The New York Times Technology section carries an article today in its widely-read Sunday edition entitled, Yes, There Can Be Life After Word.
After his recent purchase of a new laptop, tech writer Damon Darlin winced when the salesperson tried to add on a sale of Microsoft Office. Even the cheapest version available cost 25 percent of the cost of the computer itself. Darlin declined.
Once home, he tried out pre-installed Microsoft Works, which promptly chocked under the weight of his work. He discarded it as worthless for his needs.
So what’s a poor writer to do?
Darlin, who as a tech writer is normally online wherever he is, turned to Google Doc’s. He’s perfectly happy with it:
“You use the word processor just like Word, or I should say, the version you might remember from the early 1990s, before Microsoft added all the bells and whistles that you never need.”
Darlin also points to other online alternatives, Zoho and Thinkfree, as well as free desktop word processors Abiword and OpenOffice.
This issue of the NYT tech section delivers Microsoft a one-two punch, offering up a second article titled Google Gets Ready to Rumble With Microsoft, which is also worth reading.
There’s no telling what impact these articles may have. However, it is significant that the endorsement of alternative word processors is moving beyond computer magazines and into mainstream media.
Thanks to early-riser blog reader Michael Downend, who sent me the link to the New York Times.
Technorati Tags: Abiword, Google, OpenOffice, Tag 13, Thinkfree, Zoho
Sorry, comments are closed.
Comment by
Tom Chandler/Copywriter Underground
17 Dec 2007
I’ve used Open Office for years, and not once have I had a problem with MS Office documents sent and received from clients.
I got tired of all the atrocities MS committed on MS Word, to the point where they were losing valuable features to include unimportant ones.
For years the only real choice in office software was MS, and thankfully, those days are behind us.
Comment by
Jesse Hines, Vigorous Writing
18 Dec 2007
Great article link. I’ve been using Microsoft Works (not Word) for the past year or so and it’s been fine.
But, this Google Doc’s is interesting. It’s yet another free resource that is actually valuable; we writers can always use another legitimate way to save money.
Jesse