About twice a year I take a poke at both of the office product suites to see how they’re progressing. This past month I installed the latest OpenOffice 2.x flavor on both Ubuntu 7.04 and on Windows Vista, as well as Microsoft Office 2007 (on Vista only of course).

The shake-down result?

Well, it depends. If you have basic needs, OO will suffice. If you have specific needs, you will need to take a careful look to know if OO will suffice. I have to say however, that while I applaud OO’s efforts, they have been left in the dust by Microsoft. Office 2007 is simply amazing. I don’t like the price tag at all, but the features are simply better. The products, each of them, are all much improved and amazingly stable. Not that OO isn’t stable, but MS-Office has a reputation for being anything but. Aside from the arguable “ribbon bar” change in MSO, the individual features, options and tools are what make it shine overall. They are most noticable in PowerPoint and Visio, but even Word, Excel and Access have some nice goodies to discover. I have to say that discovering them has been *almost* fun. Software? Fun? Again?!!

I haven’t found software fun to learn since the 1990’s. I don’t know what’s happened, but innovation has turned into refinement. Boring. BO-RING. Even Google has become another corporate sloth. Yeah, sure, they’re still more “hip” than Microsoft, but so is my dog. So is my neighbor. Well, maybe not him. Ok, but my kids are surely more hip than MS. So where does that leave RedHat, Novell, Yahoo!, etc.? In the snoozer bed with a blanket. Nothing new to write home about. I think all the development teams are busy playing on their Xbox 360’s or Wii’s or PS3’s. The “vision” they once had, has been replaced by MBA visionaries with fancy checkbooks. Repeat the last success because it’s less risky (even though it always turns out to be the most risky). WTF? What happened to us?

So, putting all this into larger context, the stuff that amazes me about MSO 2007 isn’t that it’s intrinsicly “amazing”, it’s that they actually made the effort. OO on the other hand seems to be playing catch-up. Let’s face, THERE IS NOTHING INNOVATIVELY “NEW” in OpenOffice. There’s nothing it has or does that wasn’t already done in WordPerfect/PerfectOffice or MSO. Don’t get me started on little, mamby-pamby buried features. I’m talking about the big ticket features, like syntax/grammar checking, auto-completion, auto formatting, mail merging (that over-stated feature), and the retreaded tires of import/export lists. It’s all been done. T-shirts sold out long ago. The same appears to be true for Linux. Yes it’s cool. Yes, it rocks. Yes, it does the job. But what does it “do” that CANNOT be done on Windows or OSX or whatever? Not much. It’s free, so that means it rocks. I’m not bashing it, but I would really like to see it taken to the next step BEFORE the competition goes there first.

I’m not impressed. I’m waiting to be impressed by software again. Maybe this should be a challenge to the new crop of techie kids? Take the challenge. Do something amazing and make it fun to use a computer or mobile device for a change. The iPhone, like it or not, is proof that there’s still room for innovation and taking risks to do something different… and better. Then again, until the techies toss the MBA’s out of the meeting rooms and get back to driving the business, it might not ever happen.

So, again, ultimately, MSO 2007 isn’t really that “amazing” but it’s amazing in the current limited context. Sort of like how Superman doesn’t impress anyone on Krypton, but drops jaws on Earth. Same basic principle. Maybe that’s it? The new generation isn’t aware of what happened 10-20 years ago. It’s all lip-service, reminiscing by balding techies. They don’t care. A remake of a remake is still new to them. Uh oh, that means DOS might make a comeback?

Yes, I know. I have ranted and yakked on and on ad nauseum about Linux. Blabbering is one of my strong points. Ok, so while I pulled the virtual plug on my own Linux efforts (for now, not forever), I decided to victimize my helpless kids once again with techie experimentation. In this lab experiment, I place the kids at one end of the maze and put a game at the other. In between, Ubuntu. As you can see, the kids rapidly hit a few walls trying to figure out why it doesn’t smell like Windows anymore. “Where is AIM?!” I show them GAIM. “Where is PAINT?!” I show them Gimp (ok, it took a little longer than just showing it was there). “This is weird” I replied: “You’re weird. A perfect match” They figure out Runescape, Club Penguin, Google, our family web portal, and all is good… except for…

Skkreeettch!!!! Breaks lock up.

Daughter says “what’s this gtkPod crap?!” “What’s this Floola stuff?” “Where the (#*&@#) is iTunes?!” So I show them how to synch their iPod with gtkPod and Floola. I thought all was good.

