MS Power Point - DIE

[Chris Fultz]

Interesting thread.

MS office is designed to operate on a huge number of platforms. Since Microsoft does not make hardware, it is up to the System packager (Dell, Gatewy, HP, etc.) to make sure there is compatibility. Some packagers are better than others. It would be nearly impossible for Microsoft to verify that their software works on every possible combination of Dell hardware alone, even more when you multiply that by the number of packagers -

Mac has an advantage because they make both parts - the HW and SW.
That helps with operational issues, but also drives up the cost to you, because there are no Dell-Macs or HP-Macs or anyone-else-Macs.

Despite the problems you name, Office works incredibly well in a business environment and is good because companies can share documents and presentations via. email and e-commerce packages and everyone can see the same message.

I am obviously in the minority in this post, but my views are based on the benefits MS Office (and specifically powerpoint) brings to the workplace.

I am old enough that I was working when secretaries still typed everything on a typewriter, bosses had answering machines, a FAX was a new and novel thing, and presentations were typed words on transparency sheets. We have come a long way in a short time....

[Kyle Fenton]

Originally Posted by Chris Fultz

Interesting thread.

MS office is designed to operate on a huge number of platforms. Since Microsoft does not make hardware, it is up to the System packager (Dell, Gatewy, HP, etc.) to make sure there is compatibility. Some packagers are better than others. It would be nearly impossible for Microsoft to verify that their software works on every possible combination of Dell hardware alone, even more when you multiply that by the number of packagers -

Mac has an advantage because they make both parts - the HW and SW.
That helps with operational issues, but also drives up the cost to you, because there are no Dell-Macs or HP-Macs or anyone-else-Macs.

Despite the problems you name, Office works incredibly well in a business environment and is good because companies can share documents and presentations via. email and e-commerce packages and everyone can see the same message.

I am obviously in the minority in this post, but my views are based on the benefits MS Office (and specifically powerpoint) brings to the workplace.

I am old enough that I was working when secretaries still typed everything on a typewriter, bosses had answering machines, a FAX was a new and novel thing, and presentations were typed words on transparency sheets. We have come a long way in a short time....

Office only runs on two platforms, Wintel and Mac. It is impossible for Microsoft to support 100% of the Wintel hardware out there. However Microsoft requires looking at the computer and giving it an XP certification before a manufacture it releases it to the public.

However I still think PowerPoint still has room for improvement, especially in the media area.

Also, even though Apple makes both the hardware and the software, they still have to support a multitude of configurations. I believe that Apple had made OS X robust enough to make it so.

[ChrisH]

Originally Posted by Chris Fultz

Interesting thread.

Despite the problems you name, Office works incredibly well in a business environment and is good because companies can share documents and presentations via. email and e-commerce packages and everyone can see the same message.

I am obviously in the minority in this post, but my views are based on the benefits MS Office (and specifically powerpoint) brings to the workplace.

I am old enough that I was working when secretaries still typed everything on a typewriter, bosses had answering machines, a FAX was a new and novel thing, and presentations were typed words on transparency sheets. We have come a long way in a short time....

AHHH Yes! back to the days of Xacto word processing and getting high on Whiteout. Talk about a reliable system, never any crashes there, unless somebody forgot to put the cap back on... But even then it was only new work that was affected, the old stuff was always there, in the file drawer, assuming you could remember which presentation you used it in last.

Then there was "sneaker net" where you did your stuff on a computer but had to put it on a floppy (which really was floppy, I still have a couple of 5 1/4" disks around for nostalgia purposes) to carry it over to a machine that had a printer hooked up.

Seriously, Chris is right. In the business environment the Office suite is just about essential. There are other applications out there. But it is really convenient to be able to send a copy of a presentation or other document to my Air Force customer and not have to worry about translation issues. Way back when, in the early days of PCs, it was a real pain when your customer asked for a copy of something and they used Word, while you used WordPerfect or something similar. Then you had to negotiate about what format you were going to send stuff in. As if the other negotiations about trivial things like the price of the contract weren't bad enough.