MSFT kills Office 2007

Access 2007 has been gutted.

My #1 complaint:
Access still can't import a native Excel file. Period. Two step conversions and three step conversions don't cut it. I have work to do, and I don't work for MSFT so I need to be effective and productive.

#2: The entire security envelope of Office has been fielded to Silverlight, MSFT's 20+ years-late entry into what the rest of the world calls web-based-access. DotNet was a dismal failure, considering that one has to purchase licenses to use what is otherwise free, and that it was an utterly insecure hose-beast, so MSFT has repackaged it with SLVR in yet another effort to force this pig upon the public.

So here we are with yet another feeble attempt to push companies and home users into a porkbarrel for MSFT licensing fees. It's so sadly obvious that it's childish. I'm in a govt. job where I've recommended that they save millions a year by dumping MSFT OS and Office altogether. We'd be far better off even with Macs, a high end Mainframe from IBM, or multiple Sun servers, running Solaris, Linux, or BSD.

The only reason the people in this office try to use Office is because we've been forced to. MSFT has made most of its money by forcing its products upon people who don't want it with blind acquisitions through government contracts and backalley negotiations. Companies that refused to use MSFT have seen the rubber-hose tactics that resulted, but enough corporations were strong enough to stand up and kick MSFT's backside that we now have multiple options. All of which are far superior to the cr*pfestival you get when you pick up a copy of MSOffice.

AVOID AT ALL COSTS.

Open Office is vastly superior.
Oracle rocks my world.

Honestly, when it comes to software, if you've heard of it then it probably isn't very good. Marketing does not equal quality, and the relation is statistically negative opposing. Everyone knows who MSFT is, and the software is beta at best. Fewer people know what KDE is, but the desktop software is blue ribbon in quality. Solaris? Rock hard stability and Enterprise wickedness. Wicked in the third sense of the word, of course.

!~D