Monday, 13 July 2009

Office 2010: The Movie

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Just watched the video on YouTube, I’ve embedded it below, and it’s fantastic. The boys on Redmond really have gone all out for this one and it really shows. Great job on the advertising. Now lets hope the product is equally as good.

Microsoft Office 2010 Movie

Labels: Microsoft, Microsoft Office

Wednesday, 21 May 2008

BECTA and OOXML

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A week or so ago BECTA referred it's interoperability complaint against Microsoft to the EU Commission. The EU is taking the this referral and adding it to the evidence pile against Microsoft. I do wonder though how much the Interoperability complaint is actually Microsoft's problem. If Office 2007 is able to open Open Office documents and save to the same format then surely it passes interoperability with the Open Office suite. I get the impression from what I've read however that Microsoft is being held accountable for other office suites not being able to open OOXML documents. This is surely a complaint against the other vendors and not against Microsoft. If the documentation on OOXML is available then there shouldn't be a problem. This just seems to be BECTA jumping on the EU Commission bandwagon.

When I asked BECTA whether the complaint against Microsoft should actually be directed at the other vendors now that OOXML is an ISO standard format they replied:

The extent to which OOXML is sufficiently open to allow effective competiton is one of the issues that are the subject of ongoing investigation by the European Commission.

Once the results of the Commission´s deliberations are known we will, if necessary, update our advice on OOXML.

Let's hope the EU makes the right decision this time and forces the other vendors to catch up to the high standard of the Microsoft Office suite rather than trying to drag office down to their level.

Labels: BECTA, Microsoft Office, OOXML, Open Office

Tuesday, 13 May 2008

Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac Sets Record

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Microsoft has claimed that Office 2008 for the Mac has been one of the best launches yet and sales continue to outstrip the any version in the last 19 years. I'm not doubting that the Office suite is a massive success in it's own right but I wonder how much of the improved sales are due to Windows users moving over to the Mac and looking for the familiar on that platform. A more important reason is probably due to companies running mostly Windows machines with Office installed. People who buy Mac's will look for the Microsoft Office suite to give them as easy a life as possible when it comes to working on documents at home. Perhaps Microsoft should look to moving some other software onto the Mac, it seems like a mostly untaped market. Either way though it's nice to see Microsoft products thriving on OSX.

Labels: Apple, Mac OS X, Microsoft, Microsoft Office

Thursday, 24 April 2008

There's A Flaw In Cloud Plan

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As I've mentioned in previous posts the computer network in my current job is very restrictive. There are good reasons for this of course and I can certainly see the logic behind it but working in this environment has brought me to a realisation that I've yet to see mentioned on other sites, Cloud Computing has to fail. In my last job and at home, obviously, I have access to all the services online I want and can hook it up to any installed software I want and create a nice services and software architecture. This is great in a limited environment. In my current situation most people do not have access to Google, Yahoo or MSN. They cannot install Live, Adobe AIR or Google Gears. This presents a massive flaw in the cloud computing mission.

I've had my reservations about the move to online services for a while now and while I'm not against progress, as long as it's actually beneficial, I can't help but feel that this bubble is going to burst sooner or later. You see Enterprises are not going to entrust their sensitive information to Google or Microsoft or anyone else. They want it stored on a nice secure server where only a very select few can get anywhere near it and the software used to access it is tightly controlled. They don't want someone working on the Q1 numbers on Google Docs! They also don't want someone installing tools that can in any way interfere with the work that's being done. A manager once told me that software, and you can stretch it to networks, have to be designed with the idea that the user is stupid and will always make mistakes. While I don't for a second believe they are stupid, and neither did my manager, you are building it with the worst case scenario in mind. Therefore Enterprise customers want total control over everything that's installed and used on the clients machine. Cloud Computing does not offer this level of control.

In the educational sector it's even worse. You can't give school children free access to the Internet and you can't give them easy access to services such as SkyDrive and GMail simply because you can't be sure what they are accessing and what they are bringing in. Therefore the school network has extreme limitations placed on it which can lead to all access to Google and others being cut.

In environments such as those mentioned above it's very hard to see how Cloud Computing can be expected to thrive. It's a great consumer oriented architecture and it will make money from advertising, no question about that, but I can't see it breaking into the same world as the one Microsoft Office currently controls. The only way Cloud Computing will ever take over is if either the Internet becomes completely free of cyber crime or if the software companies take away the option of having your software based on the client machine. Hardware makers are never going to let the client die, neither will Microsoft for that matter, and cyber crime is increasing not disappearing so I really can't see a happy future for Cloud Computing.

Labels: Cloud Computing, GMail, Google, Google Docs, Microsoft, Microsoft Office, SkyDrive, Yahoo

Monday, 13 July 2009

Office 2010: The Movie

Wednesday, 21 May 2008

BECTA and OOXML

Tuesday, 13 May 2008

Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac Sets Record

Thursday, 24 April 2008

There's A Flaw In Cloud Plan

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