I don't need no stinking Microsoft Office.

Quote

Guest wrote:
"Well, you don't really get full Microsoft Office [on the Mac OS]."

I'm glad to see that Mister Ballmer has come to this realization. Like others who have asked me what to do about this, I suggest he call 1-800-Microsoft (642-7676) and voice his concerns there.

Or send a feedback letter to:
Microsoft Corporation...

The only problem with this is, it won't work.

In the 90's, I was on the periphery of another platform that had "part" of MS Office ported to it. It was the same Word/Excel/Powerpoint combo, and back in the 90's, it purportedly cost the CPU manufacturer $10M to port each app to their platform -- $30M for the whole suite. For each release of the products, every year.

MS charges companies to port Office to their platform and support it. That's the mindset they've got -- they are so good and so ubiquitous, the little guys have to come to them.

Apple's probably in a similar situation, but I'm sure they won't talk about it. (Can you say NDA?) (I did not sign an NDA.) I would not be surprised if the porting of this "not full Office" wasn't part of the agreement between Apple & MS years back. Apple may still be paying for Office, so if anything, people should be thanking Apple.

But call MS and complain? They'll laugh off any phone calls or letters decrying their unfair practices, because they're getting paid to be unfair.

"Well, you don't really get full Microsoft Office"

I'd take that as a bonus.

You are a bigger moron than "Monkey Boy?" ...........

After reading Ballmer's 'rant' (that's the best word to describe his interview), I was ready to make a few points, but everyone has very appropriately beat me to all my points. But I gotta tell you, the only logical reason for this outburst, that makes any sense people, is that the poor man is either not taking his medications or he's taking to much medication. I sincerely hope he's not 'self medicating', 'if you know what I mean.'

I think in short order the Microsoft BODs will get his medical provider(s), and the big guys in those white uniforms with that jacket (with all those straps) over to his office (or cell, where ever he is), draw blood levels and start him on, and keep him on, appropriate medications and/or treatment no matter how long it takes.

Now don't you worry all you PC users, 'Big Stevie' (as opposed to our 'Big Steve') will be back at work planning all the big moves in MS's future real soon pending the outcome of the medical findings as above. I think we should have a moment of silence now and say a little prayer for him cause it sounds pretty serious. And when you come right down to it, don't we all have someone 'like him' in our family history, who doesn't come to the family reunions anymore. Let's be patient and understanding. I hope his BODs will be.

What's happened may even have something to do with the current economic crisis. Ya know, he's got access to a lot more information than we Mac users do, since he has a 'full Microsoft Office' application. He probably put all the commercial ad costs info into that 'full Excel Office application' he had regarding his 'buy a PC' ads vs his revenue returns and that pushed him 'over the edge.' And you never know, probably someone pointed out that all that ad money could have been distributed to MS shareholders instead, or maybe Jerry is a shareholder. In that case, he did it correctly.

He did get one thing right though. You?ve never seen a 'cheap Mac', you've only seen quality Macs. And especially more recently, there?s actually some fairly inexpensive Macs considering all you get for the price ? but everyone already knows that.

One final thing. This is one of the few 'Observer Comments' sections where everyone, including all the guest responses, had the same conclusion: Steve Ballmer has lost it and Mac is on top. Praise be, everyone has seen the Light. I think I'll celebrate in my own way with a cool one.

When Windows 7 comes out, I'm going to buy stocks in Staples.

Cos pen and paper is making a comeback !

I think that Ballmer has over-invested in the concept of "I'm a PC".

He is starting to behave like Vista.

...although he claims that PCs outsell Macs 32-1.
Why spend a lot of time talking about Macs if PCs are so much better?
Or maybe they aren't so much better?
Maybe it is because people who buy computers for themselves prefer Macs?

I wonder!

Steve Balmer kills me... he's actually making statements to piss off his own customers??? I mean, Mac users purchase Windows too... but I'm sure his statements are gonna make some of us not give them our money anymore. (Anyone got a pirated copy of Windows they want to sell me?!?! HA!!!) Really, in a "life without walls", who needs Windows, anyway?!?!

His statement about Office is somewhat of a contradiction to what I remember the MS Mac Business unit saying. As I recall, they actually said the Mac version of Office ws actually MORE ADVANCED than the Windows version and that they were apt to try new things on the Mac version and later incorporated them into the Windows version... And if Macs suck for business, then why does MS even have a "Mac Business Unit" at all???

All I know is that MS won't EVER get another dime of my money now... Not buying a Windows Moble smartphone, not buying another copy of Windows, not buying another upgrade to the Mac Office, no keyboards and mice, no stinkin' Xbox, NOTHING!!!

