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Office Live vs Google Docs: Feature-by-Feature Comparison
readwriteweb.com — excellent comparison..I was actually waiting for such a comparison after release of Microsoft offive live to public
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- drewie123, on 03/05/2008, -14/+8nice one, thanks for the share
- MassiveTaTas, on 03/05/2008, -40/+16I hate anything Microsoft related.
- NoahK, on 03/05/2008, -9/+10And I hate you.
- neognostic, on 03/05/2008, -7/+8Don't hate
- steveoco, on 03/05/2008, -9/+15Your missing out...
- ninja0, on 03/06/2008, -0/+2*You're
- Awspire, on 03/05/2008, -11/+4It's a beautiful day in this neighborhood,
A beautiful day for a neighbor,
Would you be mine?
Could you be mine?
It's a neighborly day in this beautywood,
A neighborly day for a beauty,
Would you be mine?
Could you be mine?
I have always wanted to have a neighbor just like you,
I've always wanted to live in a neighborhood with you.
So let's make the most of this beautiful day,
Since we're together, we might as well say,
Would you be mine?
Could you be mine?
Won't you be my neighbor?
Won't you please,
Won't you please,
Please won't you be my neighbor?
Hi neighbor, I'm glad we're together again.... - jabberwolf, on 03/05/2008, -5/+9Yeah, even if they make something good that runs 364 days of the year. That 1 day they are down ( even if that's 99.7% uptime) you will bitch the entire 365 days.
- Gabberwok, on 03/06/2008, -2/+1Google Apps offers 99.9% uptime in the enterprise version...
- fkr3, on 03/05/2008, -15/+38"So, what do you think? Is Office Live Workspace a Google Docs killer? Or just a worthy competitor? Or is Google Docs the big winner?"
I think Google's fighting to dominate a market that doesn't exist and the only really useful part of Office Live will be the sharing capabilities, and that's only useful as an alternative to all the other methods of sharing files with people.
Nobody knows or cares about online office suites. They're a huge step backwards for the sake of being "web based".
http://www.microsoft-watch.com/content/web_service ...
"Ninety-four percent of U.S. consumers have never tried a Web-based productivity suite alternatives. A mere 0.5 percent have substituted Web-based productivity suites for desktop software such as Microsoft Office. Chris Swenson, NPD's director of Software Industry Analysis, described the 0.5 percent figure as being a "bit high." Swenson predicted worldwide usage to be even lower than the United States."- elmetald00d, on 03/05/2008, -3/+7so what you're saying is, 6% of the people have heard of it, and .5% (8.3% of those who have seen them) actually switched.
I don't know about you, but if 8.3% of the people that look at your product, switch to it, that's a damn good turnout. - Charlotte_Web, on 03/05/2008, -3/+7I didn't have access to MS Office yesterday, and had to make major revisions to a proposal. I'd never seriously used Google Docs before but thought, "Hey, it reads Word docs! I'll use that!"
I uploaded the proposal and opened it up. First thing I notice -- no WYSIWYG page view. That's a problem.
Second issue; all of my page breaks apparently dropped out; an even bigger problem. Google Docs does have a page break feature, though.
And there was the usual reformatting issue with the placement of images that you see in programs other than Word trying to open Word docs. Needless to say, I wasn't about to trust Google Docs with an important business document, and found a different computer (with MS Office) to work on.
I'm sure Google Docs is fine as a standalone word processor for the home user and small office. But, Microsoft has no reason for concern at this point; Google Docs has a LONG way to go to catch up. At this point, it seems closer to WordPad than to Word.- TehDoctor, on 03/05/2008, -0/+7You do realize this is only because MS's binary doc format is completely closed and Google has to reverse-engineer it, right?
- Charlotte_Web, on 03/06/2008, -2/+2Does it really matter? Users want results, not excuses.
- DarkShroud, on 03/05/2008, -0/+6Install open office to a thumb drive and you'll never be in that situation again.
- Charlotte_Web, on 03/06/2008, -0/+1I used to be an Open Office user, when I was working on my master's degree. Collaborating with other students on Word docs was hell because of reflow problems and image placement issues. It forced me to go back to Word, since that was what everyone else was using.
