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Microsoft Office and Virtual PC at MWSF 2004?
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I am basing the Apple office on recent rumours. There is no evidence that they will make an office suite (especially as it's a massive task, more than anything else) but it is still something that they may do in the future. The release of Keynote has the effect of sparking office rumours as it is a direct rival to PowerPoint.
PowerPoint is not that bad - it still makes use of a number of QuickTime and Mac OS X abilities that the PC version does not have, and for this reason I think it is superior to the Windows version.
The absense of any decent update to AppleWorks has also added fuel to the rumours as it is expected that this means it is due for a massive overhaul. Apple probably wants to reduce its reliance on Microsoft on the Mac platform, as and office suite is something that most people who buy a computer need.
PowerPoint is not that bad - it still makes use of a number of QuickTime and Mac OS X abilities that the PC version does not have, and for this reason I think it is superior to the Windows version.
The absense of any decent update to AppleWorks has also added fuel to the rumours as it is expected that this means it is due for a massive overhaul. Apple probably wants to reduce its reliance on Microsoft on the Mac platform, as and office suite is something that most people who buy a computer need.
I don't think even Apple could provide people what they ultimately need in an Office suite: 100% perfect, flawless compatibility with Office for Windows.
There's no such thing as being "good enough" or "close enough" in an enterprise situation where you need the file to open perfectly, every time. I think as long as MS is doing a decent job with Office, the only Apple word processors you'll see updated are Appleworks and TextEdit (which in Panther, by the way, has nice basic Word doc support.)
There's no such thing as being "good enough" or "close enough" in an enterprise situation where you need the file to open perfectly, every time. I think as long as MS is doing a decent job with Office, the only Apple word processors you'll see updated are Appleworks and TextEdit (which in Panther, by the way, has nice basic Word doc support.)
My boyfriend uses Outlook 2003. When he raves to me abut some of the new features, my response is usually "That's already in Entourage" (except for a few features).
First, Microsoft is probably updating Entourage drastically the same reason they did to Outlook 2003: MS knows there are Mac users in most organizations, and for those with the Exchange server backend, they want to have a cleitn that work as well with Exchange as possible. And, they probably know a good majority of Mac users use Entourage as their primary e-mail app. Microsoft's Office division wants to keep that desktop dominance.
I'm not slamming people here, but those who say they want an Apple office suite or OpenOffice are missing a big point: a proprietary suite for the Mac will only serve to marginalize the Mac OS platform even more. Apple knows this, and may compete with Microsoft on a couple of applications (Safari, Keynote) - but no way will they risk shrinking its user base. Keynote is a nice app, if you do Mac only presentations - but I stick to PowerPoint (as I suspect 90% of Mac users wil) because they need to interact with the 90% of people who use Windows. Plain as that.
If you want to use OpenOffice to be defiant, go ahead. I hope whoever you are, you don't have to work with Windows users. For the rest of us Mac pragmatists, I think we'll continue to use Office because we live in the real world and recognize the necessity. AND...we'll continue to bitch and moan about Office the SAME way PC users do.
I work in a large government as an IT manager. I am the only one in my department using a Mac, and I have to interact with my clients in the 60+ other departments. And I know I'm not an atypical corporate Mac user. We need Office to get the job done. When I do presentations, I need to use PowerPoint; when we are doing our fiscal year budget I need Excel; and when I read reports, RFPs, statements of work, etc. I need Word. Office was a KEY decision for me - and others, I'll bet - to switch.
Am I the only one who thinks this is funny ???
"Microsoft Office 2003" for Mac would be released in the Summer of 2004.
"Microsoft Office 2003" for Mac would be released in the Summer of 2004.
Any chance that MS will let me upgrade to the FULL office from only Entourage?
I bought E to replace the minimalist Mail and combine it with my PDA activities, but whilst working with the officeDemo thought it would be nice to have the complete package -- only there is no discounted way of doing so.
I bought E to replace the minimalist Mail and combine it with my PDA activities, but whilst working with the officeDemo thought it would be nice to have the complete package -- only there is no discounted way of doing so.
This says they did:
http://maccentral.macworld.com/news/2004/01/06/microsoft/
As for Office looking nice... it looks like bloatware to me... though I didn't think it could get any more bloated.
Any word on http://koffice.org/ being ported to OS X?
I surely was hoping for a Demo of Virtual PC comaptible with a G5....
Office looks OK, not too different from the v. X one we know, IMHO.
I was suprised that they didn't mention Virtual PC also.
I was very impressed by Office 2004. Had forgot that Word was 1st introduced for the Mac in 1984, but in actuality I purchased that product it was in a black box. The thing that impressed me the most was Notes with audio that will be awesome for taking notes in a lecture, I always end up missing something.
For those of you who maybe wondering if Microsoft is coming out with Virtual PC 7 as speculated over the past several weeks, well your wish has been granted. I'm not sure if Macworld discussed the new VPC 7.0 (since my connection was awful thanks to the ample amount of bandwidth by Apple (sarcastic)) but the following link is the official post from Microsoft's PressPass Page.
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2004/Jan04/01-06Office2004IntentPR.asp
And yes, it does support the new G5 processors.
-Krikor
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2004/Jan04/01-06Office2004IntentPR.asp
And yes, it does support the new G5 processors.
-Krikor