Microsoft

Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and their Office allies can be great applications, but not everybody needs everything they offer. How do you know where to start when shopping for alternative software? You'll save money with a different brand, but will it do the trick? Should you buy boxed software, download freebies for your hard drive, access browser-based apps, or juggle all of the above?

We've reviewed nine productivity suites--including downloads and online services--and cooked up a jumbo chart mixing up their gumbo of features and file formats. IBM's release of Lotus Symphony beta added more spice to … Read more

I've always liked Michael Meeks. He's Novell's point man on OpenOffice, and is a core committer to that project (which is saying something, since he doesn't work for Sun :-). Michael gives a good interview to ZDNet that uncovers some of the interesting usability work he's been doing with OpenOffice, among other things.

Michael on IBM's involvement in OpenOffice and the value of multiple suppliers:… Read more

Bored of Google Presentations already? If you're looking for something with a little more pizazz, there's Prezentit, a Web-based presentation maker. Like Google, Vyew, and others, Prezentit lets you build, and work on a presentation with several collaborators at once, all in your browser. You can send out the finished product as a URL, or even download it in the form of an HTML file that will run on any computer with a browser installed. These are handy features, but how does it stack up on features? The answer, unfortunately, is not well.

As far as presentation makers go, Prezentit is pretty bare-bones. You can only add text and images, and there are no slide templates like you'll find on PowerPoint. To add content, you can upload image files from your hard drive, which get stored in a free storage locker that holds up to 250MB. There's also a gallery of background art, although you're limited to less than 20 sample shots. Unfortunately, there's also no way to upload a PowerPoint file and have it convert to the editor, which is where these services can be incredibly useful, especially for creating a highly searchable index.

So what sets Prezentit apart from the pack? Despite its lack of features, its interface is wonderfully easy to use. If you're familiar with Microsoft Office 2007's "Ribbon" UI, the idea isn't too far off. There's also a slew of genuinely good-looking transitions, many of which are smooth, and low on the cheese factor (read: there are no glitter graphics or explosions.) While there's no built-in chat client, there are hosting pages for each presentation that double as a place to let others add their two cents about what could be better. The service is also adding an "explore" section soon for publicly shared presentations.

I wouldn't recommend using Prezentit over some of the other Web-based presentations out there simply due to a dearth of features I think are pretty essential to a good presentation app, but the service is young, and there's definitely room for growth. We've got more screenshots after the break.… Read more

Wednesday night, my colleague Anne Broache and I posted our article previewing the U.S. Senate hearing Thursday where Microsoft and Google will face off regarding the search company's attempt to purchase DoubleClick.

The hearing is about to start and can be watched via Webcast. Anne is there and will be writing about the hearing later Thursday.

That article previewed Google's arguments. Now we have a copy of Microsoft's prepared remarks by Brad Smith, the company's general counsel, and we're sharing this excerpt. Smith, no newcomer to antitrust fights, says the merger would be bad … Read more

Back in 2006, Microsoft decided to borrow a Linux distribution. Microsoft, which has felt little negative direct effect from the Linux operating system, needed to ensure it could skew the open-source business model in its favor, by levying a patent FUD tax on anyone who chose to use Linux.

Microsoft has paraded its Linux in terms of customer choice and customer protection, but both are complete canards. Mandriva Linux is just as interoperable with Microsoft Windows as Microsoft's SUSE, is. The same is true for a wide variety of Linux distributions - they are all as interoperable with Windows as any officially blessed by Microsoft.

Today, the FUD strategy is paying off, apparently, as PC World reports.… Read more

The major search engines are notorious for their claims of out-doing each other. For years, Google and Yahoo battled it out over which had the largest index. Google eventually claimed the title two years ago, but Yahoo countered that relevancy is more important than size.

And this year, the features race is on, with interface and site overhauls either already done or in the works at the top four search providers.

Google's big search site update, in May, garnered headlines for its integration of image, video and other search types into one long list of Web results. And Ask.… Read more

Microsoft unveiled on Wednesday the first significant changes to its Live search site since it was launched over a year ago, adding new shopping, entertainment and health verticals and improving video search. But most of the changes, particularly in the core search relevancy, mirror what competitors already offer.

The company demonstrated the new features at an event dubbed "Searchification" at its Mountain View, Calif. offices. Some of the news was leaked late last week in a blog entry written by one of its own employees.

The most interesting items are:

• User reviews and ratings when searching for … Read more

Halo 3, the much-anticipated Xbox 360 game that launched Tuesday, set the all-time record for most revenue earned in a single day by any entertainment property, Microsoft said Wednesday.

The company said that Halo 3, the third and final episode in the hugely popular franchise, netted $170 million in sales in the U.S. in its first day. If true, that would top previous records set by the motion pictures Spider Man 3 and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

There's little doubt Microsoft has been pinning a great deal of hope on Halo 3 and was expecting it … Read more

A bug in Excel 2007 reported earlier this week may be ugly, but it's only skin deep, Microsoft said late Tuesday.

With the bug, results that should have been shown as 65,535 showed instead as 100,000, and a related problem cropped up with 65,536, Microsoft's David Gainer said in a blog posting. But the problem affected how Excel showed the number, not in what the spreadsheet software actually "knows."

"This is an issue in a function that puts numbers in cells, so the values in Excel's memory are actually correct," … Read more