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Home > Archive > General Discussion > July 2001 > 10 reasons to upgrade to Office XP?
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10 reasons to upgrade to Office XP?
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| If u see the MS Office XP advertisment, there 10 reasons to upgrade to XP. Which reason is most attractive to u?
> Smart Tags
> Task Pane
> Data Access and Analysis
> Application/Doucment Recovery
> Send for Review
> Integrated Messaging
> SharePoint Team Services
> XML Support
> Advanced Outlook Secruity
> SImplified Deployment and Control | |
| Bobby Digital 2001-07-06, 6:07 pm |
| I don't know about anyone else, but none of those reasons are good enough for me to have my department switch to XP or for me to switch at home (I'll continue to use Office 2000 and slowly switch to StarOffice 5.2 until StarOffice 6 arrives).
Too much money for a bunch of extras that a person will probably not use day-to-day.
BD | |
| Nicole 2001-07-06, 7:32 pm |
| Ditto -- nothing worth an upgrade for me. Although Access now supports Pivot Charts which is VERY cool. (Useless things, if you ask me, but everyone is convinced of your Office superiority and the bosses LOVE 'em.)
Microsoft's idea of improving productivity seems to revolve around the concept that we are all jet-setting across the world and sending documents to each other for comments. This is fine if they want to cater to consultants, but since PowerPoint is woefully behind the basic functionality of the rest of Office, they're not inpressing the consultants.
Nor are they improving the productivity of the folks that do 99% of the actual work in Office, which is to say secretaries and admin assistants. | |
| Bobby Digital 2001-07-06, 7:52 pm |
| True @ Nicole. Microsoft doesn't realize that the large majority of Office users (i.e. secretaries, administrative assistantants, etc.) use their project to basically type up and format documents, develop spreadsheets, and then print them out. My department is still using Office 97 because it does the needed task.
Companies should start marketing Corel and Lotus like crazy now. This would be the right time to put a dent in Microsoft's market share. | |
| Nicole 2001-07-07, 9:22 am |
| I used to be a huge Lotus SmartSuite fan, then IBM bought them and they went downhill. AmiPro was fantastic... WordPro seemed a little cumbersome. I haven't seen the latest versions -- I wonder if they are trying to emulate MicroSoft or if they are making their own road. I know Corel has taken WordPerfect to some very interesting places, unfortunately no one seemed to pick up on what they were doing. | |
| Randy 2001-07-07, 10:39 am |
| I agree. Of all the office utilities the only ones I use are Access and Word. Access is for quick and dirty database development, and Word I may use time to time for basic Word processing. It annoyed me some time ago when I thought these simple tools were becoming too complicated. I am sure that 95% precent of the "features" I will never even know about, let alone use . . . | |
| Pavlov 2001-07-07, 11:20 am |
| I just reformatted my computer and made the leap from Win Me to Win2k. When I tried to reinstall Office XP it wouldn't let me. It said the key code was invalid. I doubled, triple, quadruple-checked. The key code is the same one I used to install it the first time!
Big brother takes too much control if I need to contact them every time I decide to play around with my OS. If I decide to jump to Win XP or Win .NET or whatever the heck they plan on calling it would I again need to contact M$ to reactivate my Office suite? That's bogus!
Going back to the purpose of Office - how productive is it if M$ needs to be involved every time you modify some hardware? Also, agreed there was absolutely no increase in functionality with XP - if anything it made some editing features more difficult to work with because of its highly intuitive clipboard function.
Just my opinion - anyway I went back to Office 2000 - it's plenty big enough for me.  | |
| Nicole 2001-07-07, 11:49 am |
| quote:
Originally posted by Pavlov
Big brother takes too much control if I need to contact them every time I decide to play around with my OS. If I decide to jump to Win XP or Win .NET or whatever the heck they plan on calling it would I again need to contact M$ to reactivate my Office suite? That's bogus!
Yep, you do. Or even a "substantial" hardware upgrade. Whatever that is. Does upgrading my laptop from 64MB to 192MB count as "substantial" to Microsoft? (Woohoo... $49... about time laptop RAM came down in prices too!) In reality it IS a major upgrade, but they said something about a RAM upgrade not counting. What about laptop users who have multi-bays? Whoops, I put in my floppy and I have to call Microsoft again...
quote:
Also, agreed there was absolutely no increase in functionality with XP - if anything it made some editing features more difficult to work with because of its highly intuitive clipboard function.
I hate that sucker in Office 2000 -- I know they made it work for 24 items in XP instead of 12, but has it also changed the way it works -- i.e. be MORE intrusive?
