can YOU live without Microsoft?

can YOU live without Microsoft?

  • Yes.

  • No.

Results are only viewable after voting.
Microsoft (pyttemjuk in swedish, and I won't translate!) is needed as a reference point in the computer universe. I'm by no means a fan of their products, but some things they do very well.

Sure, Apple has been the leading edge in innovations for a very long time now, but still the average user uses a Wintel computer and as usual, people are a little afraid of beeing at the cutting edge.

In a sense, Microsoft benefits from the fact that others, like Apple, shows them what works on a computer. There's no risk in copying working ideas.

Personally I see a future where everything is UNIX in one form or another. In this Apple is really a follower of the Linux trend, although X is a little more user friendly.

When will Microsoft follow?

/Björn
 
Life without Word? Come on you people.. What are you going to send to your clients and friends when they need an "official document"? Write one in Write Text? I doubt it.

They make great products.. Entourage beats the crap out of Mail.app.

But hey, that's just my opinion.
 
by kvist
Personally I see a future where everything is UNIX in one form or another. In this Apple is really a follower of the Linux trend, although X is a little more user friendly.
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I think I'll need to take issue with that small statement (meaning I agree with the rest). From my point of view Apple divided into to companies back in the mid 80's, Apple and NeXT. By 1989, NeXT released it's first version of it's operating system for it new NeXTcube computer know then as NeXTstep 0.8. Apple was also working on a new version of it's operating system in 1988 call A/UX 1.0 (Apple UniX, SVR2.2 with Apple's Finder in place of X Windows, though Apple did include it's own complete version of the X Window System that can run within the Finder called MacX). At this point in time it is important to note that both Apple's and NeXT's new operating systems are based on commercial versions of UNIX (AT&T's System V for A/UX and 4.3BSD/Mach for NeXTstep) which kept the price upwards of $800.

Point is, Linux wasn't released until 1991. Apple continued with A/UX, but dropped it when they moved to PowerPC (A/UX was not popular, so Apple decided to use IBM's AIX for there higher end servers instead of porting A/UX and move all their energies to Copland). NeXT continued on with other companies (like Sun) noticing the development environment. In 1995 Sun and NeXT worked together to port both the whole GUI/APIs (basically everything that was on top of the 4.3BSD/Mach system) to the SunOS and the development/runtime environment to Solaris and Windows. This new modular version was given a general name of OpenStep (OPENSTEP was the operating system, OpenStep was the GUI/runtime). That's about were Apple jumped in and bought NeXT.

The contribution of Linux was mainly forcing down the price of other versions of UNIX. The price of NEXTSTEP/OPENSTEP in 1995 was $800 (with an additional $5000 for the developers tools) and would run on your average PC (that is, it would run even on a 486DX with 16MB of RAM and a 120MB hard drive). Mac OS X Server 1.0 was $500 when released, and Mac OS X was $130 (for both the OS and the developers tools). The fact that we don't have to pay huge amounts for our current OS is the one thing we can thank Linux for.
 
by didde
Life without Word? Come on you people.. What are you going to send to your clients and friends when they need an "official document"? Write one in Write Text? I doubt it.
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You could use anything you want (including Word), and then send it as a pdf. If it is an official document, it should not need editing anyway.

When I found out that Word 98 sent extra info from my system with every Word doc, that pretty much killed using Word for me. I had just finished writing a letter shortly before I had heard about this. I opened the letter in BBEdit and found that it included links to the last 15 web sites I had visited.

Sorry, but the security problems with Microsoft products, even some of the Mac versions, just makes it to high a price for me to pay to use them (as if the actual price tag wasn't high enough :D ).
 
Life without Word? Come on you people.. What are you going to send to your clients and friends when they need an "official document"? Write one in Write Text? I doubt it.
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I don't see any problems with PDF for files that don't need to be edited, or RTF for files that do. If I really want to write a Word-compatible file, I use AW and "Save As...".

I've never used Entourage, so I can't say how good it is. Mail works fine for me. I do, however take issue with Outlook and OE on Windows -- specifically the "feature" which automatically opens attachments in emails. This is the stupidest security breach I think I have ever heard of.

