McGarvey’s Words
by Robert McGarvey
re: More Evil Than Satan Himself
|
|
McGarvey’s Words by Robert McGarvey re: More Evil Than Satan Himself |
|
|
Here's What You Are Saying: Letters to McGarvey's Words . Back Pages: o Palms Away: Travels with a Palm. o Email-Country. Of Ricky Skaggs, cruising, Yahoo, and the ubiquity of email. O Google Spying: Much ado
about something good. o Ebay and the triumph of ecommerce. o VirtualOffice: The best travel bag. oChangingTravel: New rules for a new century. o Hotels: Never over-spend; read McG's rules. o NotMicrosoft: Beat the Beast o Junkmail: the war on spam.
|
A few years ago this was a popular Google bug: Search for “more evil than Satan himself”and you were promptly delivered to the website for Microsoft, a company with a seriously inept public relations program. But, truth is, it fries me, the chronic whining about Microsoft's stranglehold over our desktops and laptops. For one thing, this has not been all to the bad. I recall spending $600 for WordStar Pro twenty years ago – and I see Microsoft Office XP, full version, goes for under $400 on Half.com. It's a third cheaper (without correcting for inflation), and many times more powerful. But probably the bigger reason for my annoyance is that the market is packed with valid, useful alternatives to Microsoft's key products. These are the tools I turn to every night in a hotel room when I click on the laptop. And this, often, is what I do in hotel rooms -- test and try out new programs from lesser known vendors. Hey, it might not be as much fun as watching new "Molto Mario" episodes on Food Network -- but it sure beats another round with Aaron Brown. That understood here's the reality: You don't like Bill? Boycott his wares. Even if you do like Bill – and I'd count myself as ambivalent about the Beast of Redmond – check out the alternatives because competition still benefits the computer matketplace. Start here: www.openoffice.org. This is a dandy – and free! -- office suite that's a descendant of StarOffice, a product Sun Microsystems put on the market to annoy Gates & Co. A few years later it's morphed into OpenOffice, am open source suite featuring a wordprocessor, a spreadsheet, HTML editor, a presentation program, and a little drawing program. How useful is it? I'm writing this column with it. I admit I'm using OpenOffice.org 1.0 Resource Kit by Solveig Hauland and Floyd Jones (Prentice Hall, 1000+ pp, $39.95), a thick user's manual that includes the program on a CD (no need to download). Plunk OpenOffice into your CD drive and 10 minutes later, it's ready to boot up. The program flags its mischievous intent by asking if you want to use it as the default for opening Word docs, PowerPoint PPTs, etc. Don't want to spend $400 putting Microsoft Office on a home computer? Use OpenOffice.org instead. In my tests it has good compatibility with Office, it works well enough and intuitively, and it's a fully legal install. Try it out and know that with each use you are thumbing your nose at the Redmond Raptors and/or casting a vote for open source development. What's not to like? Or spend a few bucks and buy Corel's WordPerfect, still a terrific bargain suite. Full disclosure: A few years ago I made the odd dollar writing a column for Corel's website but I haven't done that in a long while and, heck, anybody will tell you I don't shy from biting the hand that feeds when the hand needs biting. Not Corel, though. Its office suite is praise-worthy and an exceptional buy. I'm looking at eBay and a two-CD edition of WordPerfect Office 2000 – with Word Perfect, Quattro, Presentations, Corel Central, and much more – is about to sell for $12. What a deal! But I got it for less. A version came loaded on my new HP Pavillion laptop, meaning it was free, and, lately, Corel has been OEMing the suite all over cyberland. Don't hesitate to use it and, yes, it has high compatibility with Microsoft Office files. Then there's PocoMail ($40 CDN, from www.pocomail.com). I've had terrible crashing problems with the Microsoft email applications (both MS Outlook and Outlook Express), which is what prompted me to look for an alternative. But what sold me on buying PocoMail is that it is resolutely not a Microsoft application. From the ground up it's different and – the big benefit – that means the myriad email viruses cascading around the 'Net have no impact on PocoMail with its alternative architecture. The program also builds in slick anti-spam tools, has fast and intuitive filing tactics and is very easy to learn. But the key selling advantage has to be the immunity to Microsoft email viruses. Check it out. A 30-day free trial is available. AOL Communicator is another new, email tool that, at long last, gives AOL users some power tools for handling, filing, sorting email. It can be toggled to interface with POP email accounts. And it's a freebie. The built-in AOL email program is wretched, anemic. But AOL Communicator, in my tests, is proving fast, powerful. All AOL users ought to grab a copy (key word: AOL Communicator). This page is concocted in Namo's WebEditor 5.5 (www.namo.com), around $100, but it packs much more punch than Microsoft FrontPage. I've been a longtime FrontPage user but within 10 minutes of downloading the free Namo trialware, I was logging on and paying for the full version. A big plus: it comes with many more templates than FrontPage. It's a good buy. For Web surfing, try Netscape, a program I long ago wrote off, but today when MSIE kept doing buggy MSIE things, I downloaded the newest Netscape and, you know, in version 7.02 it ain't bad at all. It seems faster than MSIE, I've yet to run into a page that doesn't display properly, and of course it is free and it isn't from Redmond. And when counting the ways in which you're foiling the Microsoft Beast, don't forget the many, non-Microsoft apps you probably are already using on a daily basis. I keep my calendar in Lotus Organizer (a marvelous tool, much slicker than MS Outlook; copies sell for a few bucks on eBay). I do my finances in Quicken 2002. I use FileMaker Pro when I need a database. What about the OS? I confess: I've not made the switch to Linux and have no plans to do so. I am not a big fan of Windows XP (tho it seems a sharp improvement over Me) but I have been using Windows for eight years and haven't heard a compelling argument to make the switch. Bottomline, however, is this: don't whine about Microsoft. Let your mouse vote for alternatives by downloading and using keen non-Redmond apps. Me, for instance, I'm finding OpenOffice.org so easy to use that, frankly, I've forgotten it's not Word. What higher testimony is there? Question for you: What non-Microsoft program do you routinely use? What's the biggest benefit? Tell us and we'll post the best emails here. Want to keep reading McGarvey's Words? Sign up for Joe Brancatelli's weekly email notification of new travel columns that have posted. McGarvey's Words usually posts every other week, except when it doesn't. How to get this update? Just send Joe a blank E-mail and Joe will sign you up personally. Click here to visit Joe Brancatelli's Travel Site JoeSentMe.com Keep coming back, for more of McGarvey’s Words. Copyright 2003 by Robert McGarvey Taos Land Sale: Click For Details
|
Have a cruise complaint? File it with Porthole Magazine's Ombudsman. McGarvey on Publishers Marketplace: Brain Wars About Robert McGarvey Author of How to Dotcom (Entrepreneur Press), McGarvey is writing a book on Brain Wars, the rise of cognitive science and the search for truths about thinking. A onetime columnist for BizTravel.com, he is a frequent contributor to dozens of magazines, ranging from American Legion to Electronic Business, Technology Review, and Rutgers. He has also contributed to Harvard Business Review. For the past five years, he has served as "The Ombudsman" for PORTHOLE Cruise Magazine. Still curious about McGarvey? Read up on him here. |
|
|