Tha Microsoft Killa?

[Cadaverous Pallor]

http://www.slate.com/id/2168419/nav/tap3/rss

Could be.

[Alex]

I'd read that.

The concept could be a Microsoft killer though I don't see how that app could be. Maybe I'm out of it but I'm surrounded by professionals, not many of whom make a lot of use of to do lists, and those who do, do so on their PDAs which are always available and with them.

But to truly be a Microsoft killer you have to solve the ownership problem. Few big (or medium, or a lot of small) company is going to allow their documents and communications to be stored outside of the company.

Me sending a work email through Gmail is technically a fireable offense. For productivity software, Microsoft makes it nut in the business marketplace, not the personal one. So to kill Microsoft (at this in this arena) someone is going to have to come up with a Web based (but offline usable) productivity suite that will be accepted as a new standard, as sufficiently secure, and can be maintained within corporate firewalls.

I just don't see it happening. Word is a de facto standard because that is what big companies use which means it is what the employees know which means it is what schools teach so that people can get jobs there which means all the small companies that work with the big companies will use it if they are at all connected at the document level. Employers don't want to spend money on software training, particularly on non-specialist software so they want a broad standard.

OpenOffice and WordPerfect are both perfectly fine products but that has nothing to do with why they are fringe players.

It also seems odd to me to decide that in an era where we're moving increasingly to an always connected environment (I can literally do my 40 mile commute home and have my work laptop never not be connected to the internet if I so wished) that the thing that will finally kill Microsoft is a robust synch feature.

[FEJ]

Google is working on it, but won't kill Microsoft just yet. They are, however doing a good job at crossing all platforms. Their Google Documents and Google Document Apps (designed for business) will give Microsoft a run for their money in that the machine does not need a word or spreadsheet processor on it, as long as it has web connectivity.

[Alex]

Yes, the business products may make some headway in smaller companies. But I work with these issues at the large corporate issue all the time and short of Microsoft actually discontinuing the Office suite of products, nobody else is going to dislodge them. I constantly deal with developing around IT infrastructure from the '60s. Big corporations are amazingly conservative on some things.

And if Google docs does start to make inroads, all Microsoft has to do is release a server based product using their standards and the threat is gone.

I have no problem with the idea that Microsoft will lose in some sub-markets. I just don't see it (as a producer of productivity software) being "killed."

[FEJ]

I am with you on that Alex. MS office will never be killed. Office has it's niche and too many people are used to it.

Microsoft already has an Office Business Server product, Sharepoint Server. (http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointserver/FX100492001033.aspx) It actually works pretty well.

I really like the new version of Open Office for the Mac. I can't wait till it is no longer a beta, and then I can dump all my MS stuff. :)
I also like NeoOffice for an alternative.

As for the 60's infrastructure, it is amazing how many mainframes etc.. are still there and being ported because what they have "still works."
It can make integration with newer technologies harder though.