Wrong.

“I want to shop for songs to download, you can’t do that with this trash!” They’re right. There so far is nothing to replace iTunes for shopping the iTunes store on Linux. Doh!!!!

Well, at least my 8 and 11 year olds are fine, for now. Once they start hitting their iPod Nano’s I’m doomed.

Then second-eldest daughter chimes in from across the house: “The photo upload and editing features suck. I want Vista back!”

I’m not giving in yet. Ubuntu 7.04 is still in their face for now. If they keep up the whining I’ll cave in. If they quiet down, I’ll leave it. Check back in a few weeks.

Back in 1994 when I first started cranking out HTML using vi on a Unix box, it was all HTML. Then came javascript and DHTML. Then came server-side scripting. The first language I learned was the infamous Cold Fusion. Touted for having the lowest learning ramp, it was an ideal tool for learning to generate automated content and interact with databases. All joking aside, CF did what it was supposed to: make it easy to get started with scripted content, and taking it to a higher level. This is where CF fell apart in my opinion. It was when people started saying “hey, this coldfusion stuff is cool, let’s see if we can build eBay with it!” That’s sort of like saying “hey, my lawnmower cuts great. Let’s see if we can haul tree trunks up a mountain with it!”

Sure, CF *can* address clustering, load balancing, etc. But it’s nowhere near as robust as things that came after it: ASP, JSP and PHP. I’m still thankful for CF and Homesite, because they taught me to work with tags and code first, appearance later. Not that appearance doesn’t matter as much, but it helped me stay grounded when I moved on to other tools. I was actually a registered Allaire beta tester, and worked on 4.0 and 4.5 releases. Ahhh, the good ole days.

So, I moved over to Microsoft’s ASP. At first I was a Visual InterDev guy, until I realized just how hosed up InterDev was. Sort of like a Lego kit with only a very specific collection of bricks to use. Trying to get clever with it, resulted in pain. I chose the more open ASP path using a GUI tool like FrontPage and a code editor to do the actual scripting with. FrontPage turned into another sand trap, but I’ve learned how to tame it into something that doesn’t break code or standards (CSS, etc.) I use TextPad for my coding work, and FP for the graphical layout adjustments. That process has worked well for about 80 percent of my needs. I have made a living from ASP for almost 10 years now. In various forms and environments, it has paid off well. I took some classes on JSP, but I was disappointed in the performance hit it incurred. I’m still unhappy with JSP performance. Apparently, I’m not alone. The relative dearth of JSP sites is clear testament to it’s lack of enthusiasm.

I started to go down the .NET road as well. But timing didn’t work in my favor. I took classes and got all the books and tools and started working with it, but like many other things: timing was everything. Everytime I would think of moving into .NET full time, I’d be pulled back to maintain or extend some ASP apps. It’s hard to argue with a paycheck. For those of you that might say “you should have convinced them that migrating to .NET would pay off later”, well, these folks don’t like “later”. They want “NOW!” They’re not unreasonable, and they’re not cheap either. So NOW! works for me. It just meant .NET would have to wait.

So after a few more years, I’m finally getting time to work on something different. This time, the demand is for Apache, mySQL, running on Linux of course, and obviously the tool is PHP. Yes, I’m aware of Ruby, but I’m fine with PHP for now. The experience I’ve had with ASP has helped me springboard into PHP much quicker than if I had never done any previous web development. PHP is simply fantastic. While it lacks some of the sophisticated GUI tools (for freeware anyway), it more than makes up with flexibility, options, simplicity and my favorite: FREE.

Yes. ASP.NET can be “free”, but only “sort of”. You still have to host it on a Windows server, which is anything BUT free. You can crank out .NET code in a free editor, but let’s face it: they suck, compared with Visual Studio. PHP on the other hand is entirely free, and runs on a free platform. It’s robust, well documented, and there’s a shitload of free code out on the web to help do almost anything you need it to. I have to say I’m getting excited about programming again. I have nothing against ASP or VBscript, not even PowerShell, which I’m still hoping to play with more (I immersed myself in Monad/MSH while it was still in beta, but they’ve made changes since RTM as “PowerShell”). PHP, and even mySQL are giving me something new to play with and it’s fun. I wish it was easier to build Views and Stored Procs in mySQL with the provided PHPmyAdmin, but I can get by for now.