- iofthestorm, on 03/06/2008, -0/+2Nah, install Abiword, it's much leaner and will fit on more USB drives. Plus it's way faster, and less complicated looking. I'll admit that given the choice, I would rather just use MS Word because it's familiar to me and not slow like OO, but between the two if you're just needing to open a word document Abiword is probably the better choice.
- jonstafari, on 03/06/2008, -0/+1...and when you lose your thumb drive, then what? trust me, if i can put it online I would and will. i still backup on my thumb drive, but really, it's a bit easier (and more secure) to just post it on a web site (secure).
another thing to toss in; going into a new corporate facility where they lock down usb drives... you're SOL there mate.
- TehDoctor, on 03/05/2008, -0/+7You do realize this is only because MS's binary doc format is completely closed and Google has to reverse-engineer it, right?
- joeanon, on 03/05/2008, -2/+4Online office suites are almost certainly the wave of the future. Data warehousing is getting cheaper, bandwidth is cheaper, most people have significant problems sharing files and doing everything online just makes a lot of sense.
You have potential platform independence, always backed up, virus proof, always updated, always easy to share, no version differences to worry about, no piracy or activation problems.
Subscription apps are the way everything is going, just like MMORPG games. Everything popular and profitable will be integrated online. It's lower overhead for developers too, less liability since you can centrally update and fix major exploits or bugs before they become problems.
I imagine eventually for the sake of lower computer costs we may even subscribe to an OS eventually and store most or all our info across the net at a data warehouse. It's really much safer and more efficient to move to centrally maintain and control the back end. For most user it would be idea since you could eliminate the majority of problems such as malware. Just log into your desktop from anywhere and instead of just your mail or just your office suite it would be everything, like a terminal server for the internet masses.
In any case tons of businesses will be interested in office suites. At first they will think like you. I don't want to have less control of my data. But then when I explain your data is not as safe on a network like this running windows clients, if any client is exploited it might spread and even get to the server. Online you have almost no overhead and liability. Many businesses wouldn't need nearly as much IT if they had something like a virtual office where they outsource the IT to data warehouses. They can do it all office, exchange, file services, backups, and with the top level security, probably better than the pentagon at most places.
Move businesses to cheap disposable PC's. Something they can toss out and plug in a new dumb terminal, connect it to the internet or network service (since internet could be proxied through the virtual office service) and log right in... just like a terminal server. You avoid tons of problems and maintenance like this and you always have expert level techs on the other end, not the local IT guys.
Alternately you can run your own terminal server, but an online service where you just buy licenses seems like you could undercut in house IT pretty easy. Central management is always cheaper and most IT people sit there and do nothing all day..
Sorry.... the secret is out.- DarkShroud, on 03/05/2008, -1/+1Yeah, never mind the strain this would put on large scale networks. Not to mention a lot of networks that need to be secured can allow internet access. Only a small percent will find this useful and as long as MS keeps up development and allows integration they will always have an edge over google.
- fkr3, on 03/06/2008, -0/+1A lot of stuff that "could" theoretically be web-based isn't going to. There has to be real advantages to move something web-based and the only real advantage you talk about is directly related to file storage more than anything else. That's also pretty much the extent of Microsoft's "online" office suite efforts.
- jonstafari, on 03/06/2008, -0/+1"Central management is always cheaper and most IT people sit there and do nothing all day.."
maybe where you work thats what they do.... bullocks on that comment.
- jonstafari, on 03/06/2008, -0/+1you're way off... let me tell you why.
there's a decent market for web-based "office" solutions. ideally, the aspect of using gDocs with Google Gears is more useful than you might think. it's almost the equivalent of having MS Sharepoint, but for gDocs as opposed to MS Office only. What's nice about Gears is that you can do "offline" work while having some sync options at your disposal. At the same time, having a good number of users on Sharepoint, it's saved some bad situations from being epic failure ones with check-in/check-out features, collaboration to name a few. I also have my front end web box setup wtih sharepoint, so once said client or staff vpn in, then hit the ssl, they're essentially "back in the office", if you will. Complete with the ability to manipulate files as if they were tethered to a destkop/laptop.