Happy now, Balmer? Hopefully, more Mac users get this urge too!

In the UK there was a cheap jewellery chain called Ratners, run by Gerald Ratner. He once was giving a speech and in a joking fashion called his own products cheap crap:
We also do cut-glass sherry decanters complete with six glasses on a silver-plated tray that your butler can serve you drinks on, all for ?4.95. People say, "How can you sell this for such a low price?" I say, because it's total crap.
He didn't last long.
I think this is Ballmers Ratner moment.

I use it to produce our magazine. If iWork played a little nicer doing footers and Table of Contents, I'd do the Mag in iWork.

Here is why we didn't review the latest (2008) release of MS -

http://www.maccompanion.com/macc/archives/October2008/Software/WhatofMSOffice2008.htm

Other than MS Office and its OS, what has MSFT given to the world? A great deal of headaches. Advil, thank MSFT. Also, its MS OFfice flourished because it managed to monopolize the world through one misstep by IBM, who allowed MSFT then to infuse its PCs with its DOS OS. The thinking then was that the meat was in the hardware and not the software. Since then, it was only through muscling its monopoly to squeeze all other software out of the PC BOx - Lotus 123, Word Perfect etc. Then came the famous "bundling", the shafting to consumers of inferior products in a nicely wrapped package in order to prevent other stand alone packages from gaining share.

Ballmer still thinks that size is everything. If your product sucks, size means noting. And not every who USES a PC bought it. BUt it is safe to say, everyone who uses a Mac loves it. I'd rather buy a Porsche and BMW anytime than a Ford. Both are cars but oh, the pleasure in the drive. And which has a larger market share? And which are more profitable?

My feedback is to use a Mac. Both personally and in business as a software engineer and computer architect.

My Mac is a Microsoft Free Zone and I am able to get along quite well in a business environment.

I'm more productive with my system than my Window's using co-workers.

You can start by sending a complaint about Microsoft Office for Mac to the U.S. Justice Department at this address:

antitrust.complaints@usdoj.gov

Amazing that a CEO of a company still under Justice Department supervision would make this statement. One could infer that they have Microsoft Office incompatible with the business environment to protect their operating system market share.

Apple lawyers should jump on this statement. Doubt an Obama Administration will be sympathetic to Microsoft

Note to Ballmer

Find hole in ground, insert head.

Ballmer is on the road to become the laughing stock of the computer industry. He must be really sweating it out ... and soon Microsoft will be left with just xBOX.

"The fall of Microsoft with Steve Ballmer."

A book with that title about to come out in 5 years!

Very interesting!
Shows what can be achieved with bold decision making.

John

The "full Microsoft Office"? Which one is that exactly? I use Microsoft Office on the Mac, and Microsoft Office on Windows, both on a daily basis. I know there are features of MS Office Windows that you don't get on the Mac version, and there are features of MS Office Mac that you don't get on the Windows version.

MS Office Mac basically works better in making documents look the way you want them to look. There may be features of MS Office Windows that you don't get on the Mac version that I am unaware of or not interested in, but the only one I can think of right now is that it crashes more often. Is this what Ballmer meant?

The real difference, and the one that is most confusing for users, is that there are really two completely separate versions of MS Office: the one for Windows pre-2007 (which was quite similar to the Mac version) and the one for Windows 2007 (which is quite similar to the Mac 2008 version).

In my experience, users hate the 2007 version of Office, whether on Mac or Windows.

There are FREE alternatives to MS Office, such as OpenOffice and NeoOffice, but they aren't as good as the real thing, because they don't offer all of Office's features.

But Ballmer says Office for Mac does not have all of the "real" Office's features, either.

So... why bother with Office for Mac? Faced with the choice of purchasing a crappy imitation of the real Office from Microsoft for $399 list vs. downloading a free crappy imitation of the real Office from somebody else, I think I'm gonna...

Memo to Microsoft stockholders: sell!

If we've paid full retail for a version of Office that Microsoft's our CEO just said isn't the full version, then we should be entitled to at least a 50% refund! Any lawyers out there want a multi-billion dollar class-action law suite.

Mental hospitals used to offer handicrafts for patients. Now, they let them work on operating systems. How nice...for the patients....not as nice....for customers.

Vista compared to Leopard is like comparing Bush 43 to Clinton. Vista and Bush 43 are losers.

Balmer has never been one to learn from embarrassment (just enter 'ballmer' into the search field on YouTube), but you'd think that the CEO of a major corporation would at least make the effort to be familiar with their own product line, which includes dozens of mice that work just perfectly with Macs. Actually, I think that other than the Xbox, their mice are their best products. Very Mac-like.

