State of the Industry

ACSS on the State of the Industry

Every now and again I take the opportunity to rant to everyone on the ACSS Newslist. I don't mean to discourage people from reading the newsletters, but I hope that some on the list will find something of interest in my occasional diatribes. 
(Pre-PS. Please, don't anyone write me about grammar mistakes. I just wrote this up quickly and didn't proof read it. -- Thanks!)


WINDOWS vs OS X or LINUX

In the latest issue of Redmond Magazine, there were a number of letters to the editor concerning the editor's criticisms of Mac computers. First off, I must praise Redmond Magazine for giving credit to Linux, Unix and OSX. Unfortunately, the bottom line, as expected, for Redmond Magazine is that Microsoft's Operating Systems are the best.  That aside, here is my rant...

In their letters the readers stated that they have advised and would continue to advise others to buy a Mac. The reasons varied from security, no viruses, no spyware, stability, to all the above. Although Macs are rather pricey, the value is worth it in the long run.

Now, I'm not a huge Mac fan, although I use a Mac. I have my issues with Apple, as well as with Microsoft. Personally, I think Linux is a more viable option for most any home user and for many business users - a lot depends on the software one needs. Unfortunately, Linux doesn't have a huge marketing department behind to convince users that they NEED a Linux computer. Actually, it's good that Linux doesn't have such a strategy. But that's another discussion. Nonetheless, Linux has lately made huge inroads as Dell now officially sells computers with Linux installed, and Walmart sells Linux computers. In fact, ASUS - a major computer builder and seller - has had a run on it's mini notebook computers, all of which are Linux based. They can't even keep them in stock in the stores. 

ALTERNATIVES

In the same vein I would like to talk about Microsoft's Office Suite. You know, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc. Over the years I have repeatedly advised people to give OpenOffice (and it's other incarnations such as StarOffice and NeoOffice) a try. In most cases people have been opposed to switching as they feel they would have to learn to use a new product. However, it is intereresting that some of the same people are now gong-ho about  switching to Microsoft Office 2007. There is a major learning curve when switching to Office 2007, while OpenOffice is much more similar to the familiar versions of Microsoft Office. Not to mention that OpenOffice is more secure and FREE. 

But OpenOffice isn't just the only option out there.

FUTURE OF COMPUTING?

And this takes me into a discussion on the possible future of computing - a future that has already arrived. 

Office applications such as Word and Excel as I have just pointed out are not just restricted to Microsoft products. There are a number of online services that can provide users with the same text editing and spreadsheet programs. Below I've provided a list of those services that I have personally tried out and my opinion of each. One of the big issues with online services is what can you do if there is no Internet connectivity. As you will see, this is an issue that these services are tackling.

NB! You will have to register for any of these services.

Microsoft Live Office: http://www.officelive.com
This might be a good way for people to try out Microsoft Office 2007. Personally, I found the online version slow to start up. Once it's going though it's OK. Microsoft is currently working on a solution to allow users to work offline.

Ulteo: http://www.ulteo.com 
After you login to Ulteo you will be presented with 2 options: a full desktop running on Linux; or just OpenOffice.
In the first case you will be able to run not just office applications, but also numerous other programs. This might be a great way for people to get a little bit acquainted with the Linux experience. Nonetheless, I found the option of a full desktop to be overkill, but not too bad. All in all, both the Ulteo desktop and OpenOffice were rather slow. Also there isn't an offline mode yet and I don't know if there working on one.

ThinkFree: http://www.thinkfree.com
ThinkFree is one of the better services. I really like ThinkFree. Unlike the prior two ThinkFree is the only service that enables offline work and synchronization. That is, when offline all your work will be synced up to their servers as soon as your back online. In order to enable syncing you will have to download a tool for that. The syncing tool is available for all platforms: Microsoft, Mac and Linux. 

Google Apps: http://www.google.com/a
My favorite service of them all is Google apps.
I like Google Apps because they are quick to load and easy to use. Offline work is currently available only for Google Docs. But it is expected to apply to all their applications eventually. In order to have this capability, though, one needs to install Google Gears. 

A final note is that only Ulteo and Google Apps allowed me to spellcheck in most any language. This was very important to me.


OTHER GOOGLE GOODIES

Perhaps my preference for Google Apps has to do with all the other goodies Google provides. In brief here are those I really recommend.

Google Sync for Firefox
I use a lot of different computers. My work laptop, servers at work, a desktop computer at home, etc. Sometimes I need access to my Internet Bookmarks. And I need the same ones on all computers. By using Firefox and installing Google Sync, my Bookmarks are kept in sync on all the computers. There are other ways to accomplish the same thing, but this is my favorite.

Google Calendars
On more than one occasion I have lost a drive. And with it I have lost my calendars. Only recently I discovered that I can use my Google Calendar to set up everything, and then I can subscribe to my Google Calendar on my computers. Thus regardless of whether I lose all my data, I merely have to subscribe to my Google Calendars again and there are all my events. Also, by updating the events in my Google account, they are synchronized across all computers.


Plaxo

This final goody I wish to plug is Plaxo, which is totally unrelated to Google. Again, should my computer go down I might lose my entire Address Book. However, by syncing my Address Book up with Plaxo, I can ensure that my Address Book is saved and can be synchronized across all computers.