Microsoft is selling a bargain-priced ‘Students and Teachers’ MS Office Ultimate Edition for $60 US.
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When I first saw the cheaper version of MS Office I wondered if it was MS’ way of trying to compete with OpenOffice and maybe WordPerfect Office a bit without officially combating them. Microsoft’s always tried to make their poor-quality applications seem like they’re on a higher level than they ought to be.
I mean, look at this product list:
| Access 2007 |
OneNote 2007 |
| Accounting |
Word 2007 |
| Express 2008 |
Outlook 2007 |
| Excel 2007 |
PowerPoint 2007 |
| Groove 2007 |
Publisher 2007 |
| InfoPath 2007 |
Is there anything there that’s actually any good? I don’t mean, “Does it do what it sets out to do?” good, I mean, “Does it have the kind of features it should have in 2002, let alone 2008 good?” These programs haven’t changed in 10 years, but Microsoft keeps adding checkbox features (collaboration, export-to-web, better macro support) but these apps are still dodgy. Microsoft’s new features almost never work the way they’re advertised, and people would have to become certified in an application to use basic features. My version of Outlook at work chokes on a large mailbox (well, I actually have about 5 IMAP’ed into it).
And the answer is a definite no. No, no, no.
It’s an excellent marketing company, but rather poor on product quality, if you ask me.
Which actually brings up an interesting point.
Microsoft’s professional applications are its server line, development tools and that’s about it. Office isn’t professional, it’s a good application for your 12-year old to use to do his presentation on Napoleon in history class but it looks like garbage for a business presentation. Word is horrid. Excel is terrible as well.
Everything Microsoft makes is pretty much garbage.
Stop marketing with checkboxes.
Categories: Business
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