I have the trial CD, but I haven't installed it yet since it will certainly break my Office 2K install, and I need that for a project at the moment. | |
| intraweb 2001-07-08, 1:14 am |
| TOP ONE REASON TO UPGRADE TO XP (WINDOWS OR OFFICE):
1. 'You have NO Choice'
Eventually you HAVE to upgrade, regardless. Maybe not this version, but eventually your software becomes to outdated.
Is it worth the upgrade? NO, it is just another rip-off and garbage program from MS. I mean Office XP, and Windows XP cost MORE than my new fully loaded Dell 1Ghz system - sounds fair right?
There are potentially thousands of bugs in Office XP (big suprise huh?). I have found so many already it is laughable at this point. Yet it is being hailed as one of the best breakthrough products by MS in years. Imagine if Ford made a car that had 1000 recalls in two years, how many people would buy that car? Imagine if that was the ONLY car you could buy on the market - you'd still buy it, because you have no choice.
Just my opinion.... | |
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| Now THAT sounds like the only real reason to upgrade that I have heard do far! | |
| Pavlov 2001-07-08, 8:44 am |
| Ahhh, but I DO have a choice. First of all, the software will not become outdated. It still works and does all that a simple office suite NEEDS to do. To upgrade is a choice. To my knowledge this is still a democratic society 
Second, when I've decided that M$ has had enough of my money and I absolutely have to have that new rich feature in Office to make my entire resume an animated GIF, I might consider other office suites. Contrary to popular belief, MS Office is not the only suite in town. I can load Corel Office suite and use Corel Draw instead of powerpoint since it's a much more robust graphic presentation package anyway.
Face it, M$ has a monopoly and they do need to be split up.
Think of it this way, which computer could the average consumer (not the techie geek such as ourselves comfortable with building a system of our own) go into the local computer store (CompUSA, BestBuy, RadioShack, wherever) and come out with a system NOT running MS OS and bundled with the worst piece of crap (MS Works)? I would love to be able to go to CompUSA and tell the 14 year old clerk selling the system that I really don't want to pay for the OS since I don't like MS and want Linux. He would just simply say, "I'm sorry, we can't do that". MS is in bed with every damn equipment manufacturer and quite frankly, I am sick of it! I have always liked their products but this is out of control now. The average consumer doesn't even realize there are other OSs besides MS and there are other word processors besides Word, etc.
Okay - enough of this from me. I apologize up front to all the Bill Gates huggers. Take this with a grain of salt. After all, I too am running Win2kPro and Server in my home and all systems are running MS Office. I just don't agree with having to contact the vendor every time I change my system.  | |
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| Try and convince the corporations that that is true. My main machine runs FreeBSD . . . none of that stuff runs on my computer, but it'll be a cold day in hell when the corporations start doing the same for desktops on any large scale. | |
| Bobby Digital 2001-07-09, 7:36 am |
| Everybody has their opinion about Microsoft (I have a few myself), but you have to realize that they are a corporation out to make money. Period. Think about it. They have marketed their products so well and made people so depended on them and ease of use that many people will pay the higher prices and deal with product activation without a peep. Very smart business move. It's all about marketing.
Here is another thing to think about. Your average user/consumer is not going to tinker around with their computer(s) like some of us technicians, techies, geeks, tech-heads, etc. Many do not upgrade their hardware every two or three months. They go to CompUSA or Best Buy, pick out what they want, take it home, set it up and that's it. As long as it does what they purchased it for they are fine. Like a baby with a bottle. For those who are upgrading their OS, it will be a one time setup/activation. As long as they can get onto the Internet it's no big hassle. They are a lot more average users than techs in the world, so who do you think they are going to cater to the most?
Another thing is that people are still using older software. Look at the number of people still using Office 97. Why? Because it does what they need it to do. A lot of people are not concerned with all the "fancy" extras of Office XP and even Office 2000 to an extent. Plus, if all you need is a word processor, why buy the whole office suite. Just buy Word and so on. The ones who do upgrade are going to keep that version for years to come.
Now in my opinion, this would be a perfect opportunty for Apple (yes I said Apple), Corel, Lotus, and Sun to market their products. Image if Corel or Lotus sold their full office suite for about $150 to $250. Sun's StarOffice is already free. It just needs a little more exposure.
Think about what choices a consumer has when buying a computer. Windows based PC or Macs. A lot of people consider Macs to be "toys", but it lets you perform the necessary tasks needed. You can pretty much do everything on a Mac that you can on a PC (except for gaming to an extent). Some may say Linux (or another UNIX inspired OS), but put it in front of the average user. Many users have a hard enough time using Windows. People don't want to deal with command line prompts or compiling programs. Point and click. Drag and drop. Auto-installation. KISS.
