So, let's see: Microsoft DROPS the price of office, announces a bundle with additional features, promises support for VPC, and this gets more negative than positive votes? Unbelievable.
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New Office Versions and Virtual PC 6.1
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No individual VPC
One thing I'm not seeing is an individual copy of VPC being sold. This just once again shows how M$ went and messed things up. So, when is some other x86 emulator coming out?
On the bright side, most of us are using Macs and were unaffected by the MSBlaster worm...my girlfriend's computer got affected, and she spent about 5 hours last night trying to get the thing cleared up so the computer would stop continually restarting.
Yet, M$'s stock went up a few cents yesterday, and today, it has only gone down 9 cents. What ignorant !%@# investors are. If Apple has even a hiccup, their stock tumbles down five dollars.
One thing I'm not seeing is an individual copy of VPC being sold. This just once again shows how M$ went and messed things up. So, when is some other x86 emulator coming out?
On the bright side, most of us are using Macs and were unaffected by the MSBlaster worm...my girlfriend's computer got affected, and she spent about 5 hours last night trying to get the thing cleared up so the computer would stop continually restarting.
Yet, M$'s stock went up a few cents yesterday, and today, it has only gone down 9 cents. What ignorant !%@# investors are. If Apple has even a hiccup, their stock tumbles down five dollars.
(Don't trust) those broken promises
And what does a Microsoft promise mean to you? To me, it probably means they will only sell VPC with MS Office, and even then, probably only with the XP edition, thus cutting out the DOS, 9x, and Linux versions.
[Admin Edit: This is NOT what it means. click here]
And what does a Microsoft promise mean to you? To me, it probably means they will only sell VPC with MS Office, and even then, probably only with the XP edition, thus cutting out the DOS, 9x, and Linux versions.
[Admin Edit: This is NOT what it means. click here]
Why in the world would anyone want to run linux under x86 emulation on Mac hardware? OS X is ALREADY a unix-based system. I can't think of a single Linux application that wouldn't compile and run natively under OS X (maybe requiring Apple's X11).
Re: Re-activate?!?
What I wonder about, however, is whether MS has added some type of activation process for VPC. So is it possible that VPC 6.1 is now tied to a single Mac and installation just like Windows XP? Maybe VPC 6.1 requires an activation through MS before it will work.
What I wonder about, however, is whether MS has added some type of activation process for VPC. So is it possible that VPC 6.1 is now tied to a single Mac and installation just like Windows XP? Maybe VPC 6.1 requires an activation through MS before it will work.
Re: No individual VPC
People are so quick to judge:
http://www.microsoft.com/mac/products/virtualpc/virtualpc.aspx?pid=howtobuy
People need to stop making assumptions and crying out that the sky is falling... when it is not.
arn
People are so quick to judge:
http://www.microsoft.com/mac/products/virtualpc/virtualpc.aspx?pid=howtobuy
People need to stop making assumptions and crying out that the sky is falling... when it is not.
arn
And what about teachers and students who need VPC? Why aren't there four versions and four prices: Standard, Standard+VPC, Standard for Teachers and Students, and Standard+VPC for Teachers and Students?
RE: Open Office
I agree with xtechdiver that Open Office is not prime time, but it is free and I would encourage anyone interested to download Apple's X11 installer and Open Office (as long as you have free space). It is fun to use and was my introduction to the X11 system.
What I think Microsoft may be doing is trying to simply sell more copies of XP. I sometimes have a reason to want a Windows program on my powerbook, but never enough to buy a copy of Virtual PC and XP. However, if I got Virtual PC "free" with office, it would be much more tempting to get XP. In fact, think of all the users with Virtual PC who will feel like that app is wasted until they get a Microsoft OS...
I'm a student, but I plan on waiting for the user reports on this Virtual PC before getting.
Finally, my college (Stanford) offers a student version through our tech support for $89.00, although the school bookstore price was $199.00. I'm going to hold out to see if that is available. If you're at a school, you might look for that deal (I think you only get install disks, no box or manual).
I agree with xtechdiver that Open Office is not prime time, but it is free and I would encourage anyone interested to download Apple's X11 installer and Open Office (as long as you have free space). It is fun to use and was my introduction to the X11 system.
What I think Microsoft may be doing is trying to simply sell more copies of XP. I sometimes have a reason to want a Windows program on my powerbook, but never enough to buy a copy of Virtual PC and XP. However, if I got Virtual PC "free" with office, it would be much more tempting to get XP. In fact, think of all the users with Virtual PC who will feel like that app is wasted until they get a Microsoft OS...
I'm a student, but I plan on waiting for the user reports on this Virtual PC before getting.
Finally, my college (Stanford) offers a student version through our tech support for $89.00, although the school bookstore price was $199.00. I'm going to hold out to see if that is available. If you're at a school, you might look for that deal (I think you only get install disks, no box or manual).