Balmer is a giant monkey who owes his career to luck more than just about anybody, save one - Bill Gates. The prognostications of both these 'leaders' demonstrate nothing so much as the fact that they are out of touch with both the technology and the market of the industry that they sadly hold so much sway over.

Hear, hear. I hereby officially vow never to give Microsoft another cent. I'm also in the process of dropping them from my portfolio (guess which tech company I'm 'switching' my funds to?). I have never ever seen any CEO so cluelessly shoot themselves in both feet publicly like this, it's truly unbelievable. Let's get crackin' on that class action suit, folks.

The press talks about Jobs' Reality Distortion Field but now we have proof that Steve Ballmer has one too, just another example of how Microsoft copies an idea from Apple and gets it wrong. When Jobs turns his on, everyone in the room is affected. When Ballmer turns his on, only he is affected.

Sure am glad I sold all my Microsoft stock back when it was still worth something. With this joker in control there's only one direction. Down down down.

Is Ballmer trying to Think Different?

This company has had to settle anti-monopoly legislation in most western countries. Looks like not selling me the full version can cost them another lot of legal fees. Good thing Bills parents are lawyers.
On the other hand, maybe the "not full office" that is on my mac is just a mac friendly version without all the bloat that infects most windows machines. If thats what I'm getting then keep ripping me off Mr. Ballmer

"The PC outsells the Mac 33 to 1 ? 32 to 1. 31 to 1. 30 to...
"Oh crap. I'd better get back to headquarters right away!"

Quote

Sir Harry Flashman wrote:
Ballmer: "I'm very sensitive to exactly what mouse I have on my laptop. Can you find a range of choices? [for the Mac] Of course you can't find a range of choices. You know, anyway -- can you find the applications you want on the Mac?

I don't think Ballmer ever used a Mac, or at least within the last few years. Correct me if I am wrong, but you can use just about any 3rd party mouse, including the Microsoft Mouse on a Mac.

I'm guessing by "mouse" he's referring to the input device built in to the laptop itself (trackpad, trackball, rubber nipple wedged into the keyboard, etc).

While it's fairly unethical (and unprofitable) to sell cut down software depending on the platform it's not lawsuit-worthy.

If Microsoft sold PCs you might have some chance, although I'm pretty sure they're entitled to sell whatever software they want.

They aren't exactly harming other software companies of the same type (e.g. IE/FF,Op) - more like they're inadvertently giving way for Apple's own office suite.

is where Ballmer is asked what he would be doing if he never had the opportunity to work at Microsoft and he says he'd be selling insurance.

Mr. Balmer, you really make me cry. Who said we are not in business? Thanks to clear out to the world how you manipulate the products for Mac. By the way, wich of your suite gives you more money or profit by unit, Office Mac or Office Windows? Don't get me wrong but you really need a big change and have more respect for the users and costumer.

Ok - so we don't get Publisher or Front Page, and we don't get Access. Do I care? No, I really, really don't.

Keynote outperforms PowerPoint, and what are we left with - Excel and Word, and lord knows I only use Word when I have to.

I'd say not getting the 'Full Office' is a benefit.

Ballmer smells like bacon.

Didn't Ballmer predict that that iPhone would be a complete failure? Yeah, you can basically ignore anything that knucklehead says.

Reality is, he's the luckiest guy in the world. He lacks vision, leadership abilities, and charisma. If it weren't for Gates, Ballmer would be selling encyclopedias door-to-door in this Wikipedia world.

Thank gawd for Ballmer. His huge lack of understanding of just what he's competing against can only help Apple tremendously. His lack of tech insight, management and imagination coupled with the cultivation of same in the Microsoft corporate culture have pulled Apple from the brink.

Ballmer; may you rule Microsoft with a iron glove for 50 more years. By that time Apple should have enough market share to pretty much not worry about smaller outfits like Microsoft.

Using Balmer's logic, we would conclude that McDonald's is the best restaurant because it outsells all others 32 to 1.

Quantity≠Quality

No Access, no Publisher, no Front Page, and no Outlook.

Okay, so there is Entourage, but given that of all the Mac issues we have to deal with at a University help desk, Entourage is the #1 offender, I think it is fair to point out that Entourage is no substitute for Outlook, and as an attempted substitute, it's garbage.

Not having Publisher or Front Page is probably a good thing.

Not having Access is probably the most annoying omission as while there are several options on the Windows side (I happen to really like Paradox...) there is basically nothing on the Apple side that maps directly to Access. Databases on OS X require a completely different approach.