Saying that OS X is a little more user friendly than Linux is like saying sugar is a little sweeter than flour. I'd be perfectly comfortable giving OS X to my grandmother -- setup of OS X is ridiculously easy, like all Macintosh products that I have ever seen.
 
I sorta can't live without MS. There are only 2 products from them I use. They are: IE(cause it works best) and WinCE (if its being used on a Sega Dreamcast, as most classic arcade game collections use it, but real games that use it SUCK, as the whole game stops for like 3 sec to load like 2 frames according to ODCM, but most use the Katana OS from Sega (Katana was a DC code name along with Dural and Blackbelt, and Katana is stamped on literally every internal circuit board).
 
Originally posted by didde
Life without Word? Come on you people.. What are you going to send to your clients and friends when they need an "official document"? Write one in Write Text? I doubt it.
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LaTeX all the way.

Nothing written in Word can look more official.

-the valrus
 
Originally posted by nkuvu

Saying that OS X is a little more user friendly than Linux is like saying sugar is a little sweeter than flour. I'd be perfectly comfortable giving OS X to my grandmother -- setup of OS X is ridiculously easy, like all Macintosh products that I have ever seen.
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Yes (I guess I made the statement) and I got an iMac to my father, who's 70+ and he can get around OS X prety well by now.

However, OS X still has a long way to go. We have made a giant leap BACKWARDS in terms of productivity, since many of the most essential applications are still not X-native and those who are haven't (in general) added anything that wasn't there under OS 9.

I'm optimistic for the future. I gather there is work beeing done to let PC-s use Darwin. Am I correct? Now THAT might be a starting point for real worries in the MS board-rooom!
 
Homogenous computing environments are most susceptible to attack. Even an all Mac shop is more susceptible because the attacker has no need to diversify and can just focus on how to approach one type of system.

If you have several machines interoperating via standard protocols that have been designed to be robust and work across diverse and hostile environments... you end up with a much more difficult task for a would-be attacker.

Microsoft is responsible for the waves of e-mail worms that flood across the nation and cost millions in support and repair. Why people don't realize this is beyond me.

I rely on IE because everyone else does... and I need to have an inkling of what they see for my school work (friggin' web pages...)

I do my word processing in Illustrator... spreadsheets too...
 
However, OS X still has a long way to go.
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I won't argue that point -- I really like OS X, and I dislike OS 9, so I am biased.

But would you feel comfortable handing a computer and a Linux disk to a new computer user? I'm quite experienced with computers, and I was able to set up my own FreeBSD box without too much difficulty. But I think that the general newbie computer user should not be given anything more complicated to install than "Wanna install? Click OK, we'll do the rest". Linux and BSD are not anywhere near ready for the new computer user. I'm not just talking about installation of the OS, either. Changing configuration, installing new apps, diagnosing problems, etc, are all much much much easier on a Mac than Unix.

Windows is somewhere in the middle, IMO. But less stable than either... :p

Another thing to add to the instability and security and price tag of Windows (or any MS app) is the new licensing schemes. XP is currently the only thing that I know of that forces you into a draconian "don't touch your hardware" idea (which, ironically, is one of the things that x86 users love most about their systems) but I doubt that it will be long before you have to register Office every three to six months to keep working in it. I also wouldn't be surprised to see a regular (i.e., monthly or yearly) fee to continue to use MS apps. Sound like I am paranoid? Probably. But this is just the direction that MS licensing seems to be going in. No thank you.

One more piece to add to the anti-MS-for-Nkuvu puzzle. Windows hides information from its users. Specifically, web history information. Like RacerX, I've found hidden information when I poked around on my (Windows) hard drive. Yes, that is the OS we're talking about. But I doubt that MS would go to such great lengths to hide history information and not implement that scheme in their best selling apps, like Office. Full details about these hidden files can be found at
http://www.f___microsoft.com/content/ms-hidden-files.shtml (address censored to protect the innocent).
 