I think that's a broad overstatement. Many Linux source code bundles require changes in order to compile and run under OS X. That's why tools like Fink exist and why some people actually end up paying a fee for Linux apps that have been ported to the Mac.
But I agree that once you have BSD-based OS X you really don't need to lust after Linux.
Re: Re: Re-activate?!?
BTW, MS did say there would be an update in Q4. I'm thinking it will include Panther and G5 support, if nothing else. This update is still a free one for VPC 6.1 users. This info was included in an email I received from Connectix yesterday:
"Microsoft is developing a new version of Virtual PC for Windows, which will be available in Q4 2003. Once this version is available, existing Virtual PC for Windows customers can upgrade at no cost."
No MS activation. I just did the upgrade and started it up. Nothing strange. It did say it had a newer version of the special drivers that help with device performance. So I allowed it to update. When I restarted, I didn't really notice much of a difference in speed. I don't use it that much to notice.
BTW, MS did say there would be an update in Q4. I'm thinking it will include Panther and G5 support, if nothing else. This update is still a free one for VPC 6.1 users. This info was included in an email I received from Connectix yesterday:
"Microsoft is developing a new version of Virtual PC for Windows, which will be available in Q4 2003. Once this version is available, existing Virtual PC for Windows customers can upgrade at no cost."
My girlfriend and I are going to split the cost of the Education version. $18/app is pretty good. She can't download attachments with hotmail under safari and finds Appleworks unusable.
I don't understand people complaining about VPC being bundled with Office for $499. You were originally paying that much for just VPC.
I don't like microsoft anymore than the next person. I really wish they'd stop being so paranoid about marketshare and support all platforms (Apple should do this also with quicktime). I love my Tungsten C but, I would have bought a Pocket PC had it natively supported the mac platform as I'm sure many others would. They are moving in the right direction porting MSN to mac but take a giant leap back by not actively upgrading IE. If we didn't have a good enough reason to use Safari, we wouldn't. Hell, charge $20 for it. Some people need it to check bank statements and pay bills. Charge $20 for a full WMP. People would pay.
It's not like the GM won't sell you a Corvette if your wife drives a VW.
I don't understand people complaining about VPC being bundled with Office for $499. You were originally paying that much for just VPC.
I don't like microsoft anymore than the next person. I really wish they'd stop being so paranoid about marketshare and support all platforms (Apple should do this also with quicktime). I love my Tungsten C but, I would have bought a Pocket PC had it natively supported the mac platform as I'm sure many others would. They are moving in the right direction porting MSN to mac but take a giant leap back by not actively upgrading IE. If we didn't have a good enough reason to use Safari, we wouldn't. Hell, charge $20 for it. Some people need it to check bank statements and pay bills. Charge $20 for a full WMP. People would pay.
It's not like the GM won't sell you a Corvette if your wife drives a VW.
I just placed my order for the Students & Teachers edition at ClubMac. They don't even have it in the warehouse yet -- it's supposed to arrive today.
$140 seems pretty fair to load two eMacs and a PB.
And that's one more reason to leave the doors to bad PC jail (the armoire where my Dell resides) closed.
Mister Softee wins, I win, and Apple wins.
$140 seems pretty fair to load two eMacs and a PB.
And that's one more reason to leave the doors to bad PC jail (the armoire where my Dell resides) closed.
Mister Softee wins, I win, and Apple wins.
I wish MS would release a real version of outlook with office instead of that POS entourage. After testing the beta of Outlook 2003 on my PC, I am really amazed at the new interface MS put into place. I want that on my mac! Thats one of the few things I like better about my PC - Outlook 2003's interface is so much more efficient that anything available for the mac at this point.
Check out it's interface here.
http://www.microsoft.com/office/preview/editions/outlook.asp
Check out it's interface here.
http://www.microsoft.com/office/preview/editions/outlook.asp
An interesting question would be whether MS now has an extra bit of leverage with VPC over Apple to keep them from developing an Office suite...
It's because it's Microsoft lol, they could give all Apple users a free copy of Office and the thread would probably get loads of negatives (MS syping on us, MS monopolising etc etc)
I was a little dissapointed the update didn't bring performance improvements, I mean no-one knows Windows better than Microsoft.
arn...thank's for pointing out what everyone seems to be missing.
AppleMatt
Re: Re: Re: Re-activate?!?
you do realize there is a free, open source, cross platform, non-proprietary file format, office suite right?
http://www.openoffice.org
you do realize there is a free, open source, cross platform, non-proprietary file format, office suite right?
http://www.openoffice.org
I think the reason people are reacting negatively is because MS basically repackaged the same old product and are selling it to us again in a new box. Who cares if it has VPC. I for one am not going to pay for the same product twice. It would be like Apple re-releasing Jaguar in a pretty new box and asking us all to pay $129 for it. Not gonna happen.