There are several different versions of Office for Windows. MS Office for Mac is similiar in functionality to one of the low-end Office for Windows versions, but it doesn't contain anything like the feature set of the high-end versions of Office for Windows.

For instance, Mac Office doesn't include a database product (Access), peer-to-peer collaboration platform (Groove), a page-layout tool (Publisher), a PIM/note-taking tool (OneNote), etc.

Finally, there are products that are branded as a part of the MS Office "family", but which aren't technically a part of any MS Office bundle, that aren't available for the Mac. MS Project is perhaps the best example of this.

Of course, one could say "So what? Who wants that stuff?". But that is a different discussion ...

I stopped buying MS Office two years ago. Too much money. Too many bugs. Office is CRAP. Several alternatives are better and cheaper.

We use iWork for virtually everything. We employ over 20 Macs and 4 Xserves in a small business. Cost savings for iWork vs. Office and OS X vs. Windows AND the fact that we don't need a dedicated tech support person allow me to upgrade the Macs every few years. My employees are waiting in line for the old Macs. They are getting bolder and telling me I should retire them sooner! I used to keep them for over 6 years... now I upgrade after three.

Three Windows boxes in our company control dedicated equipment. They fail more often and need more service than all of our Macs combined.

If Microsoft is indeed admitting that they are selling a crippled Office then the US Government should reopen Monopoly charges against them and Ballmer should go to jail..

Mick H

It's reassuring to know Microsoft is not abusing it's position of power to sell more Windows licences by crippling the Mac version of Office, which they themselves develop, sell and profit from.

Oh, wait....

Knows nothing, does nothing, contributes nothing, routinely makes an ass of himself.

Hey Ballmer, I betcha there's a job for you in Alaska dontcha know!

Quote: "Sometimes very high level executives roll up small bits of information as mental, convenient tidbits that makes them feel like they understand a complex situation. When it comes out verbally, it can sound like ignorance."

That is one of the best explanations of the crap that comes out of politicians' mouths I've heard!

this is historic statements that ballmer is on record saying. Also if i where to buy office for mac i would demand an explanation exactly why i should buy a version that has been crippled intentionally and that this fact has been verified. Lawsuite anyone? or simply don't but into the MS BS and find alternatives.

Puttng that a side this article (the full version) does give those that wonder if open source is right something to think about. i am guessing that open source alternatives will this time 2 years from now be a real headache for MS. There are big players setting the scene for a fundamental renewal of the operating system business as well as software application business. MS feels the pressure and will act in any way to handle the situation, it will get ugly-

Office: Mac is not the same as Office. It's not a dumbed-down version or even a crippled version. It's just different. And to be honest, that's fine by me. I have no use for M$-Access. In fact, I'm pretty sure the people who HAVE Access don't really want it (it's the most widely-distributed database in the world merely because it comes free with Word, Excel and Powerpoint).

So don't freak out. Office: Mac is identical in terms of the 3 core applications: Word, Excel and Powerpoint. In fact, whether Balmer realizes it or not, M$ has been on an alternating-year cycle with respects to releases for Office for Mac and PC for several years. So, at this moment, Office: Mac has MORE features than Office. That'll change shortly, but seriously, do you really use all those bells and whistles anyways?

Of course not.

So chill and be happy with your Mac that just works. I am.

For 22 years I have been servicing Mac's. We have had our problems but thinking back problems regarding Microsoft office have accounted for quite a large part of the problems we have had to attend to.

Sometimes we have been told the problems are due to changes in the system after working our butts off trying to fix things that were not fixable because the people at MS had not done their homework.

At some time the problems went on for months, MS denied any fault and the months later a new version from them fixed the problems.

In a normal environment MS might have been sued for damages and categorized as terrorist's since they caused thousands and perhaps even millions of dollars in damages to environments using Macintosh computers.

And now Mr. Ballmer admits to the current version of Office to be lacking.

On my machine I have Office 2004 and Office 2008. It's a PB G4 with 1.5Gb of memory. After installing Office 2008 I found it to be a lame duck on my machine so I returned to using Office 2004.

And now some months later, reading this article, I started thinking back on my usage of Office. To my own astonishment I found out that I hardly ever start up Office any more, also I hardly ever start up Excel anymore either. And Powerpoint I have not started up for a year or two unless I was double clicking on a presentation rather than dragging it onto Keynote.

Also, as I have discovered in the case of myself, I suspect that there are more and more people who have gone through the same experience as I have.

Hence inadvertantly paying Microsoft it's long earned dues.

