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207 Comments
- phpirate, on 10/12/2007, -13/+184Paying for microsoft software is so 10 years ago.
- pozzoe, on 10/12/2007, -7/+55I agree that google spreadsheet, writely, calendar, etc. have just a few of the features MS products have BUT if they have the features most users, basic users, need, Google will steal MS what makes MS products so popular, that is the familiarity users have with those products. Once they have that, they can offer the "Business edition", with all the needed goodies, and they can charge for it.
If you think about it, "10 years ago" is having to buy a 300$ product that is bloated with features you will never use. Ok, many people don't actually BUY office/windows, but with a free alternative near Microsoft won't be able to pull a "genuine advantage" in the near future. - zentro, on 10/12/2007, -8/+33Really, the fact that Microsoft cares to comment on Google Spreadsheet is a sign that they are feeling threatened...
- Gardenhead, on 10/12/2007, -6/+30Like many companies have said before, how do you compete with free?
- chris9902, on 10/12/2007, -4/+26who do you think the "office" (keyword there) suite is marketed at?
You're not the people they care buy it out not. It's the big companies who buy 2,000 copies of it. - Haiyadragon, on 10/12/2007, -7/+24I use them. I have brains. Sometimes, I like that.
Ten times a day the following sentence is spoken in this room: "OMG, this is so stupid, office sucks" (in dutch). And someone has to make a new document and paste everything from the old document because of some stupid 10 year old bug. - CedanticPunt, on 10/12/2007, -7/+23Like when you move a picture round a page in Word and it decides to move it to another page for no reason at all. Really polished piece of work, and no mistake...
- somerandomnerd, on 10/12/2007, -7/+21Proof that you can type with your mouth full.
- dilbert, on 10/12/2007, -6/+20The problem with free is that people tend to think that is sucks monkey ass: "Hey, it's free so it MUST be crap."
If they have to pay $300 then they think: "Hmmm, a lot of money but they put a lot of effort in it and that cost a lot of money....put a lot of money in it...so must be good!"
And when they try the free version, they compare it to their paid version and will see the free one misses some options they hardly use but find important when comparing the two. Shame. - pozzoe, on 10/12/2007, -7/+20Even if you switch to google spreadsheets I'm sure they use some kind of standard format, so you'll know you can easily go back if you don't like it or if you need to work offline. That's what I like about google, their adoption of standards.
- stomicron, on 10/12/2007, -5/+18Wrong, they comment on it because they have a thousand internet "reporters" continuously prodding them for their reactions with bated breath. In fact, it's a perfectly reasonable response to media headlines such as:
NY Times: "Google Takes Aim at Excel"
CNET: "Google Spreadsheets turns up heat on Excel"
and others:
"Google bent upon invading Microsoft"
"Move over Excel, here comes Google Spreadsheets"
Honestly, if MS reps came out and said "no comment" to this you would be saying the same thing. - justinside, on 10/12/2007, -5/+17Does it matter anyway??? Google will probably leave it in BETA form for years, never actually finishing it but just throwing it out there for people to talk & invest after all look at GMAIL - still says BETA. Speaking of that - why does every product Google come out with in BETA!!! I mean seriously, do they have anything besides searching completed?? Even Froogle is still showing Beta and that's been around for years too!
- rishimaharaj, on 10/12/2007, -1/+13The square brackets have nothing to do with products per se, it indicates that the author has replaced a pronoun in the quotation to make it clear when not shown with full context. So "He walked down the street" might be changed to "[John] walked down the street."
- pabster, on 10/12/2007, -6/+17Microsoft must really be getting worried these days.
I've never seen them spread so much FUD and try to take some steam off competitors' offerings the way they have in the last year. - TubaTechno, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11Google and Microsoft are targeting different markets....no one seems to understand or accept that...
- kyriakos, on 10/12/2007, -12/+23Linux is free / openoffice is free
I dont see everyone using them. Yes they do have as user base but still the majority of people use windows and ms office. - somerandomnerd, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11@ilitirit
I'm guessing you're too young to remember Lotus? - cygnusx, on 10/12/2007, -15/+24> Excel costs money to buy(use). $300 for a standard Office2007.
Office for Students and Teachers is available at Amazon for $109: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000C0XT1/
You can get it for a bit over $90 if you look around. Is $100 worth it for a heavy user? I think it is. Heck, if you do need a suite but don't want to spend, you can spend some time teaching yourself OpenOffice and use that for $0. You'd still be better off than using Google's relatively lame "look-we-can-do-it-on-the-web" attempts. - GreenLantern33, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10Saying that things are "so 10 years ago" is so 10 years ago.