I know that heading is going to draw fire.  Flaming, diahrea, explosive ridicule most likely.  That’s ok.  It’s a true statement.  However, I obviously need to qualify it to be proper.

As I’ve said before: A person’s experience “switching” to Linux will vary as much as their DNA varies.  Every person has their own unique needs, preferences and capabilities.  This is not lost on an operating system by any means.  If you’re the kind of user that is 100% happy doing nothing but Gmail/Hotmail, YouTube, reading news, and playing games, you will likely be 100% happy with almost any operating system, including Linux (whatever distro gives you wood).

If you are a seasoned Windows or OSX user, who has developed an intricate web of applications, scripts, utilities, and configuration settings to do an assortment of specific tasks, you may not be as happy… or happy at all.  You can still do email, surf the web, manage office suite documents, play (some) games and watch YouTube all day long.  But some of the dearest things you depend upon in OSX or Windows will not make you happy on Linux.

Am I picking on Linux?  Not really.  However, it brings up the viability of the argument that Linux is “ready” to knock Windows “off the desktop” of most computer users.  For some it is.  For some it is not.

I could cite specifics like lack of specific hard device drivers, flakiness of video options, limitations and complications of various FOSS applications, and nebulous support.  To be fair, Windows can suffer from those very same issues (except that FOSS apps are only one option, not THE option).  Case in point: Which is better?  Posting the same confusing question to dozens of discussion forums and getting flamed with answers like “RTFM!” and “stupid noob”, or pulling out the credit card to call for suppor, getting put on hold and then getting some half-baked goon in Bangalore who not only can’t understand the question but reads the “solution” from a queue card and closes the case.  Not much of a choice, is it?

As for applications… I got a ton of emails and blog replies suggesting this or that as a “perfect” or “near-perfect” replacement for “x” on Windows.  Almost NONE were “perfect” replacements.  In fact, only one was (GPAR2 in lieu of QuickPAR).  K3B is not a replacement for the entire Nero Ultra suite.  Not even close.  PAN is not a decent replacement for Newsbin Pro.  gtkPod, RhythmBox and Floola are not 100% replacements for iTunes (even though I despise iTunes).  Firefox and Opera still have problems (even on Windows) dealing with some sites developed only for IE.  OpenOffice still does not provide 100% compatability with MS-Office documents.  Gimp is a very worthy contender for replacing PhotoShop CS2 however (maybe CS3).

And that’s just the apps that exist for Linux.  Then there’s the ones that don’t.

There is no AutoCAD replacement for Linux.  There is no Inventor or SolidWorks.  There is no Macromedia/Adobe Flash MX.  Sure, there’s Wine, Parallels, VMware and VirtualBox.  But those are cop-outs.  They offer a half-way solution to getting the job done.  But that’s a lame excuse.  Until these types of applications have 100% suitable alternatives there will be a large segment of OSX and Windows users that simply cannot “switch” without paying a heavy price.  Even the price of searching for replacements, and then learning how they work, and then learning to how to tweak and optimize them, is a very expensive proposition for some.  I’m speaking of those who rely on their apps for their careers.  Downtime/learning time is expense time.  It’s time lost from executing work, spent on retooling, and with almost no garantee of a net gain in the end.  Only a sideways shift or lateral move.  For a business environment that makes no sense at all.  In many cases, that cost is not recouped by the elimination of software licenses, mainly because the OSX or Windows licenses have already been paid for.  If you dump them after that, you’re literally throwing money away.

What Linux and the surrounding “community” needs (and it’s not really a community at all, it’s more of a collective label of “people that hate Microsoft and Apple”), is a desktop environment, and a complete suite of all of the top 50 or 75 applications used by OSX and Windows customers.  That would be the starting point.  If there were a package like that, it would already be sliding into every corporate office everywhere.  It’s not.  It’s creeping into IT backrooms and server rooms and IT geek desktops.  Until this is resolved, Windows and OSX are only going to continue growing.  And growing they are.  If you doubt that, check the investor reports for each company for yourself.

I really don’t care who wins.  I really don’t want ANYONE to “win”.  I want to see intense competition.  It makes better products, and cheaper prices.  We all win.  I just think Linux and FOSS could do more to put pressure on Apple and Microsoft than they are.  The fact that Windows and Apple prices aren’t dropping drastically is a clear indication that FOSS isn’t eating away at their profit margins.