I just think you have no concept of what a business woudl need or use these "web-based" services for, which, to me, that's a big target for MS AND Google. In conjunction with the business aspect, not having to pony up some good $$$ for license fees (cough...MS...cough), gDocs DOES provide a great alternative to MS Office applications; and you have the ability to do about the same type of work and with nearly the same functionality. I will admit, gDocs isnt as good as having MS Word at your fingers, but for a free product, it's damn good. Now, having MS Word and utilizing the web-based / Live solution from Microsoft is a+. However, with a Sharepoint Server locally, and using Live, it's almost like double-bagging... a SMB without Sharepoint could collab and produce some awesome results with the "web-based" services you based.
scope out other people/companies/etc and check their scene... web-based apps are steps towards the future, not backwards, like your comments.
- elmetald00d, on 03/05/2008, -3/+7so what you're saying is, 6% of the people have heard of it, and .5% (8.3% of those who have seen them) actually switched.
- YojimboJango, on 03/05/2008, -18/+4So basically MS made a large shared svn repository and linked it to Office. I don't really see anything here that I couldn't set up for free on my own and do it better.
- treed, on 03/05/2008, -2/+8You can't use svn on office docs. They're binary.
- directrix13, on 03/05/2008, -0/+9Yeah, you can. You just aren't going to get very meaningful diffs.
- tightscrummy, on 03/05/2008, -1/+2You would if svn was smart enough to use xdelta for the diffs.
- danielwsmithee, on 03/05/2008, -0/+1And for that you can setup external difference tools. We have all of our project documents at work placed in an SVN repository. We then use tools like CS-ExcelDiff to perform version differences.
- YojimboJango, on 03/05/2008, -1/+1You can use svn on any document. You can't see the diffs (well, you can but they won't mean anything), but then again, in office Live you can't see the diffs either.
Since I'm getting dugg down I have to ask, what can this do that a svn repository can't? I read through the whole article and couldn't find one thing.
- directrix13, on 03/05/2008, -0/+9Yeah, you can. You just aren't going to get very meaningful diffs.
- gluon, on 03/05/2008, -0/+2you completely missed the point
- 6minuteabs, on 03/05/2008, -1/+1Then go do it and report back when you're done. We'll critique it for you.
- 6minuteabs, on 03/05/2008, -1/+1Then go do it and report back when you're done. We'll critique it for you.
- treed, on 03/05/2008, -2/+8You can't use svn on office docs. They're binary.
- thelastcivilian, on 03/05/2008, -2/+46As a student, I might actually use the Live service -- not for sharing with others, etc., but because I'm constantly moving between my desktop, my laptop, computers at school, etc. and it's nice to have a central repository for my projects (basically as what I presume gDrive could have offered).
Google Docs is great in that you don't need any separate software, but formatting, etc. still leaves quite a bit to be desired (I imagine they're working on this) for anything more than basic documents.- talonstriker, on 03/05/2008, -1/+6My thoughts exactly. On top of that, Google docs sometimes really screws up your document if you have footnotes and textboxes....that usually results in my manually adjusting things so that it is Google docs compatible. I'll probably end up ditching google for MS if MS can prove that it doesn't ***** up my document's formatting.
- directrix13, on 03/05/2008, -2/+6MS couldn't prove that between versions of MS Office. What makes you think they could do it here?
- luchid, on 03/05/2008, -1/+1You have to blame Microsoft for that, not Google. Microsoft is the one with the binary propietary formats! How dumb can you be?
- iofthestorm, on 03/06/2008, -1/+1You were doing so great, until the personal attack on his intelligence. Also, learn to spell proprietary. And in the end, no matter who deserves the blame Google Docs screws up formatting. Hell, it still doesn't actually do page breaks in any sane way, do you expect it to follow any formatting rules that depend on page breaks? I really don't think Google's done much with it since they acquired it from Writely. Spreadsheets, which they developed inhouse, has a builtin chat function, and so does the presentation portion, but the docs portion still doesn't have it, and it's probably most useful for docs. Also, Writely sounds much cooler than Google Docs, maybe they should go back to it.
- kinologik, on 03/05/2008, -2/+4Since I had a few sour experiences with Office 2007 last year, my heart goes to Google Apps + OpenOffice. (And for very complex formatting, Adobe)
- talonstriker, on 03/05/2008, -1/+6My thoughts exactly. On top of that, Google docs sometimes really screws up your document if you have footnotes and textboxes....that usually results in my manually adjusting things so that it is Google docs compatible. I'll probably end up ditching google for MS if MS can prove that it doesn't ***** up my document's formatting.
