Win 7 came out today

[gr8fl4porsche]

Curious, anyone purchase 7 today?

I have been using it for a while now. Best effort yet by MS.

[Bill Douglas]

Not me.

I'll wait until one or two service packs have come out to fix the usual 1,000s of bugs.

[dd74]

Nor I. I'm an Office user, and the new Microsoft Word GUI is just abysmal to me. If I buy a new PC with Windows 7, I'm downloading Open Office. And that's a big IF.

Meanwhile, Apple rolls right along...

Apple redesigns iMac, MacBook and reveals Magic Mouse - CNN.com

[gr8fl4porsche]

This one appears to be better. MS gave it away for free over a year ago so most bugs could be dealt with long before the final release.

I have it on 4 very different computers. Home computer, networked work computer, (2) older notebooks, (3) different styles of printers, a 15 yr old large format plotter, virtual XP mode - all rock solid. I am running the 32 bit and 64bit versions.

A very nice platform.

Apples edge in the techy marketplace just got knocked down a notch.

IMHO - no need to wait.

[gr8fl4porsche]

Originally Posted by dd74

Nor I. I'm an Office user, and the new Microsoft Word GUI is just abysmal to me. If I buy a new PC with Windows 7, I'm downloading Open Office. And that's a big IF.

Meanwhile, Apple rolls right along...

Apple redesigns iMac, MacBook and reveals Magic Mouse - CNN.com

I have been using Office 07 for over a year - at first I felt the same as you. Now I prefer it.

Apple will never become a true option for most due to the huge price gap.

You can buy 3 decent PC's for the same price as (1) entry level Mac.

[jyl]

For this power Excel user, Office 2007 is nothing but aggravation. I've been using it for about 6 months. The only way I've been able to deal w/ the stupid new interface is to pin my most-used commands to the Quick Access ribbon up top. Now Excel gives me a warning that my Quick Access ribbon has become too large and recommends that I reset it.

That said, Office X for Mac is just as bad, maybe worse.

For work, we are locked to Office because so much third-party software integrates with it and not with anything else.

I like OpenOffice pretty well. Used it on my home PC, back when we had a home PC. My daughter would like a netbook for XMas, I'll put OpenOffice on that, or install an older version of Office.

Now, as for the O/S, Vista did not give me (as user) any great positive or negative over XP, and a feature I rely on (Offline Files) worked very poorly in Vista after working great in XP. I have spent 20 hours futzing with it and now it works poorly, which I guess is an improvement over "very poorly". I am sort of looking forward to Win 7, in hopes that they fix this. We won't upgrade to Win 7 at work for a year or more. If Win 7 will run on the kid's netbook, I'll install it - no reason for her to get used to an O/S that is two generations old.

[nostatic]

Originally Posted by gr8fl4porsche

Apple will never become a true option for most due to the huge price gap.

You can buy 3 decent PC's for the same price as (1) entry level Mac.

And many people will buy those 3 pcs over the same period of owning one mac.

Apple must be doing something right:

Apple Profit Surges on iPhone Sales - WSJ.com

And I just got a new MacBookPro. Amazing design and build quality. I also have a high end Sager gaming notebook running Vista. Inelegant brick hardware with unbelievably bad software. I hear Win7 is better, and at work Vista is being removed asap from any machine that has it. Most stayed on XP.

[MRM]

Nonesense. The iPhone failed. I know it is true: I read it hear on PPOT.

[Gogar]

Originally Posted by gr8fl4porsche

Porsche will never become a true option for most due to the huge price gap.

You can buy 3 decent Fords for the same price as (1) entry level Porsche.

Originally Posted by nostatic

And many people will buy those 3 Fords over the same period of owning one Porsche.

Wow it works on so many levels!

[t951]

I've been running it for a while. It's great, VASTLY superior to vista.

It's also blazing fast compared to vista/xp when copying files over the network.

[dd74]

Our house fluctuates between Mac and PC, with a very, very limited foray with Linux that really went nowhere -- addendum: what is it with Linux users? They tout and flaunt the OS, but when it comes to a newbie who wants to give it a go and asks for help, all that so-called "community" disappears down a dark hole).

Anyway, my issue with Mac and the Office suite is, like John said, the interface -- which is terrible; and portions of the functionality -- like cut and paste in certain instances -- seems to be missing from the Mac version as opposed to the PC version.

And don't get me started with the serial # debacle, where you're allowed only three per purchase of the Office suite. There can be an instance when one would need to load up Office on their box more than three times.

What I like about Open Office is it has the old GUI and works 98% the same as Office for Mac or PC.

In the end, I think it's all a sham. Microsoft Word never needed to advance past Word 5, IMO.

[Bill Douglas]

Originally Posted by dd74

Microsoft Word never needed to advance past Word 5, IMO.

I agree.

A basic user thinks WTF are all these boxes and offers of help that pop up? I just want to type a letter.

An intermediate level user thinks I don't need this sh**, you hit the cont+F, then F5 and that does it.

An advanced user such as a PA (secretary/typist) is just really angry until the tech guy manages to stop all the add-ons and help.

[dd74]

I found an outstanding word processor for Mac that is as simple and straightforward, yet elegant as one could want.

It is called Bean. You type and it records what you type -- nothing more or less.

And it's free.

Of course, the problem is its incompatibility with Office, and let's face it, ours is an Office world, much to the world's evident detriment.

[red-beard]

I'm about to buy a new Dell laptop, and I'm looking forward to Win 7. If things go OK, I'll purchase 2 new PCs for the company. I may stop using MS Office, since I can use Open Office. I do like Outlook, which Open office does not have. Maybe I'll buy old copies of Office 2003, since that is working for us fine right now.

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by nostatic

And many people will buy those 3 pcs over the same period of owning one mac.

And when they are done with the Mac it will have retained 50% of it's original value.

[red-beard]

Do any of the Macs come with a clit (trackpoint) ?

[Super_Dave_D]

[Super_Dave_D]

Originally Posted by red-beard

Do any of the Macs come with a clit (trackpoint) ?

I think this will do it - watch the video

Apple - Magic Mouse - The world’s first Multi-Touch mouse.

[cl8ton]

OS's are complex they all suck, some suck less! 4u Mac fanboyz...

[red-beard]

Originally Posted by Super_Dave_D

I think this will do it - watch the video

Apple - Magic Mouse - The world’s first Multi-Touch mouse.

No. I want the little rubber thing in the middle of the keyboard. I hate the touch pad. It looks like my next Dell may be my last, as even the Lattitude Line is dropping the trackpoint.