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Microsoft Still Wants to Take Over the World
Microsoft Still Wants to Take Over the World PowerPage reader Joseph Poulshock reports that he:
Read more at:
A Foil For M$ World Dominance Proposed Alex Alexzander writing on osOpinion.com, says that:
"I think the time has come for Apple to create an office suite of its own. The ideal product would be compatible with Microsoft's Office suite but would only generate open file formats in an effort to beat Microsoft at its own game...
"With the OpenOffice code tree available to anyone who wishes to use it -- not to mention the fact that it is nearly 100 percent compatible with Microsoft Office code -- the time has come for Apple to consider closing the door on Microsoft and using this source code to build its own office suite.
"I say close the book on Microsoft. I think the time has come to show the world that this can be done -- and Apple, in my opinion, is the company to do it." Technically, this should be certainly doable. However, if M$ retaliated and dropped Mac support, that would hand the anti-Mac ignorami the "not compatible" stick to beat Apple with. If more Mac users would exhibit the gumption to stop using M$ software unless they absolutely have to for work requirements, it might encourage Apple to take the plunge. Also see my review of Pierre Igot's "Mac OS X at Work: A Failing Grade for Apple" below. A MS Office Alternative Right Now ThinkFree Office 2.0 is an affordable suite of word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation graphics applications. Its applications can seamlessly open, edit, and save directly to the corresponding Microsoft Office file formats like .doc, .xls, and .ppt. ThinkFree Write, Calc and Show allows users to effortlessly exchange files with friends and co-workers using Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint. Its unique, pure Java architecture enables it to run on Windows or Macintosh operating systems. ThinkFree Office features integrated, Internet-based file sharing and storage with end-to-end security. The product is sold by subscription (a modest $50 annually), for which you get a curretn copy of the software, free updates for 12 months, and free online storage for 12 months If you choose not to renew the subscription after 12 months, you can still use the version you have without any penalty, but without upgrades or online storage. ThinkFree Office it reads and writes MS Office by default, and supports Powerpoint presentations. ThinkFree Office applications can automatically save files directly into your Cyberdrive, a secure Internet-based storage location. Then, anywhere you go, you can open, edit, and save your work. Also, each ThinkFree application offers you the option to save files into HTML format, so they can be uploaded to a website and viewed using only a browser. Once installed, no Internet connection is required to run ThinkFree Office. If you have an Internet connection, you can take full advantage of the ThinkFree Cyberdrive to access your files and applications anywhere you go. ThinkFree Office provides identical features whether you are using Windows, Mac, Linux, or UNIX. Our file formats are identical for all platforms, so any ThinkFree Office document created on one computer can be opened on any other computer, with no need for conversion or "importing."
System requirements:
Why MS Office Really Sucks Department Applelust's Pierre Igot says:
"The problem is, quite simply, that Microsoft Word stalls all the time."
Such as:
• Word stalls when I am typing.
"Simply put, Word stalls all the time, and as you can imagine, this can be extremely frustrating, and downright infuriating. It adds considerably to the amount of clicking and typing required, simply because of the much higher number of errors caused by this delay of several seconds between the user action and its effect on screen...
"This constant stalling, while it obviously is the single-most important bug in Word v. X as far as I am concerned, is far from being the only major problem with the software.
"During the course of my two days working on my translation, I also experienced a variety of other bugs that can cause significant data loss, if you are not extremely careful.
• Word will “unexpectedly quit” when trying to drag-and-drop text either within the document or from window to window.... This bug has now been acknowledged and documented by Microsoft, and Microsoft’s technical support web site contains a page devoted to it.
• the dreaded “Too Many Files Open/Disk Is Full” bug.
• As well, during the course of this busy week-end, I also managed to experience Word v. X simply crashing on me for no apparent reason right in the middle of my working session.
• Finally, just to add even more to my frustration, I also had to endure Word v. X’s overall sluggishness (which is separate from the stalls mentioned above) Pierre's machine is a Power Mac G4/450, with 1 Gig of RAM, incidentally. Microsoft Tech Support's advice to Pierre?
"I have to say that it is Apple that has failed me.... Apple has failed to realize that Microsoft will never be able to develop the necessary expertise and know-how in Macintosh software development to be able to develop applications that do not require huge amounts of disk space and RAM and ultra-powerful computers to be able to run at an acceptable level of performance. And, really, Microsoft’s past history is a clear enough indication, even for Apple, that this always has been and always will be the case.