- jasonsalas, on 03/05/2008, -4/+16i've not checked out Office Live, but if Redmond can pull of seamless emulation of its desktop apps - IN ALL BROWSERS - without forcing me to download a ton of ActiveX controls and plugins, i'd consider it. i stick with Google b/c of the zero-cost (registration), ease of use and the fact that it's web-based. sure, the presentation software's still got a ways to go, but it works for me.
- Innominate227, on 03/06/2008, -1/+0Did you even read the article?
- MikeonTV, on 03/05/2008, -8/+2Pretty quick way to becoming an expert. what an article!
- ivankraszl, on 03/05/2008, -19/+3Microsoft's service is just another attempt to save their offline software business. Futile. Google docs and especially Zoho are way ahead of MS in this arena.
- puter, on 03/05/2008, -1/+5Good to see someone who has never used the service or noticed that it offers things Google does not deigned to give his completely uninformed opinion to the rest of the world.
- ravis31, on 03/05/2008, -6/+11I've tried both Microsoft Office and Google Docs and i prefer Google.If i want to edit my document from another computer(which does not have office installed),i cannot with Office Live but not the case for google.
- DrDash, on 03/05/2008, -2/+2Exactly. All this means is that you have to have Office installed (and the right version in some cases) to edit the document. For sharing I prefer the online editing of Google Docs (though i prefer Zoho best of all)
- argylesocks, on 03/05/2008, -1/+1Just another example of lock-in. People who use this are going to be pissed when they need to use their documents on a non MS computer or device. Google docs seems to work as long as there is an Internet connection.
- jonstafari, on 03/06/2008, -0/+1true. this is one up to gGears... easy manipulation of files "offline". plus, without having to cough up money on license fees for office. the format issue on gDocs does suck, but honestly, do you really need all those nice pretty spaces and such? in some cases, yes, but when you're in a pinch, and / or working towards a finished product (especially in a shared or mobile environment) gDocs is money.
- NoahK, on 03/05/2008, -7/+16Does Google Docs "need" to be killed? I didn't think it was that great to begin with!
- DarkShroud, on 03/05/2008, -1/+1No, but it's forceing MS to make new great features for those of us who have MS Office installed on all of our computers and could use the online storage. It seems that if MS adds the in real time editing features it could kill off google docs.
- kenij, on 03/05/2008, -4/+12I use OpenOffice.org with the Google Docs plugin. It works just as well, not to mention being free, instead of having to buy office. (Not that you didn't know they were free.)
It's easier using that also, because I don't have to have OOo in order to edit my documents. I can edit them from any computer that has internet, Linux, Mac or Windows. Whereas with Live Office you have to have Word in order to edit them, and can only edit them from Windows and Mac.- duffbluff, on 03/05/2008, -1/+3I do the same thing. Open Office + Google Docs plugin is great for a college student such as myself trying to save every dime I can.
- TheTaint, on 03/05/2008, -9/+3I personally prefer AOL Live.
- 0515idc, on 03/05/2008, -6/+1I SEE http://www.koobook.net
- deathdefyer, on 03/05/2008, -4/+2So... no feature by feature comparison in table form and at the very end he asks the same question we went to the site to have answered? Worst ever.
- ricky125, on 03/05/2008, -5/+9Not trying to be funny. I'm still confused. Why not use openoffice?
- Aurarch, on 03/05/2008, -8/+3CUZ IT SUCKS.
- slonkak, on 03/05/2008, -1/+8The point of this article wasn't "which office suite is better." It was "which _online_ office suite is better." However, it's pretty clear that Microsoft's entry isn't an online office suite at all, just a place to store files. Google still has the only _real_ online office suite in my opinion.
- iofthestorm, on 03/06/2008, -0/+1Uh, there were other online office suites before Google bought Writely, they didn't even make the Docs portion themselves. Google is great and all, but they aren't the best at everything. Here's hoping Android will help tie all their disparate services together.
- kipmartin, on 03/05/2008, -2/+4because its buggy, doesnt work well with large documents, is slightly incompatible with most systems, and its just as feature heavy as office.
