Business and enterprise software, and other applications that help a business run

We wrote a column last week saying how happy we were with NeoOffice on our new MacBook Pro, having previously been a very satisfied user of Open Office, of which NeoOffice was a fork for the Mac. Are we confused yet?  Now, Open Office has released a new and improved Beta, and one of the builds on the list is a Mac version that no longer requires the user to load X11 on her or his Mac. This version of Open Office will run on the native OSX Aqua.

A spokesman for OpenOffice.org says that the new version sports a very Mac-like look and feel. The company goes on to say that the new version “integrates well with the Mac OS X accessibility APIs, and thus offers better accessibility support than many other Mac OS X applications.” The new Open Office version also adds a large number of additions and improvements that are expected to carry the software past the current version of NeoOffice.

Both office suites are free, and both compare well to the Microsoft Office suite. The development group at Open Office is larger and better established than that at NeoOffice, so this new OO version can be expected to win the features battle. That does not always mean that the same side will win the quality battles, though Open Office is well known for the quality of their offerings.

We plan to download the Open Office v.3.0 suite for windows and for Mac and put the suite through its paces.

Well, it would appear that the much-ballyhooed release of Service Pack Three for Windows XP (1) is having a relatively typical Microsoft time of it. Many users are reporting severe problems. An ex-Microsoft program manager (Jesper Johannson)  (2) has been working with a group of users and has tentatively stated that the problem primarily affects systems using AMD processors.

Jesperson says “I want to clarify that the endless rebooting is not at all related to SP3 per se. The problem is that with some configurations, SP3 causes the computer to crash during boot, and Windows XP, by default, is set up to automatically reboot when it crashes. That is why you end up in the endless rebooting scenario.” So the rebooting is not the issue. It’s the crashing. Makes sense to me, Jesper.  

If you are having these problems, you may wish to follow the link above to Jesperson’s post, which may provide you with enough information to get you out of your rebooting-because-of-the-crash endless cycle. Jesperson also notes that the same problem surfaced after the release of Service Pack 2, showing that “experience” is not necessarily the same thing as “learning.”

Or, you could do what I did and buy a Mac.

We have said several times that internet apps are not as good as desktop apps. At the same time, we have said that the Cloud Computing Powers That Be (CCPTB) which is mainly Google with Microsoft as a wanna-be, certainly have the horsepower to improve their online apps at will, thereby changing cloud computing from pie in the sky (pun intended) to true computing on the net.

All it would take, we believe, is a few big customers who look willing to go for the concept of cloud computing to get the ball rolling. If Google can’t find such a customer that is willing to pay for the privilege, it is certainly smart enough to find someone to give it to in order to make the case for the paradigm. Now the Cupertino-based search giant has done just that.

Google has reportedly given 1,000 Google Apps, Premier Edition user licenses to the District of Columbia, free of charge, to let the district evaluate cloud computing, Google style. That is nearly $10k worth of licenses, which is putting it’s money where it’s mouth is. It will be interesting to see what the results of the test are, and whether or not they are positive enough to inspire Google to improve their on-line apps.

Our question to the District of Columbia, though, is this: “Why don’t you just switch to Open Office on the desktop?”

Since the employee's workstation desktop is pretty much the ultimate business software, and because I recently purchased a MacBook Pro specifically in order to avoid ever having to use Windows Vista, this is likely to become a recurring theme in this column. The OS move has forced me to rethink what I use for software. And while I was involved in that task anyway, I am taking the opportunity to locate and use more Open Source software in my day-to-day business and personal life. As I have said before, I would much rather donate than send money to Microsoft.

I am writing this column using NeoOffice Writer and, coincidentally looking out across the broad valley that is all I can see from my deck, off to the distant ridge that lives between me and the lake. NeoOffice is a fork of Open Office specifically made for OS X by the nice folks at Planamesa. I used Open Office when I used Windows (remember, No More Microsoft than absolutely necessary) and loved it. NeoOffice is more closely coupled to other native OS X apps than is Open Office, so it is now a better fit for me.

It still has a word processor (like Word), a spreadsheet (like Excel), a presentation manager like PowerPoint), a personal database manager (like Access), a drawing program (way better than Paint), and a math formula program. I like each and every one of them better than their Microsoft counterparts. They are easier to use, faster, and contain much less useless and unnecessary bloat. I have yet to be disappointed in any of these apps.

