3 ms·

Quite frankly I'm glad. In my opinion, Microsoft just isn't a very good company. Their products have market share mostly due to inertia, the same way Facebook

by na85 12y ago

Quite frankly I'm glad. In my opinion, Microsoft just isn't a very good company. Their products have market share mostly due to inertia, the same way Facebook still clings to users. "Everyone uses Office", so therefore everyone uses Office.

Chronic29 12y ago
Market share is market share
- dublinben 12y ago
  And document standards are standards, except when MS Office ignores them.
seanmcdirmid 12y ago
Disclaimer: MS employee, China even. This article is just a diatribe against MS with no interesting or accurate content. Censorship just sucks whether its Facebook, Google, or OneDrive. Trust me, I live it. And let's not even get started on the blub attack (i.e. people buy Microsoft/Apple/etc...because...marketing! Not because the alternatives sucks so badly...). <sarcasm> I personally prefer Latex, and everyone else is stupid for using office suites with bad keming </sarcasm>.
ams6110 12y ago
If Microsoft isn't very good, then I guess Wordstar, Wordperfect, Lotus, Ashton-Tate, Harvard Graphics, et. al. were worse. These companies produced widely used word processing, spreadsheet, database, and presentation software before Microsoft entered any of these markets. True most were DOS-based and Microsoft had the insider's advantage building software for Windows, but ultimately MS software succeeded because users liked it, at least compared to the alternatives. I've used many of the alternatives: Open Office, LibreOffice, AbiWord, Gnumeric, Koffice; none of them hold a candle to Microsoft Office when you get beyond basic functionality. Everyone uses Office, because it is the best option for most people. I myself use LaTeX and Emacs whenever possible, and find AbiWord and Gnumeric usable for many things, but in no way do these tools substitute for Office for most people.

3 ms·

Quite frankly I'm glad. In my opinion, Microsoft just isn't a very good company. Their products have market share mostly due to inertia, the same way Facebook

by na85 12y ago

Chronic29 12y ago
Market share is market share
- dublinben 12y ago
  And document standards are standards, except when MS Office ignores them.
seanmcdirmid 12y ago
Disclaimer: MS employee, China even. This article is just a diatribe against MS with no interesting or accurate content. Censorship just sucks whether its Facebook, Google, or OneDrive. Trust me, I live it. And let's not even get started on the blub attack (i.e. people buy Microsoft/Apple/etc...because...marketing! Not because the alternatives sucks so badly...). <sarcasm> I personally prefer Latex, and everyone else is stupid for using office suites with bad keming </sarcasm>.
ams6110 12y ago
If Microsoft isn't very good, then I guess Wordstar, Wordperfect, Lotus, Ashton-Tate, Harvard Graphics, et. al. were worse. These companies produced widely used word processing, spreadsheet, database, and presentation software before Microsoft entered any of these markets. True most were DOS-based and Microsoft had the insider's advantage building software for Windows, but ultimately MS software succeeded because users liked it, at least compared to the alternatives. I've used many of the alternatives: Open Office, LibreOffice, AbiWord, Gnumeric, Koffice; none of them hold a candle to Microsoft Office when you get beyond basic functionality. Everyone uses Office, because it is the best option for most people. I myself use LaTeX and Emacs whenever possible, and find AbiWord and Gnumeric usable for many things, but in no way do these tools substitute for Office for most people.