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It's very encouraging to know the MacBU is continuing to develop MS Office for Mac. That said, does anyone else here share my absolute nightmare of Microsoft ending Office for Mac someday? After all, the ability for a Mac user to share Office documents with Windows users is practically a pre-requisite for using a Mac in any business environment. As such, I for one dread the thought that Microsoft, literally, is one of the legs that the Mac platform stands upon.

Should Apple be developing its own fully-compatible Office suite, just in case Microsoft ever kills Office for Mac?

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mrmgraphics wrote:

...does anyone else here share my absolute nightmare of Microsoft ending Office for Mac someday?...Should Apple be developing its own fully-compatible Office suite, just in case Microsoft ever kills Office for Mac?

Microsoft will continue to make Mac software as long as they hit their profit targets, just like any other developer. They aren't doing it for fun.

Look at it this way: We Mac users have chosen not to buy Windows. If MS Office does not exist, Microsoft won't get any revenue from Mac users at all. If MS Office exists, Microsoft gets at least some money from us. In this way, Microsoft has much more motivation to develop Mac Office than to not do it.

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Guest wrote:
If MS Office exists, Microsoft gets at least some money from us. In this way, Microsoft has much more motivation to develop Mac Office than to not do it.

Don't forget the development costs involved with producing Office for the Mac. That "some money" has to be enough to justify all of the costs of the engineering, marketing, etc of the product and the costs of running the Mac business unit in general.

Does anyone know what version of Windows Server 2003 we have to buy?

I am amazed that there has yet to be good reviews of Office 2004 -- other than the superficial ones that are impressed with the key new features.

Is anyone bugged that all Mac offices now have to buy Windows to get integrated workplace collaboration (e-mail/shared contacts& addressbooks/shared calendars)?

You know, once a facility like Windows Server is in place in an all Mac office, there is no longer any reason NOT to buy Windows for users. While some users love their Macs, despite what we would like to think, many of my users in this all-mac shop, would take a Windows box in a hearbeat.

Also, with a Windows box it is easier to outsource support (that means one less Mac professional on these premises).

Does any one know if WinServer2003 is any less vulnerable to virus/worm mischief than exchange server has been in the past?

OK I'll switch to a Mac because MS Office on the Mac has nearly all the features, runs slower, and costs more than the Windows version. The illogic is a laugh riot.

Are you reconsidering the Mac? With the lack of viruses, ease of operation, and Mac Office 2004 will you be reconsidering the Mac for your business? Why or Why not??

Any takers?

I suppose that the "best OS" comment somehow inexplicably slipped by you. Some people actually use their machines for things other than MS Office, but having the ability to operate within a heterogeneous computing environment (here, I'll use little words for you: that means you can have different systems playing nice together on the network so that some people can get work done the next time the Blaster worm rolls around) can be a BIG (I mean BIG) selling point. Nevermind those companies sick of the MS crap being fed to them; here's a way for them to migrate to another platform if they choose. (And if you don't think it won't gain better performance over time then you're a moron...wait, you're a moron anyway) So, in closing, shut your hole.

"Bill Gates used to brag that Microsoft made more money from each Macintosh sold than Apple Computer did."

If BG made Exchange for OS X Server, this could be true again. Apple needs to come out with and exchange alternative which works well with outlook on Windoze.

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mrmgraphics wrote:
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Should Apple be developing its own fully-compatible Office suite, just in case Microsoft ever kills Office for Mac?

Open Office have something on the go for Mac OSX.

On the Exchange Server aspect, I was under the impression, maybe wrongly, that Outlook 2001 was the client of choice for Macs talking directly to MBX boxes on a network.

In fact Outlook 2001 cannot even be used for internet email, and appears to bea free download to boot.

Well, if all you do on your computer is run Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Email, and a web browser, then you won't have much impetus to switch. But if you use a lot of other programs, especially programs in graphics, music, page layout, etc., and need a robust platform, and most of your time is spent there, then it makes perfect sense. The fact that these MS programs might run a shade slower on a Mac (they're not really needing to be speedy to begin with - the differences are scarcely noticeable. And if you simply want elegant simplicity, it's a hard platform to beat. As an independent Mac support pro who works often in mixed environments, I'm often amused that the "creatives" AND the top brass get Macs for themselves, but everyone else in the organization has to work with Windows (mainly because the boxes are cheap and IT people can guarantee themselves a job chasing bugs, glitches and a zillion viruses, while Mac users rarely have downtime.

I worked freelance for a short time for a large support firm whose bread-and-butter was their Windows work, but they needed a Mac guy (me), just to go out on call for an occasional issue. They would go into all-Mac facilities and if the person in authority wasn't really savvy, they'd sell him/her on installing a Windows server and Outlook for everyone at $100 per station per month (!), with an additional near-certainty that they'd also get lots of service calls. No one told the customer that many if not all of the capabilities they were paying through the nose to get had Mac equivalence that was either free or incredibly cheaper (and worked far more intuitively and simply).

Don
The Mac Therapist
Los Angeles