make a living, but places like Google and MyWay seem to get by fine without taking-up 1/3 of my screen (or life) with blinking, flashing, noise-making billboards.
On the downside:MyWay is run by iWon. Yes, I know what you're all thinking, and I thought the same thing. But I've been using MyWay for a year and have seen no evidence of spam, adware or other agressive advertising as a result of using MyWay. The only negative is the heavily-sponsored results in their search engine, but I always use Google to search anyway, so it doesn't generally bother me.
The reason why MyWay is null-routed in many blackhole HOSTS files is because of their association with iWon. I just comment-out the references for MyWay and have seen no ill effects.
My only complaint is that, about 6 weeks ago, they changed something on their site dealing with how they save or read their cookie to automatically login to your customized portal site. Now FireFox does not automatically logon. This problem is not reproduced in either Mozilla or MSIE on the same PC. Minor inconvenience IMHO.
As I said, I've been using MyWay for around a year, and I've never seen or heard of any downtime. That said, I would no sooner rely on MyWay than Yahoo! or HotMail for my primary email, but that's my opinion. I'd rather spend $60 a year and get 300MB disk space, unlimited POP3/HTTP email accounts, webhosting, domain registration and 5GB/mo transfers.
Actually, I'd heard he was a hall monitor.
(Sorry, too much exposure to Jimmy Neutron cartoons by my kids.)