As the victims of VISTA huddle together for a back-and-forth, I'm more convinced than ever that it's a smart idea to seize the opportunity of MSoft's latest to at least try Linux, and put the $200+ savings into a zippy new monitor, a fancy graphics card, serious memory expansion, or even a CPU upgrade.
Jim Fallows got me spraying my coffee over this:
That same column also recommended Microsoft's new Office2007, a view I stand by. It's a very good, attractive, stable, and technically sound set of programs (Word, Outlook, Excel, etc). If you don't have this already, you should get it.
Blogger, I have Office. I'm a heavy Office user. Office is not your friend.
So far as I can tell, Microsoft made cosmetic changes so that they could sell another round of software, rewriting the interface (ooo!, ooo!, aaaahhh!) and putting on a minimal number of new features.
Even if you disagree, it's very, very clear that the huge profits from the operating system are NOT getting recycled into improving the Office product. I'll bet that the budget to 'improve Excel' is among the smallest of the major development programs.