"... while I have pretty much given up on Microsoft, I have not given up on Apple. I still believe that they are able to hear the message that I am trying to convey here: You can be cosy with Microsoft all you want, and heap piles of Mac OS X and Office v. X hype on your unsuspecting or powerless Mac audience — but at some point you have to draw a line, and agree that there are issues in many real-world situations that are simply unacceptable. And you have to do what it takes to eliminate these issues."
You can read Pierre's long and detailed article here:
Mac OSX Banner Exchange
Every time you display someone else's banner on your web page, someone else displays your banner on their web page. This is a free service.
You can see the statistics for the last month at:
Google Begins Making DMCA Takedowns Public A LinuxJournal article notes: "Attention DMCA lawyers: Try to remove a web site from Google's index and you'll probably just make it more popular. "...Google has begun to make so-called "takedown" letters public. DMCA-censored pages are now two clicks and a cut-and-paste away from the regular search results. "Google is still choosing to take advantage of the Safe Harbor provision of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which allows web sites to escape liability for copyright infringement if they take pages down in response to properly formed letters. "...Google has expanded its DMCA page to include instructions for Counter Notification under the DMCA. A webmaster who believes that a non-infringing page is being unfairly censored can write the proper legal incantations and have the page put back into the index.
You can check it out at:
Chilling Effects Clearinghouse Defends Online Rights Chilling Effects Clearinghouse is A joint project of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Harvard, Stanford, Berkeley, and University of San Francisco law school clinics. Do you know your online rights? Have you received a letter asking you to remove information from a Web site or to stop engaging in an activity? Are you concerned about liability for information that someone else posted to your online forum? Chilling Effects aims to help you understand the protections that the First Amendment and intellectual property laws give to your online activities. We are excited about the new opportunities the Internet offers individuals to express their views, parody politicians, celebrate their favorite movie stars, or criticize businesses. But we've noticed that not everyone feels the same way. Anecdotal evidence suggests that some individuals and corporations are using intellectual property and other laws to silence other online users. Chilling Effects encourages respect for intellectual property law, while frowning on its misuse to "chill" legitimate activity. The website offers background material and explanations of the law for people whose websites deal with topics such as Fan Fiction, Copyright, Domain Names and Trademarks, Anonymous Speech, and Defamation. The site will be gathering a searchable database of Cease and Desist notices sent to Internet users, and invites you to input Cease and Desist letters that you've received into the database. They will respond by linking the legalese in the letters to FAQs that explain the allegations in plain English. Periodically, the site will issue "weather reports" assessing the climate for Internet activity based on the letters we receive and news reports. What areas (topics, legal categories, jurisdictions) are coolest to online conduct? What activities risk being frozen out altogether? What conduct gets the warmest reception?
For more information, visit:
LindowsOS Sneak Preview 2 Released Lindows CEO Michael Robertson says: "About six months ago, we started building Lindows.com with the goal of bringing choice to the personal computer and today we're announcing a milestone a further glimpse of Lindows.com’s Operating System, Sneak Preview 2.... "Click-N-Run is a powerful new feature in the latest preview of our operating system, LindowsOS, which opens the door to a world of high-quality software solutions that can be instantly zapped to any machine running LindowsOS. Finding and installing software has always been a tricky, time-consuming experience. LindowsOS users can now browse a warehouse of software titles in a rich graphical presentation via the Warehouse tab on Lindows.com or by launching Click-N-Run from their desktop. From here they can read descriptions of products, do comparisons, and view screenshots and best of all, a single click will download and install the title of their choice. Never before has it been this simple to peruse software titles and add them to your computer... "We expect to have our first official release later this year. We're making LindowsOS Sneak Preview 2 available to our Insiders to update them on the direction we are going and to gain their valuable input. The other significant feature enhancement is the ability to view and print the major file formats without purchasing additional software -including Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Excel files - look here for a complete list. For those of you with a few minutes to spare who want to do an install on a non-essential machine, and are willing to give us their feedback, I encourage you to consider signing up as an Insider "What has not improved in LindowsOS Sneak Preview 2 is the ability to run Microsoft Windows software titles as well as installing LindowsOS on more obscure hardware configurations. You'll see marked improvements in those areas with the next version. "As with our earlier release, LindowsOS Sneak Preview 2 is not a complete product and is best suited for those willing to give us their input after the five-minute installation process on a spare machine. Yes, installs take under five minutes. On a machine with Microsoft Windows 98, it’s even easier. Just download the installer, double-click and go - no need to even create a CD. And as long as you select the "Friendly-Install" you can switch between Microsoft Windows 98 and LindowsOS with a simple restart of your machine.
Michael Robertson
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