Each one reads and writes the files from Microsoft Office, in some cases with more alacrity than does Office, and from a number of other systems, as well. These are some of the most common applications on the business desktop. I changed from being a MS Office user to being an Open Office user in the time it took to do the install (ten minutes) plus an hour or less of familiarization time. I switched from Open Office to NeoOffice in just the install time. I have never felt lost in any of these apps. They are highly recommended.

You can find more about these Open Source applications in our previous columns about the Open Office Suite and apps, which are almost identical to those of NeoOffice: Suite, Writer, Calc, and the other apps, as well as at the NeoOffice site.

In some ways, Windows is the most popular business software, which is like saying (I suppose) that the common cold is the world’s favorite illness. Like a rhinovirus, Windows is everywhere. As Microsoft continues to dither, and to make what appear for all the world to be a series of bone-headed PR moves, the rest of the world is gaining on them.

Linux and OS X are gaining on the operating system front, mainly because the only thing worse than Vista is the way that Microsoft has handled Vista. Open source is gaining on Microsoft business software of all kinds, from server software (Apache) to business desktop apps (Open Office), because the Open Source software is superior to the Microsoft bloatware. The year 2008 is not going to be a good year for Microsoft, just as 2007 was not, and like 2009 probably will not be.

The only direction Microsoft seems to understand these days is backward. I am more than old enough to remember when Microsoft was the new, forward-looking kid on the block, the company that finally got everybody on the same page so that personal computers all worked together and traded data. That is what fueled the PC revolution, and I appreciate what they did.

But the software and the minds at Microsoft are all filled with nothing but legacy code. After many years as a PC and Windows user and expert, I finally could no longer give the aging behemoth Microsoft any more money. I had paid my debt to them for the unification of micro-computers. Their software became lousier by the year and their attitude became even worse. So I began to plot my way out.

I do not believe that the Linux world has their act sufficiently together to replace Windows. At least not yet. Maybe in a couple of more years. However, Apple has the *nix act together almost perfectly. I know, the Apple folks are not exactly wearing white hats. They are more proprietary that the detested IBM ever was. But while I am tapping my foot waiting for Linux to grow up, I would prefer to use proprietary software that works instead of proprietary software that sucks.

So I have traded in Windows for OS X on a MacBook Pro. It’s only been ten days, but it is one of the better moves that I have made, at least for now. It is a move that even major corporations could make without taking a big hit in the IT budget to make the change, and one which would save them a lot of money down the road. If your clients are asking for Macs, Mr. Corporate Technology Officer, listen to them, for they are right.

OSX is orders of magnitude better than Vista.

Nothing is ever easy at Microsoft. They are still dawdling over the Windows XP Service Pack Three release to consumers, although they did release XP SP3 to corporate users last week, as predicted by this column (and many others). The XP build offered to MSDN and Technet support subscribers is an ISO build that IT personnel use to image the operating system onto a formatted hard disk.

Microsoft says that they are holding back the release of XP3 to the general public because of problems in their Dynamics Retail Management System (RMS), Microsoft’s widely used retail point-of-sale system. The exact problems with the RMS system have not been announced, but the Redmond software giant has said that the RMS fix would be delivered as a special hotfix for those systems only. 

The end-result is that there is no immediate XP SP3 for the rest of us. Still, the corporate users, many of whom have not yet gone to Vista, are the ones that need this service pack most desperately and in the greatest numbers. Most consumers, especially those who have purchased a new computer in the last couple of years, were given little choice but to buy Vista, though it was possible (but difficult) to get a new PC with XP loaded. The general-public holdouts (and there are a lot of holdouts) that recognized Vista as the debacle it is and have stayed with XP are a thorn in Microsoft’s side, and you will notice that they are the ones still waiting for the service pack.

Microsoft and Yahoo will not be getting married any time soon. For Microsoft, the jilted suitor, speed was of the essence. After three months of active pursuit, using flattery, money, and deceit it became obvious that Yahoo was more interested in being single. Microsoft, unable to use the marriage to catch up to it uber-rival Google, simply abandoned its pursuit and went back home to Redmond to regroup.

Since she has been abandoned, Yahoo’s worth has gone into a nosedive. This was expected, of course, once the handsome suitor abandoned the chase. The value of Yahoo stock will probably dip twenty or more percent after it was recognized that she was not as attractive as Microsoft had originally thought, or at least was no longer worth the trouble of an extended courtship, not to mention the effort of drawing up the perfect pre-nuptial agreement.

