I am a big fan of cloud-based applications. They are not perfect for all situations; but, for many of us, cloud-based applications make sense and also save us money. In the June 28 newsletter, I posted a brief article at http://goo.gl/vi063 about the release of Office 365, a cloud-based suite of programs from Microsoft. I was in Houston, Texas, that day and was short on time, so I didn't immediately try Office 365.
Today I am back at home and have a bit more time available. I tried Office 365. I am not impressed. Microsoft, the largest producer of office productivity software in the world, had a chance to take the lead in cloud-based word processing, spreadsheets, and more. Instead, what the company delivered is a complicated mish-mash of confusing menus. Within minutes, I gave up on Office 365.
I then decided to see what others thought of Office 365 and its eleven different pricing plans, three editions, and two tiers. I performed a search on Google, looking for reviews of the new product, and I immediately found that I was not alone in my opinions. The overwhelming majority of articles about Office 365 state that the product is a dog.
I won't write any more about Office 365 as it's not worth my time to use it enough to learn it and then be able to write about it. Instead, I will refer you to the article by Sam Diaz in ZDNet at http://goo.gl/WqpFJ. Mr. Diaz has obviously spent more time with Office 365 than I ever will. You can also find many, many more articles about Office 365 if you start at http://goo.gl/HjnxM.
I believe that Office 365 is the best thing that ever happened... to Google Docs.
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