Skippy.org.uk

Microsoft are giving office away to students, well selling at a low price (Microsoft Office 2007 Ultimate Edition for £12.95 (1 year) or £38.95 (perpetual license - i.e.: forever) - usually the software costs £599.99), and who can blaim them.

Rich and Ben (who’s permilinks never seem to work) have been descusing this on Planet TermiSoc. Some of you may remember i was a Office 2007 Beta Tester, and I still use parts of Office 2007 today[1]. so i though i would join in on this one and comment on some of the points.

1. Open Office V Microsoft Office 2007
   Microsoft Office 2007’s Visual interface is new, [please do not read good/better], yes some people have usability problems with OO, however at least it looks the same as office 2003. Open Office has a few quirks, but it is usable by my parents, (without them knowing i changed them over), i use it on my laptop, and my desktop as my office suit of choice, i have no need at the moment for any of the fetchers OO seems to be short on (cant think of any) oh and i dont wory about the lack of shiney ness in OO. My BIGEST complaint at the moment with MSO2k7[2] is does any one know how to wind back the interface? and why make it so hard to sort out file format prefrances? can we not have a per user choice? or per computer (Office is per application, per user.)
2. Outlook, whilst uncaring about other mail clients, is a DAMN good calendar system
   And I agree, its also Great with my phone (have a look at this if you use a smart phone). Thunderbird is good, Sunbird Sucks, Vista Mail, well its an email client… Evolution, well just have a go.
   Outlooks spam filtering still sucks majorly (even when switched off it eats ham, and lets through blatant spam), as for the standards compliance of Outlook? well lets not go there.
3. OneNote, is it worth it?
   OneNote used to be a killer app for me! truly it rocked my world, it was great, well then the Honeymoon ended when it got slower and harder to run [read 2003 turned into 2007] my application of choice now? well have a look at TiddlyWiki. It does most of the usefull things of OneNote, but its free, and fast. Ben doesn’t like it because its a JavaScript Wiki. but its easy to sync, and update, oh and if some one wants a copy of one, it emails. (requires an internet browser with Java Script)
4. biggest stumbling block for Rich - no Mac option.
   Now call me paranoid, but i suspect that is a marketing ploy.. MS are trying to drag Mac users into buying a copy of windows, or a PC to keep the Mac users from leaving PC’s all together,
5. Publisher
   Well ok, so it sucks, A LOT, but if the challenge is to make a professional brochure, then yes. if its a Christmas card your making for your Gran…. its easy(ish) to use, and gives quick turnarounds, so what if it sucks. what else is there out there for Grannies card, (don’t point me to Crater Card 2.1 for £9.99 in WHS)

All in all OpenOffice is good for what you pay for it, and MSO2k7 is expensive, but in summary i suspect that the entire idea is to stop mass MAC migration, and Piracy, after all how much software can you get given to you from a mate?, and along with the MSDNA Windows offers, it can help keep Uni Students on the MS path for life.

• [1] I still use Outlook 2007
• [2] MSO2k7 would mean Microsoft office 2700 (2k7 = 2.7k) unless that is them telling you it will be the latest version till 2700