At the end of this love-hate relationship, we are almost back where we started, except that the reputations of both parties have changed, and things can never go back to the way they were before. In the world of celebrity romances, of course, nothing stays the same for long. Microsoft still needs a magic trick to catch up to Google. Yahoo still needs some financial help to shore up its slipping bank account.

So pretty soon this will start all over again. New dance partners will be selected. The media will report every second of every dance. The working public will go on with life, since there won’t be a huge difference for them no matter what happens. The world will roll on. Software will get produced. Search results will be returned. Maybe more of the software will be Open Source. Maybe the searches will get better.

For those of us out here watching, the only things that are sure is that things will change, and that we will change along with them. For one thing, we don’t have a lot of choice. For another, that is how progress works. Be honest, now, did you like that horrid wedding dress anyway?  ;o)

The Butler Group has published an analysis of the current state of the Unified Communications (UC) market which may be of interest to business decision makers. Not surprisingly, the study shows that most potential UC adopters are confused about both the technology and the benefits of that technology. That would certainly explain the low rate of adoption of the budding communications concept.

Unified communications is the integration of many different communications systems, media, devices and applications. It can include fixed and mobile voice, e-mail, instant messaging, desktop and advanced business applications, Internet Protocol (IP)-PBX, voice over IP (VoIP), voice-mail, fax, audio video and web conferencing, unified messaging, unified voicemail, and whiteboarding into a single environment offering businesses a singe integrated communications paradigm.

Butler says the marketplace is failing to understand the benefits of UC. Most feel that it is about consolidation of infrastructure, reduction of operational costs and improved levels of service quality. The study says, “Although these are useful goals, the real value afforded by unified communications and collaboration solutions ultimately arises from improvements to business processes, enhancement of stakeholder interactions, the optimization of workflow, and driving innovation in the business."

If you do not already subscribe to Butler Group publications, they offer a try-before-you-buy plan that will give you more information from this study.

 

If your business’s Website has been hacked in recent weeks via SQL injection attacks, don’t blame Microsoft. Heck no. Not even if it’s their fault. A Microsoft manager said the following in response to questions: "Our investigation has shown that there are no new or unknown vulnerabilities being exploited. This wave is not a result of a vulnerability in Internet Information Services or Microsoft SQL Server." So it all the old bugs that are being exploited, I guess.

Now, let me see. Have hundreds of thousands of pages been hacked? Yes, they have. Were the pages stored on IIS, the Microsoft Web server software? Yes, they were. Did they involve SQL Server, the Microsoft database management system? Yes, they did. When you put that all together, what does that mean? To me, it means that Microsoft products have been hacked and that damage has been done.

They can say, I suppose, that it is not their fault. They can also say that the Earth is flat. It is hard, however, to see how either can be true. It’s their software and the attacks were successful. Oh, wait, I get it! Microsoft has simply decided that they have no mandate to provide us with secure products! That’s what it means! They sell leaky products that allow your system to be hacked, but they never intended, I guess, to sell software that was secure. That must be it!

Or, it may just be that the folks at Microsoft just figure that we are lied to every day by politicians, people trying to sell us things, people trying to get their hands on our money, and everybody else with an ax to grind, so they may as well join in. From their point of view, I’m sure that makes sense. From mine, it does not. It just reinforces the uncaring image that Microsoft has so rightfully acquired.

Economic signs are being reported (here, here, here, and here) that make it look like non-mortgage-crisis industries are going to get caught up in a very generalized market turndown that only began with the mortgage and foreclosure crisis.  Not surprisingly, IT spending is likely to spiral downward in our current soft economy. In fact, that is the recommendation of some experts: cut spending now in order to avoid problems later.

The Hackett Group is among those making such a recommendation. They point out that making IT cuts, along with other general and administrative cuts, should serve to positively impact the bottom line without reducing the quality of products and services that your company provides. The sort of cost reduction target they have in mind is in the area of twenty to forty percent, a significant amount of anyone’s budget.

These cuts would include both hard costs and the cost of personnel, meaning that functions such as software upgrades, hardware upgrades, customer support, new programming, general infrastructure maintenance, etc. should be in the crosshairs of the cost cutter. It is not hard to see that any negative movement in the economy is quick to evidence itself in IT. This looks like it may be a very bad economic period. Look for business technology cuts to match.