Sometimes when things die, we either don’t know about it, or we intentionally block it out.
I guess that would be like having a rich daddy who goes brain dead, but you haven’t pulled the plug only because as long as he remains on life support, he’s paying the bills, even though he can no longer work.
In this superinfo age, the need for platform specific software is pretty much brain dead. With free multi-platform open source applications like NeoOffice (see previous links page to download), OpenOffice, StarOffice, AbiWord (see below for downloads), MySQL , Apache Web Server and PHP (the latter three are included in the Mac Install CD/DVDs) freedom is knocking at our door.
In 1990, Ken Pose of Sun Microsystems gave me life changing exposure to JAVA applications. The concept then was an Internet based application that ran in Native mode on any computer platform. This would give people the freedom to run a word processor or database or any other program on any computer they wanted. It was such a great idea. Freedom. It took a while for the masses to catch on, but it now looks like that is what is taking place.
For example, a lot of kids today are addicted to MSN Instant Messenger. It may be plagued with viruses in the Microsoft Windows world, but addicts often ignore risk to satisfy their addiction. MSN software doesn’t run the same or offer the same features on different platforms. These days, many Mac owners have discarded their MSN software and opted for Mercury (See previous links to download), a JAVA based MSN client - or the lastest version of aMSN - both are free downloads. This allows them to have PC compatibility with their PC friends - including the use of webcams - while removing them from a viruses infected world and opening the door to become part of a larger MSN community that includes Windows users and Mac Users and Unix users and Linux users. Mercury and aMSN handle webcams differently from each other - Mercury may be better suited for the person who chats from his own computer, while aMSN is better suited for the person who travels and uses other computers - for your own research, download them both and let me know which one is best.
There is clearly a hugh advantage with open source / cross-platform applications. Let’s face it the real addiction is with the ability to stay in constant communication with their buddies, marketing somehow fooled people into thinking it was about running a platform specific software.
The more Microsoft denies the threat of Google, the more industry experts witness the blows Google has brought to the Microsoft empire.
Sometimes people don’t always know when something’s time has passed. Some newspaper were slow to report the revolution, but like the rest of us, they must “Adapt to new technology or die”.
You can still find people who will argue that 8-Tracks and Sony Walkmans are just as good, if not better than any iPod. Clearly, these people are mislead. They may eventually choose a longer path toward CDs, then to other MPG-3 players or they may just dive in and upgrade to an iPod. Once they are exposed to the merits of the iPod (podcasting, video-casting, DVD-playing, downloading TV shows, MPG-3 files, Wav Files and ACC files, photocasting, etc.) they may - or may not - wonder why they took so long to enter a digital age that is beaming with life.
In the previous links page we learned that 80% of Microsoft employees had iPods, not the MPG-3 player from Microsoft. Then again, Gates sees IBM, not Google, as top Microsoft rival. ... which sets the stage for change as Microsoft's nightmare inches closer to reality.
Of course, we keep telling ourselves that Microsoft has a 95% market share. If we consider 100% is the top, there’s not a lot of room for growth, and plently of room to fall.
Apple, on the other hand, has more than doubled it’s market share, which has caused tremendous growth and excitement as an opportunity for today’s investor. Rather than a consistent flat line, stock history charts reveal a consistent rise ever since Steve Jobs returned to the helm. And given the 100% ceiling, Apple is full of life and potential for the years to come.
If you consider Word and Excel were running on the Mac platform back in the mid-eighties, and on Win-Tel PCs in the 90’s then it took an awful long time to eventually beat WordPerfect to become the number one Office suite in the world. Apple’s iWorks ’06 was release this year and in just a couple of months it beat WordPerfect to become Microsoft’s number one threat. It’s easy to down play that, given the giant market share held by Microsoft Office, but that’s very significant when you consider that Microsoft Office runs on both Mac and Windows and that in the Mac platform it has an 82% market share. While on the other hand iWorks only runs on a Mac in just a few months it has become the number two Office Suite in the world.
But, it’s not really about Apple. It’s about freedom of choice and choosing the best platform you, while maintaining full compatibility with other platforms.
In the Windows world you have 30,000 word processors but only two option and more importantly, only one choice., kinda like 500 channels with nothing on. For example, many teachers have been stuck in the WordPerfect world because the school has already invested in WordPerfect software and licenses. But, when the teacher - or every Windows users - receives a joke (or financial statements) then they have no choice they have to purchased Office software along with it’s expensive annual licenses. This leaves little room for innovation for the students, as that budget is quickly consumed by the IT department for upgrades, repairs, and dealing with viruses, intruders, worms, bugs, glitches and user errors on a daily basis.
The Mac platform has given users real choices, including free choices. If a teacher sends me a Word Perfect document and someone else me a joke or spreadsheet created with Microsoft Word. I have the freedom to purchase the insanely great and stable Microsoft Office for the Mac and download a free version of Corel Wordperfect 3.5 software. But, it’s a choice only because I am not forced to do that. I can open WordPerfect documents with AppleWorks running Mac Link Plus. I can open Word and Excel documents with AppleWorks running in OS X - which shipped free with my iBook and iMac. I can open Word with the iWorks ’06.
To really hit home with what I mean by “choice” I can open that joke written on a PC with Microsoft Word with a variety of free software, such TextEdit for Mac OS X.
Now to hit home with what I mean by open-source. I can open Word and Wordperfect and Excel using free open-source software with Mac OS X or Unix or Linux. I don’t even need a Mac at all. Having one is a choice, not a useless minimal requirement.
To hit home by what I mean by free, not only are schools able to do this today, but because it’s free - they can freely share it and it doesn’t require any annual license fees or cost-per-computer. This provides immediate gain to the student. Even more relevant, the open-source software allows users take what they want from the code and build their purpose driven applications. Rather than wasting time learning the complexities of outdated and expensive software that can not be altered or reversed engineered in anyway, student can spend the same time and energy learning a relevant skill as they freely customized applications to fit the needs of any organization without penalties.
While, I choose Apple for reasons previously mentioned, my associates are free to choose Unix or Linux and some may prefer to stick to Microsoft Windows. Switching to open source applications means that we all can maintain an open line of communication with each other.
There are now free word processors, databases, spreadsheets, design, music, web and other applications available online. The best way to discover if any of this is relevant to you as a user, is to try it out first hand. A good place your own personal research with word processing. There are plenty of them. AbiWord is one worth taking a free look at, iWorks 06 is a major consideration and in my humble opinion, so is AppleWorks 6.2.9 on Mac OS X.
---------------- Click on the software title to download ----------------
Mac Intel Duo Core users should download Universal Binary version of AbiWord 2.2. If you’re running your Mac as a Linux Box, you may want to GO forward and download GO OFFICE.
And, if you are really on the go, you’ll definitely want to download Portable AbiWord OS X 2.4.1r2.1 because it’s only 10.7 MBs, which means it will fit on “any portable device, USB thumb drive, iPod, portable hard drive, memory card, other portable device” . But, if you want it on your harddrive, you’ll at least 35MB free.
“AbiWord is able to read and write all industry standard document types, such as OpenOffice.org, Microsoft Word, WordPerfect, Rich Text Format, HTML web pages and many more.“
Thursday, March 16, 2006