So I think that by providing us with a lousy quality trackrecord and an inferiour version of Office Mr. Ballmer is digging his own grave and riddiculing the image of his firm. The matter is quite simple:

There are other options you know!!!

Kind regards

Ballmer, Ballmer, Ballmer Ballmer.....
Loser, Loser, Loser, Loser.....
Ballmer, Ballmer, Ballmer Ballmer.....
Loser, Loser, Loser, Loser.....
Ballmer, Ballmer, Ballmer Ballmer.....
Loser, Loser, Loser, Loser.....

jump up and down and scream while you say it too!! You'll feel much better

Macs have supported third party mice since the introduction of USB at the very least, so no less than a decade ago.

His statements make sense if you keep in mind that he's the CEO of Microsoft, and he has to say things that are good for his company. They don't have to be fair or even true, just effective. Of course, obvious lies that can be disproven aren't effective, so he's careful not to quite lie.

Of course he knows that you can use any mouse with a Mac, so he makes a very narrow complaint that Apple doesn't build multi-button mice into their laptops but that PC manufacturers offer many different built in mice in their laptops. It's true, as far as it goes. This is a trivial complaint, but he's using it to support his central claim, which is that Apple only provides limited computer hardware options compared the the large, competitive PC marketplace.

And the claim that "Apple started doing stores because nobody wanted to sell their PCs. Okay?" is clever in that it's speculating about motivations, which is hard to prove. It is true that Apple wasn't doing well selling through the "big box" stores, and are doing very well selling through their own stores. But the same is true of Sony, for example. So it's (IMO) not really a matter of Mac vs. PC as a matter of branded vs. generic. Companies that sell quality, branded products don't usually do well when their products are stuffed into a big warehouse store, because their relatively inexperienced, underpaid and untrained salespeople can't sell quality, just price. That's why Sony, B&O, etc., all run their own stores, or sell through high-end stores instead of just the "big box" stores. That being said, Apple's success is leading to good sales through other channels such as Best Buy.

As for MS Office on the Mac not being the "full office", it's true. MS Office for the Mac is very good for the common use cases - word processing, spreadsheets, etc., are all identical on Mac and PC (and arguably a bit nicer on the Mac). But the Mac version is missing some of the more "enterprise" features such as VBA scripting, pivot tables and the ability to connect to an OLAP server. So what that means is that on a Mac, Office is a document suite, and on Windows Office is more of a platform that companies can build on top of. For the most part, this isn't important, since companies normally build web apps, not Office-based apps. So while MS cares about the difference, and is apparently willing to take shots at their own products if it'll hurt Apple, but in reality Mac and Windows versions of MS Office are the same for 99% of users.

You didn't expect him to talk about how Vista has been rejected by the marketplace (ancient XP is still outselling Vista!), and that because of Microsoft's failures Apple's market share has doubled in the last few years, did you? And he's certainly not going to admit that Apple's control allows them to innovate much more rapidly and in ways that the fragmented PC marketplace is unable to (e.g. all PC's look the same because the standard case sizes, motherboards, etc., take years to change due to the need to coordinate thousands of company's products, while Apple can do what it wants).

Ballmer is balmy. But the point he makes about the Apple Stores has some truth to it. Apple opened the stores because they needed a larger retail presence. Very few Mom and Pop stores carried Macs, and those few that did tended to be Apple specialized. CompUSA was the biggest chain operation to carry Macs, but their retail staff was invariably ignorant of the product, and would steer customers towards the Windows PCs. The Apple sections often looked neglected. At a couple of points, Apple and CompUSA tried to remedy this, including the "store within a store" initiative and training employees to be Mac conversant, but such efforts bore little fruit.

So Apple took matters into its own hands, and the result has been a huge success, despite a lot of skepticism. It turns out that people needed to have hands on with Macs and they hadn't been getting that. They needed to talk to knowledgeable staff. The fact is that most consumers weren't really familiar with the Mac, even if they had heard of it.

Perhaps the Linux camp should try and do something similar. Many people have at least heard of Linux by now, but it seems like a strange and exotic OS to most. A lot of myths about it need to be dispelled. There are a lot of other things the Linux world could do to increase acceptance, but some sort of retail presence would surely be one of them.

Anyway, I've been a zealous Mac user since 1991, when I bought my first Mac, a Centris 650. I still am learning about Macs when I go to the Apple Store. I was skeptical about the Mac Book Air until I went in to the store and actually got my hands one one, and held it and touched it and played around on it. It was much sturdier than I thought it would be, and also lighter and thinner. It's a pretty amazing computer when you actually see it in real life. (It's still slighty too pricey for me.)