I know that heading is going to draw fire.  Flaming, diahrea, explosive ridicule most likely.  That’s ok.  It’s a true statement.  However, I obviously need to qualify it to be proper.

As I’ve said before: A person’s experience “switching” to Linux will vary as much as their DNA varies.  Every person has their own unique needs, preferences and capabilities.  This is not lost on an operating system by any means.  If you’re the kind of user that is 100% happy doing nothing but Gmail/Hotmail, YouTube, reading news, and playing games, you will likely be 100% happy with almost any operating system, including Linux (whatever distro gives you wood).

If you are a seasoned Windows or OSX user, who has developed an intricate web of applications, scripts, utilities, and configuration settings to do an assortment of specific tasks, you may not be as happy… or happy at all.  You can still do email, surf the web, manage office suite documents, play (some) games and watch YouTube all day long.  But some of the dearest things you depend upon in OSX or Windows will not make you happy on Linux.

Am I picking on Linux?  Not really.  However, it brings up the viability of the argument that Linux is “ready” to knock Windows “off the desktop” of most computer users.  For some it is.  For some it is not.

I could cite specifics like lack of specific hard device drivers, flakiness of video options, limitations and complications of various FOSS applications, and nebulous support.  To be fair, Windows can suffer from those very same issues (except that FOSS apps are only one option, not THE option).  Case in point: Which is better?  Posting the same confusing question to dozens of discussion forums and getting flamed with answers like “RTFM!” and “stupid noob”, or pulling out the credit card to call for suppor, getting put on hold and then getting some half-baked goon in Bangalore who not only can’t understand the question but reads the “solution” from a queue card and closes the case.  Not much of a choice, is it?

As for applications… I got a ton of emails and blog replies suggesting this or that as a “perfect” or “near-perfect” replacement for “x” on Windows.  Almost NONE were “perfect” replacements.  In fact, only one was (GPAR2 in lieu of QuickPAR).  K3B is not a replacement for the entire Nero Ultra suite.  Not even close.  PAN is not a decent replacement for Newsbin Pro.  gtkPod, RhythmBox and Floola are not 100% replacements for iTunes (even though I despise iTunes).  Firefox and Opera still have problems (even on Windows) dealing with some sites developed only for IE.  OpenOffice still does not provide 100% compatability with MS-Office documents.  Gimp is a very worthy contender for replacing PhotoShop CS2 however (maybe CS3).

And that’s just the apps that exist for Linux.  Then there’s the ones that don’t.

There is no AutoCAD replacement for Linux.  There is no Inventor or SolidWorks.  There is no Macromedia/Adobe Flash MX.  Sure, there’s Wine, Parallels, VMware and VirtualBox.  But those are cop-outs.  They offer a half-way solution to getting the job done.  But that’s a lame excuse.  Until these types of applications have 100% suitable alternatives there will be a large segment of OSX and Windows users that simply cannot “switch” without paying a heavy price.  Even the price of searching for replacements, and then learning how they work, and then learning to how to tweak and optimize them, is a very expensive proposition for some.  I’m speaking of those who rely on their apps for their careers.  Downtime/learning time is expense time.  It’s time lost from executing work, spent on retooling, and with almost no garantee of a net gain in the end.  Only a sideways shift or lateral move.  For a business environment that makes no sense at all.  In many cases, that cost is not recouped by the elimination of software licenses, mainly because the OSX or Windows licenses have already been paid for.  If you dump them after that, you’re literally throwing money away.

What Linux and the surrounding “community” needs (and it’s not really a community at all, it’s more of a collective label of “people that hate Microsoft and Apple”), is a desktop environment, and a complete suite of all of the top 50 or 75 applications used by OSX and Windows customers.  That would be the starting point.  If there were a package like that, it would already be sliding into every corporate office everywhere.  It’s not.  It’s creeping into IT backrooms and server rooms and IT geek desktops.  Until this is resolved, Windows and OSX are only going to continue growing.  And growing they are.  If you doubt that, check the investor reports for each company for yourself.

I really don’t care who wins.  I really don’t want ANYONE to “win”.  I want to see intense competition.  It makes better products, and cheaper prices.  We all win.  I just think Linux and FOSS could do more to put pressure on Apple and Microsoft than they are.  The fact that Windows and Apple prices aren’t dropping drastically is a clear indication that FOSS isn’t eating away at their profit margins.