Google Wants to Attract 90 Percent of Microsoft Office Users

[loomis86]

wordpad
notepad
textpad
edit(in DOS)

If Word is more than you need and you can't make one of the above 4 work for you, then I don't know what to tell ya.

 

[bystander]

[citation][nom]antilycus[/nom]doesnt LIBRE OFFICE offer the best solution? It's free, uses the OPEN DOCUMENT system, opens all version of OFfice and creates / saves all version of office files. Oh yeah and it's free and not tied to the internet either. Libre Office FTW[/citation]
I've been using Libre Office at home, because I didn't want to pay a bunch of money for MS Office, but I have to admit, Libre Office is very buggy in comparison.

 

[vincevdc]

Our company made the decision to switch to google Apps in July for email. In December we were told to switch back.

The primary reason was that Google makes it difficult to do things that are simple everywhere else. Calendaring was a nightmare. The support staff was looking for lost email on a daily basis. It was like taking a time machine and going back 20 years. In wo word "It sucked"

Google will have to up its game if it wants to take away Microsoft's market share.

 

[bigdragon]

Google has a tremendous opportunity here given that Microsoft doesn't take them seriously as a threat to the office suite ecosystem. They can run circles around the sleeping giant in very quick order. I wish them luck. We need competition in the office suite space. MS Office has really let itself go in recent years.

 

[d_kuhn]

Their tools are useful for quick unimportant needs if by some chance you don't have a PC but do have web access. I think the web linked thing is will kill broad adoption as anything more than that though. They're trying to apply the 'cloud' too broadly imo... I don't want my documents stored outside of my control. How long before Google docs get instagrammed... "btw - from now on we own all the stuff you store up here, we'll mine it for data and sell it to the highest bidder".

 

[robochump]

[citation][nom]assasin32[/nom]We'll they better put in a spelling and grammar checker on par with MS Office if they want those users. Most users use it to type up documents and for spelling and grammar, something Google Docs is really lagging behind in. As well as every other office suite I have tried. Though I will fully admit I use Abiword/Openoffice mainly for close to 10years. But I have my reasons for that.[/citation]

I figured the easiest thing to implement is a spell checker. If Google offers a trial version I will check Google Docs out.

 

[Pherule]

[citation][nom]kellybean[/nom]Don't worry MS will one day when you get a new MS rig and the newest OS does not run it. Apple loves to play that game.[/citation]
Then I'll switch to Libre Office or whatever open source alternative is highest rated at the time.

Besides, who says I have to upgrade from Windows XP? It's not like I have updates enabled anyway, so when support finally ends in 2014, it won't make any difference to me.

Or maybe I'll install *Buntu. It's tempting.

 

[belardo]

OpenOffice appears to be more stable than Libre. Especially since Oracle dumped it once they made it toxic 2 years ago.

There are some advantages to using Win7 over XP... especially if you have newer hardware. You should consider getting while Win7 is available.

 

[belardo]

(PS: to Pherule: check out LinuxMint, its pretty clean and more understandable then Win8 - somewhat).

Anyways - when you count all computer/tablet/phone devices out there. Microsoft has been reduce to 20% market share in a matter of 5 years (from 90%+) More and more people are using their phones and tablets as THEIR MAIN computer. My GF uses her 4" Android phone as her main computer... even thou she is welcomed to use my iPad or a notebook I have handy.

The only need for Windows with most people is a support system for MS-Office. Games... consoles. Any device out there today can access the web, facebook, email, take photos, etc.

Even today, I'm still using office 2003. I'm building a new i5-3570k system for a client - using Windows7 and his Office2003 disc. I sometimes think "$120 for Office2010 is a good deal for 3 installations" for myself, but I keep finding myself without a real need to get it. I sure as hell won't bother with Office 2013, its ugly as hell and is not much better than Office2010.