OO has serious compatibility issues. i point out a couple on an OO forum and people said 'fix them manually.' i had 565 instances of one problem--bullet borders--and i didnt have time to mess with it so i put the document into Word, did a global style change and fixed it there. you couldnt do that with OO.
open systems sounds great but in reality, like linux, its still not ready for the desktop. believe me--if anyone wanted it to work more than me id be surprised. i use it at home but id get my ass thrown on the street if i made my tech writers convert to OO. - alanr19, on 03/05/2008, -0/+2coz office live spaces has purty lil buttons. hyuk!!
- Jenadae, on 03/05/2008, -19/+13I HATE MICROSOFT OMG !!!!!!!!!!!!!! BILL GATES CAME TO MY HOUSE AND RAPED MY CAT AND HER KITTENS!!! TWICE!!!! THEN HE BROKE ALL MY EGGS OVER THE STOVE AND HE DIDNT EVEN USE A PAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- 4DFX, on 03/05/2008, -1/+6And then he charged you for it.
- Lutremi, on 03/05/2008, -2/+1OMG HE DIDN'T USE A PAN?! NO WAI!!
- bawpcwpn, on 03/05/2008, -1/+13I might try this Office Live service. My school blocks Google Docs. WHY?! I ask. WHY!?
- Netrilix, on 03/05/2008, -0/+2Just a shot in the dark, but I'm gonna go ahead and guess that one teacher or professor (not sure which school level you're at, though I'm assuming high school if something like this is being blocked) got pissed that some kid was using printer paper from the school, and went running to the administration. Usually you can find a teacher that's actually knowledgeable about computers and have him/her help you convince them to unblock it. If it's district-wide, however, good luck.
- 0515idc, on 03/05/2008, -5/+0Have been looking forward to!!http://www.koobook.net/show.php/show/277
- Willravel, on 03/05/2008, -4/+2ThinkFree Docs FTW!
- emorgoch, on 03/05/2008, -1/+7Is it just me, or does this look like it's just a public version of Sharepoint?
- bluenullity, on 03/05/2008, -0/+2More or less yeah. I just wish that OneNote would get integrated into Office Live and then my notebooks can be shared between computers.
- alanr19, on 03/05/2008, -4/+3When I go to internet cafes and have to retouch a doc, I don't bring my office install cd with me.
Google apps lets me create and edit etc. Office Live space or whatever its called exists purely to sell Office 2007 licenses.
Also it Office Live space is just Sharepoint lite. Whoopdy-doo!- 6minuteabs, on 03/05/2008, -0/+4How many people really need to edit their doc files at internet cafes? If that's the market, then maybe MS is ceding those 10 users to Google.
- DarkShroud, on 03/05/2008, -0/+4Don't internet cafes have office installed on the PCs?
- lynx44, on 03/05/2008, -1/+6Seems like they are both a little too different at the moment to really make a fair comparison. Google has all of their editors built in, and you can collaborate in real time, while MS makes you use your own editors (I'm not sure if its only MS Office or if OpenOffice would work) and you do not collaborate in real time. MS's current solution sounds like its basically just Sharepoint. In the future after a few revisions are made I think they will have a more comparable feature set.
After re-reading my post it sounds like I'm biased against MS, but I'm not. I don't currently have a use for or prefer either solution at the moment. - Barbarino, on 03/05/2008, -0/+7I use Google Docs spread sheet to track calories I eat. I love it, I can keep it open in a tab all day or just open it via bookmark. It's fast and easy. I was super impressed with how well it works. What I really like about it is, with office you have so much function you'll never use and it makes navigating frustrating at times, with google docs they give you basically all you need with no over kill.
- cheesejaguar, on 03/05/2008, -2/+7Perhaps it is because I used google doc's frequently, but I just really don't like Office Live. Not to mention for some reason it is biased against uploads from my mac.
- XenonofArcticus, on 03/05/2008, -2/+11The article totally glosses over the fact that Google has a totally web-based system that requires no other paid software, and MS is offering at best a collaboration/filesharing site that requires you to still use MS Office to do anything. As some of the commenters point out, the author writes for Microsoft. Don't expect any sort of objectivity here, it's completely misleading. Her other Google articles:
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/google_sites_ ...
seem very anti-Google too.- Vtorch, on 03/05/2008, -1/+4The total point of the article is to make a feature for feature comparison, in terms of functionality. Therefore it wasn't important to stress price.
Google might be free, but Office Live/Sharepoint is far superior to Google Apps/Docs based on experience in this field.