Go here whether you are a mac user or a windows user... it is important that every computer user knows what they are or are not supporting. Plus it is a very well written article.

http://www.f microsoft.com/content/whatsbad.shtml

Same censorship mechanism as nkuvu because I fully support all efforts on this board to stay professional.
BACKWARDS in terms of productivity, since many of the most essential applications are still not X-native and those who are haven't (in general) added anything that wasn't there under OS 9.
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Depending on who you are, this might be true but I can't think of any of those people right now. The fact that (almost) everything you previously used still works in classic (at least software wise, maybe not in hardware) makes every new application a step forward. The UNIX platform has brought me a free image utility which may never be as good as photo shop, but it's Free!

Every major piece of Mac software has been ported plus many that were not in the pre X days.
 
stated in Timothy Macinta article
One example of Microsoft's hostility to its existing customers came in September, 2000. Microsoft demanded that the Virginia Beach government account for all copies of Microsoft software that were in use within the government and provide proof of purchase for each product. The reason? "Nick Psyhogeos, a Washington, D.C.-based attorney for Microsoft, said the firm has found that government agencies sometimes inadvertently acquire counterfeit software." There was no mention of a reason why this particular city government was singled out -- they were not investigated because of something which they did to arouse suspicion, but simply because they were a large organization that Microsoft hoped they could frighten more money out of. The city was presumed guilty until proven innocent and this cost the tax payers a great deal of money as the city reassigned 25 percent of its technical work force to work specifically on the task of generating the information demanded by Microsoft.
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This is exactly what happened to one of my clients. I spent a week going through everything to find every piece of Microsoft software in use and then had to provide proof that the software was legal. Of course other than it being a big pain to hunt threw every thing, it did pay for my PowerBook. :D

Still, after all that, I think I would recommend against Microsoft for anyone asking me about getting a system or software.
 
Of course....it would be the closest thing to heaven on earth.

I don't think the asprin manufacturers would like it, loosing all those clients could put them under...


DEATH to Micro$uck! Hip, hip, HORAY!
 
Though I don't need MS products for myself, customers need them because they don't spend more than one hour a day on their PC and that all they give me is .doc.

Which means I need Word to work. DOCtor and AntiWord are not satisfying with spreadsheets, images, kerning/tracking, ligs.

By the way, the PostScript generated by those .doc converters will mess up in RIPs. Thus, most designers have Word because of the customers. Those who don't and use Quark filters have conversion problems and/or still use MS products —_OLE libraries…

Hum… sorry but… what's the point in living without MS ?
 
Can I wave my magic wand? Nope! Can I tell God to make 'em dissapear? Nope! Can I command US goverment to break M$ down? Nope! So, what can I do?

First of all:
-You buy a Mac ;)
-Then you use OmniWeb
-After that you use AppleWorks
-Jaguar and its apps are next
-QuickTimePro6 + DivX is another way
-iApps of course!
-Any Corel, Adobe, Quark, Apple, et al apps are just fine
-MacPlay, Aspyr, et al will provide us with the games
-OpenGL + Quartz + Aqua

And many other things ;)

However, if Mac in order to earn more consumers MUST have M$ apps then let it be so... At our worst moments another saviour can be Connectix!

Seriously though, M$ can die right now because EASILY I can live without them ;) As for other people saying that M$ offers us great technology: Maybe... But then again it offers us less choices by being a monopoly, with their products let other people create malicious apps/utils and the worst of all hardware and software in general!
 
andyes, I could live w/o microsoft. the only thing I use that is by M$ is IE, and I use it rarely now.
 
I wouldn't want to be without Entourage. Ironic isn't it that the biggest competitor makes the best email / PIM program by a long way.

Why can't other companies come anywhere close to doing something as good as Entourage?
 
but I have to qualify that: without MS Office, I cannot work (our clients use it almost exclusively). Without work, I do not get paid. Without money, I cannot live.

Result: I cannot live without Microsoft

Qualification number 2: I could change the line of work--I'm just not really good at anything else but the stuff I'm currently doing
 
I've voted No...I've could have voted Yes...I can live without MS, my clients can't (oh I wished they all bought a Mac..live would B so much easier....). Because my clients use MS I have to use it too. Personally I never use MS unless there's no other way (and that's not often, I even can't think of an example right now:p )
 
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