Now don't get me wrong, I have my issues with Microsoft, but I understand that they are a business out to make money first and formost. I just don't want to jump on the "I-hate-Microsoft-because-they-are-evil-trying-to-take-over-the-world" bandwagon. This has grown to become more of a fad and cult following for many people.
Just my two cents :-)
BD | |
| Nicole 2001-07-09, 8:09 am |
| I agree and I disagree. I agree the M$ is out to make money, and they do a darn tooting good job of it. (Nor do I necessarily think they should be punished by the courts for making too much money, but their monopolistic practices do need to be addressed.)
Yes, the average consumer won't say a word. But the big market for Office is not in the consumer world, it's in the business world. Their licensing scheme -- although I applaud their efforts in that direction -- is poorly executed. They've been testing the scheme in Australia, it pisses people off, it doesn't work well, and yet they still release it everywhere. What else is new.
Why do you think that corporate users, at least those on licensing programs, don't have to deal with these activation keys? I bet they will next version, though. Can you even imagine the havoc that would play on a large corporation, especially if delivering some piece of new software via their server (say, something not MS) disabled all the copies of Office??? You'd almost require a person JUST to handle your MS licensing -- no wait, you buy a subscription and MS automatically sends you the latest buggy software updates via the internet. That sounds like fun! The licensing program has moved to a subscription model already, although it's not forcing updates on you yet.
It's like the way you boil a frog... you warm up the water slowly. As an IT Manager, I'd fight tooth and nail to keep that kind of problem out of my company, so long as MicroSoft continues to release very buggy software with major security loopholes (such as Windows.NET). I might get overruled.
I dearly hope MS alters the path they are on. They probably will -- their "vision" changes every few months. Personally, I think a lot of corporations will balk at hiring extra IT personnel just to deal with MS' anti-piracy programs, and the first time a call center crashes because Office decided to invalidate itself because too many changes were made to the computer...
<steps off soapbox> | |
| Bobby Digital 2001-07-09, 9:42 am |
| Well, one "funny" thing has already happened with Office XP concerning it's product activation. One company that I read about could not get it activated because of their firewall. Imagine as an adminstrator having to make changes to allow for product activation.
I do agree with you in that the large market for Office is the corporate world. That is why they do not have to worry about product activation (or at least they shouldn't have to). The ones who are really "affected" by this are the home users/consumers. The home users who are the "pirates who are costing Microsoft millions a year".
Just imagine if all the home users decided to move to Macs because of this? I doubt it would happen (unless Apple lowers their prices and gets the bugs out of OS X), but just think about the how it would affect Microsoft.
BD | |
| Nicole 2001-07-09, 11:24 am |
| quote:
Well, one "funny" thing has already happened with Office XP concerning it's product activation. One company that I read about could not get it activated because of their firewall. Imagine as an adminstrator having to make changes to allow for product activation.
Hmmm. If a company with more than 5 employees or so ISN'T on a licensing program, then they kinda deserve the trouble. Lots of $ wasted there, not to mention far too many copies of CDs and manuals around to keep track of.
The next version of Office (Office.NET? XP-2?) will in theory require some sort of activation scheme, so the BIG messes are a couple of years off. And no doubt some variation will start appearing with all MS products, including OS'. Hopefully the major bugs will be worked out by then, not so much by experimenting on the masses of technically-challenged home users, but rather folks like us who try to stay ahead of the curve.
I can't wait for those smart programmer types to write drivers for USB, DVD and the rest for Linux. My copy of Caldera Linux running on my desktop experimental machine is rather nice, with a very intelligent, stable GUI -- Windows-like, but more flexible and intuitive. Unfortunately, it doesn't support my modem (a cheapie WinModem) or my Alps USB printer. Or my USB CD-RW. Soon... | |
| Bobby Digital 2001-07-09, 12:40 pm |
| @ Nicole: as far as a modem for linux, have you tried Actiontec's Call Waiting internal modem?
http://www.actiontec.com/products/m...i_overview.html
It is supposed to be compatible with linux. I bought one out of a discount rack , but I haven't tried it yet. | |
| Nicole 2001-07-09, 12:52 pm |
| Thanks for the info. It's good to see one out there with drivers ready out of the box. I understand that there are several drivers written that will work with various (hardware) modems, but they are tough to figure out which one goes where.
Since the machine in question is no longer "in use," I will have to wait for goodies for my laptop. | |
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| Very strong feelback!
I guess the commerical and the advertisement don't work on the professional eyes. | |
| Bobby Digital 2001-07-09, 9:31 pm |
| :-) @ Kasor |
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