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Google Apps doesn't cut it for more than a casual business user. The spreadsheet is hideously slow and doesn't integrate with the real data sources that organi

Google Apps doesn't cut it for more than a casual business user. The spreadsheet is hideously slow and doesn't integrate with the real data sources that organisations use, there is no equation editor for docs (a big risk if you ask me when someone technical comes along) and due to the "cloud" nature, it doesn't deal with the legal and confidentiality requirements of most businesses. It's also lacking in OOB solutions like invoices, purchase orders and reasonable looking templates etc. Word 2007, Excel 2007 and TortoiseSVN (which has the ability to merge excel and word docs) any day. If you're cheaping out, OpenOffice is still much better. Google Apps is a step backwards indeed.

mechanical_fish 17y ago
In my business, the sharing feature of Google Apps trumps all of the missing features that you mention. It does mean that the use cases for Google Apps are all subtly different from their Office counterparts. Yes, the spreadsheet isn't for classic spreadsheet applications (like financial projections or heavy-duty number crunching); it's better suited as a kind of HTML table display that's easy to update and can do simple sums. The word processor is like a very fancy WYSIWYG HTML editor -- but, in a world where almost nothing that I type is destined for print, that feels quite appropriate to me. Very few people in my company generate invoices or POs. When I did so as a freelancer I used special-purpose web apps. There are also special-purpose equation editors (Mathtype) for the two people in your organization who actually use them on a regular basis. (I used them far more in school than I ever did in real life. I managed to work half a decade as a research physicist without touching one more than twice. Sheets of paper are a marvelous invention. ;)
- smithjchris 17y ago
  Err, we just use TortoiseSVN for document management. The documents go in with the source code. You can merge stuff, have multiple authors working on the same document, get a full revision history and do all that other junk that Google docs does. Plus it's in house, works over the web (over https) and can safely be delivered over our VPN solution without having to rely on a 3rd party like Google for security, storage and availability. There is a LOT of benefit in being able to wake up our sysadmin and fix something that is down rather than wait on Google to do it. Word costs us virtually nothing thanks to MAPS[1] from microsoft which gives us 10x Vista, 10x Office for $350 the lot (for internal use) and a couple of copies of windows 2008 server and an exchange license. There's no point in fishing out $100 for mathtype - Word 2007 is very close now. [1] https://partner.microsoft.com/40016455 https://partner.microsoft.com/40016455
biohacker42 17y ago
TortoiseSVN (which has the ability to merge excel and word docs) I did not know that! I'm hoping tortoisegit adds it as well.
- smithjchris 17y ago
  It's easy enough to add. It's just a bunch of hooks that call into word and excel's internal diff and merge stuff.

mechanical_fish 17y ago

In my business, the sharing feature of Google Apps trumps all of the missing features that you mention. It does mean that the use cases for Google Apps are all subtly different from their Office counterparts. Yes, the spreadsheet isn't for classic spreadsheet applications (like financial projections or heavy-duty number crunching); it's better suited as a kind of HTML table display that's easy to update and can do simple sums. The word processor is like a very fancy WYSIWYG HTML editor -- but, in a world where almost nothing that I type is destined for print, that feels quite appropriate to me. Very few people in my company generate invoices or POs. When I did so as a freelancer I used special-purpose web apps. There are also special-purpose equation editors (Mathtype) for the two people in your organization who actually use them on a regular basis. (I used them far more in school than I ever did in real life. I managed to work half a decade as a research physicist without touching one more than twice. Sheets of paper are a marvelous invention. ;)

smithjchris 17y ago
Err, we just use TortoiseSVN for document management. The documents go in with the source code. You can merge stuff, have multiple authors working on the same document, get a full revision history and do all that other junk that Google docs does. Plus it's in house, works over the web (over https) and can safely be delivered over our VPN solution without having to rely on a 3rd party like Google for security, storage and availability. There is a LOT of benefit in being able to wake up our sysadmin and fix something that is down rather than wait on Google to do it. Word costs us virtually nothing thanks to MAPS[1] from microsoft which gives us 10x Vista, 10x Office for $350 the lot (for internal use) and a couple of copies of windows 2008 server and an exchange license. There's no point in fishing out $100 for mathtype - Word 2007 is very close now. [1] https://partner.microsoft.com/40016455 https://partner.microsoft.com/40016455

biohacker42 17y ago

TortoiseSVN (which has the ability to merge excel and word docs) I did not know that! I'm hoping tortoisegit adds it as well.

smithjchris 17y ago
It's easy enough to add. It's just a bunch of hooks that call into word and excel's internal diff and merge stuff.