UncertainGod Wrote:I actually haven't bothered installing open office on my main machine this install, it's much easier for me to have all my docs on googles servers and access them anywhere, the word processor is more than adequate, though the spreadsheet is in dire need of a overhaul.

Quote:GOOGLE, no longer just a souped-up search engine, is really beginning to get under the skin of Microsoft, it seems.
At stake is the future of how wee interact with software: by logging online to free applications provided by groups such as Google, or by buying costly boxed software from behemoths such as Microsoft.

For the past year or so, Google has been quietly promoting its online range of free software, including the Gmail email service and its Docs and Spreadsheets programs for creating Office-style documents.

But its executives have denied they're trying to take serious business away from the omnipotent Microsoft Office: just providing a handy little service for consumers, they have said.

Suddenly it's got a lot more serious than that.

Google is looking to make a major drive into the business environment where Microsoft makes most of its money, and the software giant is fighting back.

Earlier this year, Google began pushing into the corporate space with Google Apps Premier Edition, a bundle aimed at small-medium business, schools, universities, health services and other outfits that includes Gmail, Docs and Spreadsheets, Google Calendar, Google Talk (an instant messaging and voice-call service) and Page Creator, for designing web pages.

Bundled with support services and 10GB of online storage for each user, this lot doesn't come free.

Customers pay about $59 a head a year for the bundle, but that's a heck of a lot less than a business would pay to keep an office worker loaded with the latest Office products from Microsoft.

Australia's Macquarie University, with about 68,000 users, is among those who have signed up with Google.

Last week, Google upped the ante again, signing a deal with Capgemini, a global provider of IT services to very-large businesses, to market expanded GAPE services to its customers, who include many of the big names in banking, finance, automotive and telecommunications industries. In Australia, they include Optus and the Australian Rugby Union. Microsoft appeared stung.

The giant fired out a statement, listing 10 questions it reckons would-be Google Apps users should ask, and blasting some of its products as "incomplete beta software".

On the other hand, Google Apps offer some benefits in which Office is lacking.

Docs and Spreadsheets for instance are far better set up for easy collaboration on documents by a number of workers.

This battle is just beginning.

ASUS, one of the major Taiwanese laptop makers, has done a deal with Vodafone to pop the mobile phone outfit's 3G SIM cards into selected notebook PC models.

No, the idea is not to make mobile phone calls via your laptop, but to allow users to get internet broadband access on the move: anywhere in range of a Vodafone mobile tower.

According to ASUS, the laptops will sell for less than $2000 and if you sign for the Vodafone service, the carrier will very nicely send you a $250 cashback cheque.

Nor will Asus notebook owners be tied to Vodafone, because the technology inside the laptops is said to work with the high-speed downlink packet access platform used by Telstra's Next G network and Hutchison's "3 Mobile" operation.

Hopefully, Next G users would be able to whip out the Vodafone SIM card, pop in a Telstra card, and log on pretty well anywhere in Australia.

The SIM card option would certainly be a cheaper alternative to Telstra BigPond's PCI and USB card modems, more conventionally used for connecting notebook PCs to Next G.

BigPond charges $299 for these plug-in gadgets, although you can sometimes pick them up for a bit less on eBay.

1. Speed - imagine 1000 people in a building clogging up the internet connection with constant AJAX requests made by these office suites
   
2. Security - doing it over the web = increased danger...