But seriously, leave it to Microsoft to say something arrogant and ridiculous about a competitor that is about to munch them. - theone3, on 10/12/2007, -9/+18How about: PLEASE! TAKE MY PRODUCT! I'LL GIVE YOU MONEY!
- willcode4beer, on 10/12/2007, -3/+11MS should just respond, "nice web page".
- crbaker, on 10/12/2007, -4/+12I'm sorry, your spreadsheet is toast.
Didn't you read the Terms and Conditions it's a BETA. - willcode4beer, on 10/12/2007, -4/+12Thank you.
This has got to be embarrasing for MS. Why are they trying to defend an application against a web page.
WTF? That doesn't even make sense. - Cymrubeats, on 10/12/2007, -4/+12It's so that when something goes wrong with it and a person complains on a site such as digg, all the fanboys can scream 'it's a BETA DUHHHH' It's actually quite a clever tactic.
- Karyyk, on 10/12/2007, -5/+12That's pretty rich, a Microsoft proponent bashing a program for being bloated. Pot, meet kettle...
- MrUnderbridge, on 10/12/2007, -3/+10Don't know if you've noticed, but Google has a pretty nice brand themselves. I don't think "Microsoft" has become a verb in pop culture. Maybe in anti-trust law.
- gopal, on 10/12/2007, -18/+25IMHO nobody can't take the market by having a web based application to open/write Excel files.
Why would you even think of using a web based application that is hosted on a third-party machine when you want to edit your tax or any crucial private information?
That said, I'm not siding Microsoft asking everybody to use Excel[tm].
The answer is not Google, but ODF (Open Document Format).
I would love to use OpenOffice.org any day, I'm just trying to understand if I can compile it from source without support for Word/Excel documents, which I wouldn't use anyway, trimming the application size ;-) - JakeMcMahon, on 10/12/2007, -10/+17Hmm, are you typing that from Steve Balmer's lap?
- mryokai, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9I love the maturity of this. I bet Microsoft's next press release will say "Yeah, and Google spreadsheets are for girls"
- burke, on 10/12/2007, -5/+12This is like comparing a Harley to a bicycle. If you want to do heavy-duty spreadsheeting, you'll probably spring for MS Office. (or OpenOffice.org for free). If you're just an occasional user of spreadsheets, you probably don't need as many features, and will opt for the (free) online Google Spreadsheets.
Personally, I use Gnumeric the most, but I suspect that'll change as soon as I get my paws on a Google sheets invite. If anyone has any... :) - gridrunner, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8But it's just the beginning. Google aren't claiming it's better than Excel. Excel is - in my opinion - the best Software Microsoft have ever written. This runs in a browser. That's not ten years ago. By any stretch of the imagination.
- somerandomnerd, on 10/12/2007, -4/+11Actually, free software used to be the norm: you paid for the hardware, and got given software to make it work.
Here's a clue why that changed; http://www.blinkenlights.com/classiccmp/gateswhine.html - autodata, on 10/12/2007, -4/+11I use sharepoint every day and while the features are nice, the implementation is awful.
- gridrunner, on 10/12/2007, -3/+10My point is that they're being accused of being backwards thinking but actually it's the opposite.
(i.e. *forwards thinking* for if you can't make that mental leap) - gridrunner, on 10/12/2007, -4/+11All software will be online ten years from now. Probably less. And Google are ahead in that game.
- dcipjr, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7I got an invite to Google Spreadsheets. I guess it's not bad, but it's nothing special, honestly...a bit of a letdown considering all the hype. There's nothing here I can't already get in Excel, and it's missing stuff like charts. I don't plan on using it for anything other than experimentation.
I'm not really into the whole idea of the office-application-in-a-browser, either. I prefer to use a web browser for browsing web pages, not creating documents. - heffer2k02, on 10/12/2007, -10/+16"it's like watching a time machine from 10 years ago"
Does this not make any sense to anyone else? A time machine from 10 years ago? How do spreadsheets relate to a time machine? If google invented a time machine ten years ago I'd say thats a better technological acheivment than ms ever made. - macewan, on 10/12/2007, -8/+14Excel was available for free on Linux 10 years ago?
- rmgrogan, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7So who cares if it can't do everything that Excel can! It is FREE and does everything I need it to do.
This is the next to the last step for me to be M$ Office Free!
The last step is word processing and Google has already purchased "Writely" which it says will be available on-line in July.
Between work, home and work related travel I have needed the ability to access Documents and Spreadsheets on-line. I already use Open Office and Gmail but the on-line ability will mean I can access my important files anywhere, work on them any time and have immediate access to the most recent version without having to email copies to my home or office.