People were claiming that network TV and talk radio was dead because of podcasting/netcasting. Obviously they were wrong, as the networks all jumped on the internet bandwagon.
Microsoft will dominate this market, because there are some enterprise features companies need that Google can't provide.- skyshock1, on 03/06/2008, -0/+1"because there are some enterprise features companies need that Google can't provide."
Such as? And also, what makes you think Google is incapable of offering such additional functionality in their online office suite in the future?
- skyshock1, on 03/06/2008, -0/+1"because there are some enterprise features companies need that Google can't provide."
- Vtorch, on 03/05/2008, -1/+4The total point of the article is to make a feature for feature comparison, in terms of functionality. Therefore it wasn't important to stress price.
- uselessexpert, on 03/05/2008, -4/+12The average Digg user response:
Micro$oft sucks!!!!
Google kicks ass! - dadro, on 03/05/2008, -2/+1Not only did this article completely fail to mention that the service ONLY works on windows and requires a paid copy of MS Office, the author also writes for Microsoft. Look at some of the other profiles on the Microsoft Channel 10 "blog" (www.on10.net). I would bet a case of delicious ice cold beers she was paid by Microsoft.
Also look at some of the profiles on Channel 10 (Tina Wood - Run a whois on her domain tinawood.net) . I highly doubt most of these "bloggers" even exist. Definitely a lame marketing ploy and an even lamer paid review. - ZakNicola, on 03/05/2008, -0/+5Live Office Workplace isn't even close to what Google offers. It could have been though. I wrote an article about what MSN could have done to make this a number one great success:
http://zaknicola.wordpress.com/2008/03/04/msn-docs ... - pd69, on 03/05/2008, -1/+2I'm a student and I like the idea of Google docs but it is just not refined enough yet, currently i just use office groove 2007 and sync my laptop and my desktop so Ive got the latest copy of all my work.
- acidandspatter, on 03/05/2008, -1/+3Google for me. I use a lot of their services - gmail, reader, docs, bookmarks, notebook, calendar and the near seamless integration between them all is what keeps me coming back.
- halogoggles, on 03/06/2008, -0/+1Yes. This is why I use Google everything, too. I like Flickr, but I use Picasa because of the integration with everything else I do on the web.
- ThickShag, on 03/05/2008, -0/+0So, I'm like, give the buggers a chance.. so I log in using my hotmail account, and it goes like "your account is not recognised as a Windows Live account" Go figure.
- derekivey, on 03/05/2008, -1/+2Is it just me or does Office Live not support Firefox? Many of the features are missing, such as editing Word, Excel, PowerPoint documents. When I open IE they are there though...
- argylesocks, on 03/05/2008, -1/+1That would be funny. Does Microsoft still think it has the only browser anyone uses? My grandmother downloaded and began using firefox last year.
- Kossic, on 03/05/2008, -0/+2Google Docs is great because I can use it with my Blackberry. But it does not support .pdf.
Office Live supports .pdf but does not support my Blackberry.
I'm always just one step away from tech heaven- argylesocks, on 03/05/2008, -0/+1I would think that Google docs will get PDF support at some point. Just a guess but suites like OOo have it by default.
- DarkShroud, on 03/05/2008, -0/+1Adobe sues anyone that tries to get close to the .pdf format that can make money. It took MS forever to get the option in Office 2007 to save as a .pdf because Adobe get taking them to court over it.
- argylesocks, on 03/06/2008, -0/+1IC I was wondering why programs like Scribus and OOo had it.
- DarkShroud, on 03/05/2008, -0/+1Adobe sues anyone that tries to get close to the .pdf format that can make money. It took MS forever to get the option in Office 2007 to save as a .pdf because Adobe get taking them to court over it.
- argylesocks, on 03/05/2008, -0/+1I would think that Google docs will get PDF support at some point. Just a guess but suites like OOo have it by default.
- blueandgreen24, on 03/05/2008, -0/+2I don't understand how you can have like 7 GB of inbox space and only 500kb of work space
- trenchfever, on 03/05/2008, -1/+1Thats it. This begins the end of google docs and other web based office suites. How can they possibly compete when a corporate decision maker is faced with a choice that includes microsoft? Would he/she rather chose microsofts own implementation which would most likely offer seamless integration to microsofts own products or chose other more distal products from alternative vendors? On the other hand and on a positive note, microsoft concentrating more on the webspace may offer our friends form the FLOSS community an opportunity to up the ante on their front. KDE4 is trudging along quite steadily. Recent builds of the KDE4 live CD http://home.kde.org/~binner/kde-four-live/ is surprisingly solid, feels more robust, slick and faster than ever. And gnome is steadily chipping "fluff" from the linux desktop with its conservative chisel. Certainly microsofts monopoly over mainstream computing is going down but they aren't going down without a fight.
