Windows 8

[Rich]

Ubuntu, Xubuntu, Kubuntu, Lubuntu
Fedora, CentOS
Mint
PCLinuxOS
Open SUSE
Puppy
Knoppix
and other Linux distros

It's all good and easy to learn. Why stay chained to Microsoft or Apple?

[Mike OTDP]

Microshoddy = Trash. There's a reason why people spending their own money buy Macs.

[mekender]

Microshoddy = Trash. There's a reason why people spending their own money buy Macs.

Because they like paying too much for half eaten fruit?

[Greg]

Microshoddy = Trash. There's a reason why people spending their own money buy Macs.

Because they like paying too much for half eaten fruit?

Macs are actually pretty cool, and the Mac hardware price penalty is a lot less than it used to be. There's still a penalty of course, and Macs still aren't the best tool for everything.

And MS have problems of their own, but their OS'es have been getting much better. And some of their other software isn't half bad.

A smart person uses the proper tool for the job. To go back a bit, the big reason I think MS is in trouble is because W8 isn't a tool at all, they've turned it into a toy (well an entertainment and media consumption pplatform).

[esa5444]

And some of their other software isn't half bad.

I "upgraded" to Office 2010 several months ago on my work computer. At least twice a week, my coworkers can probably hear me muttering various obscenities directed at it. Excel 2010 is alright, don't know about PPT. I hate the new outlook, and I when it comes to Word 2010, I have a difficult time describing how much I hate it; I can't come up with the word, hate is not nearly powerful enough.

[308Mike]

And some of their other software isn't half bad.

I "upgraded" to Office 2010 several months ago on my work computer. At least twice a week, my coworkers can probably hear me muttering various obscenities directed at it. Excel 2010 is alright, don't know about PPT. I hate the new outlook, and I when it comes to Word 2010, I have a difficult time describing how much I hate it; I can't come up with the word, hate is not nearly powerful enough.

GEEZ, that sounds AWFULLY familiar, as in the same crap happened when we upgraded people from Office97 to 2003, then 2007. EACH TIME there were a LOT of bitches and complaints, and not only from the users, we had to upgrade quite a few machines to run the larger footprint of Office 2007 (especially compared to the footprint on those machines still running Office 97!!!), so we had to ad RAM to quite a few machines just to make it run at an acceptable speed.

I have NO DOUBT the latest Office version is also FOOTPRINT HEAVY, and takes TONS of resources!!! Typical Microsquish tactics.

[esa5444]

GEEZ, that sounds AWFULLY familiar, as in the same crap happened when we upgraded people from Office97 to 2003, then 2007. EACH TIME there were a LOT of bitches and complaints, and not only from the users, we had to upgrade quite a few machines to run the larger footprint of Office 2007 (especially compared to the footprint on those machines still running Office 97!!!), so we had to ad RAM to quite a few machines just to make it run at an acceptable speed.

I have NO DOUBT the latest Office version is also FOOTPRINT HEAVY, and takes TONS of resources!!! Typical Microsquish tactics.

Well, it is. It takes a huge amount of hard-drive space and way too much ram for what it does, but I upgraded from 2003, so it's pretty much the same thing in those regards. Additionally, the main program I run is Solidworks and our IT department had the sense to issue me a workstation PC, so Office is not slow.
No, my gripes with Word are:

1. .docx format. First, it's 4 letters, which is weird. Secondly, it's not compatible with previous versions. I can't understand why they needed to change it.
2. Pictures in documents, images, graphs, etcs. Used to be you dragged the picture where you wanted, it would stay there, and your text wraps around. Nice and easy. Now, you start typing, and your image is six pages down. Drag an image, everything is re-formatted, crap disappears, etc
3. Have to fiddle with it to print images. I fixed this soon, but it infuriated me when I first used it. I spent 2 days writing a test report. Beautifully formated, images labeled, etc. 5 o'clock Friday rolls around, I figure print it, throw it on the boss' desk, go home. Turns out by default, Word will print your document just how you see it, except it will not print the images. You can either spend 1 hour, at least, reformatting your document so they print (oh, and when you do, it will mess up all your previous formatting). Or, as I found, if you resave a .docx as a .doc file, this issue goes away. The kind of screwed up thinking that caused this is pervasive throughout 2010, and I hate it.
4. Text formatting. First of all, it tries to guess, so I'll be typing and it will change formats. Then, even in paragraphs, it defaults to some "style". It also means that when I go to indent a paragraph with the "tab", it ends up making three paragraphs the wrong size, and changing the margins. Meanwhile, I still can't indent. You know what I want? I want no style, no formatting, no auto anything. I'll do it myself.

Basically, I like that whole "what you see is what you get" thing. Word 2010, no longer that. It might be some media artists/writers wet dream, but for people like me, all the new "features", "smartness", and all that crap is a major pain in the ass.

[Rich Jordan]

No, my gripes with Word are:

1. .docx format. First, it's 4 letters, which is weird. Secondly, it's not compatible with previous versions. I can't understand why they needed to change it.

This is by design and has happened with most new versions of Office. It is MS way of forcing entire sites to upgrade more or less simultaneously. Boss or other highly placed person gets a new PC with the new Office which by default saves Word/Excel/whatever docs in the 'new' format. You have to make an effort to save it in the older format everyone else in the office uses (and most won't bother). So the secretary needs to upgrade, so other people at higher level need to upgrade... etc. True there are sometimes 'kits' that provide import capability to older versions of Office but thats still extra steps and effort that everyone else has to take just because someone got a new PC/Office setup and can't be bothered to 'save as' to the format all the older systems use.

Microsoft has been dragging companies by a nose ring for decades, and the cattle just smile, take it, and pay the bills almost without question. Many still do, but like what might have started happening in Wisconsin, some of them are finally waking up.

Given a choice (which I'm not) I would so much rather still be using WordPerfect 5.x; that was a _writer's_ word processor and it did NOT get in your way. Granted I rarely if ever need to do graphic embeds (for which WISYWIG really is nice) but it was usable for that also.

[Rich Jordan]

Ubuntu, Xubuntu, Kubuntu, Lubuntu
Fedora, CentOS
Mint
PCLinuxOS
Open SUSE
Puppy
Knoppix
and other Linux distros

It's all good and easy to learn. Why stay chained to Microsoft or Apple?

Still an option for the coming upgrade (now delayed by a chunky Jeep repair bill, sigh). High quality laptop, TBD if Macbook Pro or a wintel but running a Linux distro (currently using Ubuntu on a netbook, but the screen is too terribly limiting). And _possibly_ a small form factor 'server' box on the home net to supplement the OpenVMS Alphaserver, which is rather power hungry and heat producing (external U160 SCSI raidarray with 4 drives puts out more heat than the server too). If I get the SFF server it will definitely run a *nix of some kind. No microsoft at home.

[Netpackrat]

Given a choice (which I'm not) I would so much rather still be using WordPerfect 5.x; that was a _writer's_ word processor and it did NOT get in your way. Granted I rarely if ever need to do graphic embeds (for which WISYWIG really is nice) but it was usable for that also.

I had to use that once in college at a computer lab and I really hated it. Had a later windoze version on my own machine for a few years later on and it was okay. Word has been consistently shitty, but at least it's been consistent. 8^)