I couldn't be happier. - delhokie, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6I got my invite last night to start using googlespreadsheets and I imported an Excel spreadsheet and started manipulating and making changes with ease. Although it may not replace my using excel or openoffice, it has most every feature that I would normally use in building a spreadsheet, and you can't beat the collaborative advantage or cost of using google. I haven't touched the beta of Office 2007, which I'm sure it has more eye candy and can do graphing and other high end tasks easier and better, but is it worth paying the hundreds of dollars for those features? For a lot of people out there, I think the answer is 'no.'
- lnxaddct, on 10/12/2007, -4/+9ilitirit,
OO.o's code base has been around for something like 17 years, and it had most of Excel's functionality back when Gates was just getting successful in the OS arena. Corel and Lotus were very popular office suites as well. Microsoft has copied just about everything in their office suite from others, not the other way around, and don't let their marketing team full you. - Beautyon, on 10/12/2007, -10/+15"that it's like watching a time machine from 10 years ago"
Yes, but its not evil. And thats why we like it.
Also, it took M$ over ten years to build Excel, wheras Googlespreadsheets was built in a VERY short time. Googlespreadsheets will rapidly accelerate and overtake Excel in features and usability, and it wont be evil. Thats why it will suceed, and thats why M$ are so very afraid.
Oh, and did I mention that its FREE, as opposed to costing hundreds of dollars? I didnt have to, 'cause everyone else has! - willcode4beer, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7Maybe there are just playing with MS.
MS seems to be obessed with competing with google on every front. Maybe google just throws out random things created by their developers in their 20% personal project time to make MS spread their resources thin while actually consuming very few resources themselves. - jellomizer, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7As working as a Computer Consultant I get to see what everyone else is doing with Excel and I can tell you I never have seen anyone use any feature beyond normal spreadsheet stuff with using sum as the most advanced function, colors, adding graphics, and comment bubbles. If they do use the advanced features they do it extremely limited and usually they realize it is time to move the Spreadsheet to a Software app. I am sure that some people is using all the features successfully but for 99% Office 95 has all the functionality they really need. The only reason people upgrade is because the newer versions create files the old versions can't open.
- Charlotte_Web, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7Google may be on to something here.
Granted, Excel has tons and tons more features (most of which go unused by the average person), but since Google includes free storage space for your files, then this could be huge. Imagine being able to access your spreadsheets anywhere you have internet access and from any computer, just like you can with webmail, or give your cow-orkers access to your files for collaboration. No VBScripting features means no macro viruses. It also means that your files are on Google's redundant server network, so you don't have to worry about server crashes. This probably won't have a lot of appeal to corporations (where working off of their server is a requirement), but this could be huge with students and small businesses.
Keep in mind, however, that when you store your spreadsheet documents on Google's servers, they will be scanning those documents to buid their marketing demographic profile of you. - ilitirit, on 10/12/2007, -10/+15@"Plus: What REAL revolutionary innovations in Excel did we enjoy in the past 10 years?"
Virtually everything in Excel. Try to think of any other popular spreadsheet product available for the last 10 years. Compare the functionality with Excel, and decide on whether they copied Microsoft, or the other way around. In all probability you're not even going to find many other products because like it or not, Excel is practically the standard (even OO.org tries to emulate it's functionality). And because it's the standard, everyone takes it for granted and that's why people don't even consider any of it's functionality "innovative". - chad78, on 10/12/2007, -3/+8If it's not a serious competitor or a real application, then why is Microsoft scared of it enough to try to run it into the ground?
- Cymrubeats, on 10/12/2007, -8/+12Branding matters so much nowadays that MS will be fine. How many people pay stupid money for jeans that look, feel and keep you just as warm as much cheaper ones, just for the sake of having some fags name on your ass. Talk about 'adwear' :P
- gsmithEIDW, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6Do people really want software to be online? I suspect this is another solution to a problem that doesn't exist. People like having their own systems and control of their software such as upgrades and tweaks etc.
The next logical step from online software is online operating systems and ultimatly going full circle to dumb terminals on large central servers. I can see the likes these systems such as Citrix helping in a corporate environment but I can't see this sort of thing catching on for home users. - jrbrewin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4this standards question really bugs me. Office came out of the competitive productivity suites market, where the lotuses and smartsuites operated and were dominated beforehand. Do we sit around complaining that each suite has their own proprietry formats? No, we just bitch at microsoft, because we want to use their proprietry formats without paying... and yet over the past few versions, and in to future they have been, and are getting progressively better.. to the point where they are dropping the traditional office document formats in office 2007 for more open and accessible formats. Yet, any number of applications and services sucessfully interoperate with office file formats despite the so call closedoffness of the formats which people are quick to harp on about.
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