Microsoft's Tough Night: Google And IBM Both Launch Free Office Products
from the on-your-toes... dept
Just about 24 hours after continued to insist that Microsoft is a monopoly that needs to be restricted, three major tech companies demonstrated why that might not be the case. First up, Google rolled out their long awaited presentations capabilities to Google Docs. Google continues to insist that this is merely a "feature" added to the Google Docs offering, but obviously, this is a light version of PowerPoint. Still, Google seems to recognize that this isn't a full featured offering just yet, and the announcement plays up the biggest strength of Google Docs that can't be matched by Microsoft's Office Suite: the real-time collaboration ability. That's what made the original Writely so useful, and Google seems to recognize that and know to focus on it. My quick test of the software suggests that it works pretty much exactly as you'd expect it to -- which means it's quite simple to pick up and use.While the Google announcement may be more important long-term, it's also worth noting IBM's decision to offer a free downloadable office suite. Way back when, IBM bought Lotus and tried to compete with Microsoft in the online collaboration, email and office suite arena -- and pretty much failed miserably. Sure, there were an awful lot of legacy customers (especially on things like Notes) who kept sending cash to feed the cash cow, but it was clear many years ago that the offering was losing to Microsoft. In recent years, there's been a new interest in office suite applications with the various online offerings from the likes of ThinkFree, Zoho and Google -- as well as via the open source desktop office suite client OpenOffice (and Sun's StarOffice variant). Last week, IBM threw its support behind OpenOffice, and the new free "Lotus Symphony" suite is going to be based on that platform. This could lead to two important things. First, if IBM dedicates increased resources to improving OpenOffice, it can become an even stronger competitor to Microsoft's office suite (and it's already pretty strong) -- similar to the way that IBM added some heft to Linux. However, more importantly, the IBM brand name is likely to go a lot further in enterprises than OpenOffice (or even Sun's StarOffice).
Finally, as we've already discussed, Yahoo's Zimbra purchase gives it a path into enterprise collaboration software as well. If you're Microsoft right now, it would seem you have pretty good evidence that a strong market position is no guarantee of keeping competitors out of the market.
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Filed Under: competition, free, office suites
Companies: google, ibm, microsoft
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Beautiful!
Regardless of who wins the battle, or if it ends in coexistence, I think the incredible forward motion in this area will benefit us all.
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Re: more compatible than Linux
I had to use a Linux LiveCD to get online to download NIC drivers for XP because XP didn't regonize the hardware.
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Re: Re: more compatible than Linux
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Re: Re: Re: more compatible than Linux
last year (or was it the one b4) when fedora 4 got released i decided to start using linux.
the main problem is most of us are so used to windows that it took me 3 weeks to crash fedora behod repair and decided to scrap the installation and go back to XP.
as for office 2007 stay away from it im sticking to my 2003 copy till i finally DL open office.
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Compatible compared to what?
So, don't boast about M$. Compatibility has nothing to do with their software and everything to do with the hardware manufacturers bowing to the whims of a monopolist.
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Google And IBM Both Launch Free Office Products
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Now only if...
"Just about 24 hours after continued to insist..." after, what again?
I'm not picking on this author, the trend is everywhere. Pick up a newspaper, magazine, advertisement, and even that flyer for the school fundraiser, and stare in amazement. Proof yet again that all the technological advances in the world cannot make up for a good education and that old-fashioned "read your paper before you turn it in" strategy.
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MS will always have a large share of the market but I believe the key word for the future is 'share'. They won't be able to dictate to the market file formats that only work with their software. Standard file formats will become a commodity leaving the software companies to compete on value added service such as collaboration, templates, etc.
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Glitches?
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Re #6
It suffices for everything I need.
Best part, free and legal, the way I like it.
I honestly have no clue why corporations spend so much money on MS Office anymore.
When my business gets going (I am going to help run a business, scary huh?) OpenOffice will be on all of our machines.
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Re: Re #6
I honestly have no clue why corporations spend so much money on MS Office anymore.
That would be due to a little security blanket called "brand name". Like it not Microsoft Office is a will known and very popluar brand name. Yes there are plenty of cheaper and free alternatives to Office but Microsoft has an established track record in the eyes of businesses. Add that to the fact that businesses are too scared to try out a new product (and can you really blame a multimillion dollar corporation being scared to go out on a limb with a program whose unreliability may cost millions?) and Microsft has the recipe for a stranglehold.
On the home computer front Microsoft will be taken out visciously. For the 2-4 times a year I need to type something that WordPad/NotePad cannot handle I use OpenOffice as well.
Microsoft may convince a multimillion dollar company to spend thousands on Office but there is no way they can convince me to spend hundrends on Office for just my personal pc.
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Re: Re: Re #6
Chris.
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Training costs
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Am I the only one....
Anyone else?
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Microsoft as monopoly
I didn't realize people were calling Microsoft a monopoly, but they are accusing them of monopolistic behavior. Bundled packages to undermine third party software, vendor lock-in agreements so they have to exclusively support Microsoft in order to do business with them, leveraging desktop dominance in order to push non-OS related software, etc. These are all practices they were found guilty of long ago, and to date there hasn't been much change in their practices.
The bonus is that Google and IBM have been forced to do an end-run around the problem so they don't have to deal directly with the Microsoft desktop. Thus we have Google Apps.
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News flash
Microsoft was convicted in US Federal Court, and the EU has also registered judgments against them. Welcome to the 21st century.
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Re #11
They have made great advancements while still keeping the system small and sleek and cool, like in the spy world, because there you do not want to say look at how big and clunky this is (somebody name the movie, granted its more of a paraphrase =D ).
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Re #8 & 9
#9
I know about the brand name. However, some states even (and you know how slow the government is) are starting to open their eyes.
I believe it was Vermont(? one of the new england states up there) declared that they will only use open office and open source format documents. No clue on how far they are into implementing that, but they did announce it a few months back (like at least 8).
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Re #15
They are just scared and like most people, resistant to change, even if for the better.
Training to use OpenOffice, lol. Silly silly silly.
Unless the user needed training to use even the basics of M$ office, which if they know how to use Office, they should know how to use OpenOffice.
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alternative office suites... yay!
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Sold out
Having said that, I may very well start using OO again for my writing, and just have both installed. IBM's backing will simply make a good app better.
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Too late
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IBM doesn't develop anything, only does timekeeping and invoicing and receivables. It can only offer its name at this point.
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Projity with OpenProj has compete replacement of M
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Megaupload downloading
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ew
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