- assbeard, on 03/05/2008, -1/+1too many words. Put it in a simple-for-retards comparison chart
- Malarie, on 03/05/2008, -2/+1Wow... They actually support Firefox 2.0!
http://home.officelive.com/Misc/CompatibleShell.as ...
Too bad I am redirected to this URL on Ubuntu. - heartsblood, on 03/05/2008, -2/+5Somebody fill in the blanks for me;
Office live costs = $?
Microsoft office costs = $?
Operating system that runs Microsoft Office = $?
Google docs = $?
OpenOffice = $?
Operating system that runs OpenOffice = $?
If you're going to make a point for point comparison of 2 products at least include how much you're paying for each point. Otherwise how can we justify the value and merits of each point? - Ben174, on 03/05/2008, -0/+3Is it just me or does Google Docs feel more like WordPad than MS Word?
- skyshock1, on 03/06/2008, -0/+1You're right, Google should have tossed in Clippy for the full MS Word effect.
/facepalm
- skyshock1, on 03/06/2008, -0/+1You're right, Google should have tossed in Clippy for the full MS Word effect.
- Galume, on 03/05/2008, -2/+0Dang...the article got my hopes up. I use Google Docs to do online editing but I'm currently working on a doc that is >2mb and Google Docs won't allow anything over 500 Kb - LAME. Office Live allowed me to upload the file, but not work on it directly- wth? If I want to email it to myself and work on it on another computer with Office I can already do that. This is useless to me. Hopefully Google will still feel somewhat threatened though and will up the limit on allowable document sizes to match M$.
- angers, on 03/05/2008, -0/+1As an engineering student, it's quite helpful to use Google Docs for collaboration. Everyone in the group is included into the document or spreadsheet. We all just dump our information on there, so that it is much easier for the person compiling to grab all the UPDATED information from Google Docs and use it to make a more professional document with LaTeX or Microsoft Office.
Btw, if you're still using Word to type a thesis, or engineering report, you should definitely check out LaTeX because it makes math look really pro... - neko, on 03/06/2008, -1/+1"Office Live Workspace, on the other hand, may not have the collaboration features of Google Docs, but the workspaces feature is unique. Plus, you have the capabilities of full-featured Office software available (assuming you own it)!"
uh. I would have put this something like "Plus, it requires you to have MS Office installed on your machine, and can't edit documents without it!". Oh, and some kind of ActiveX control to launch executables when you click the "Edit" link, I would assume... *shudder*
It doesn't sound like it can hold a candle to the simple elegance of Google Docs. - ghall, on 03/06/2008, -1/+1Hey you, get out of my offive. :p
- zaipai, on 03/06/2008, -1/+0Come on Steve the people have spoken, put flash on the iPhone! You can't for one minute think that quicktime is a better replacement!
- PaulSu, on 03/06/2008, -1/+0How often do I have to upgrade and cost?
- mrrm, on 03/06/2008, -1/+0thinkfree works on NT, apple and Linux. You can share it an the features are pretty much advanced. It's true to it's name.
- HarleyQuinn, on 03/07/2008, -1/+1Hmm, happend to be running the Opera browser and went to try Office live. Does not appear to like Opera... Typical...
- cyrus007, on 03/07/2008, -1/+0I think ZOHO is way better than either of these.
- jalam1001, on 03/27/2008, -0/+0I think the comparison is not totally possible.
- lolo2007, on 05/16/2008, -0/+0Dang...the article got my hopes up. I use Google Docs to do online editing but I'm currently working on a doc that is >2mb and Google Docs won't allow anything over 500 Kb - LAME. Office Live allowed me to upload the file, but not work on it directly- wth? If I want to email it to myself and work on it on another computer with Office I can already do that. This is useless to me. Hopefully Google will still feel somewhat threatened though and will up the limit on allowable document sizes to match M$.
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