Microsoft/Tobacco Companies. Is there really a difference?
“A study funded by Microsoft concludes that Microsoft software is less costly to support and maintain than open source software in European schools. The results of the study funded by Microsoft contrast sharply with the results of a study conducted by the UK government in 2005, which arrived at the opposite conclusion.”
This almost reminds me of the story about tobacco companies funding studies about milk and cookies being more dangerous for children than cigarettes. Seriously, what has Microsoft come to? To sink so low as to suggest that open-source schools spend more money on software than buying rubbish from them? Give me a break. I especially liked the quote:
“Task panes were praised for cutting down on time spent hunting through different menus and easing the complexity of student tasks such as document style and formatting activities… The Microsoft Word ‘track changes’ feature was cited as a key tool that enabled group project collaboration among secondary students… Also, the ‘insert comments’ feature was cited for improving both student to teacher at an Italian middle school and student to student collaboration.”
These “task panes” are a load of shit. I’ve never spent so long searching for the spellchecker in my entire life.Get real, Microsoft. No one is buying it.
Tags: Miscellaneous |
June 16th, 2007 at 11:00 am
Actually, I do quite like track changes. I was using it with Anubis a couple of weeks ago to make changes to a word document.
However Track Changes (or an equivalent) is available in NeoOffice, the OSX Aqua version of OpenOffice… so I’d assume it’s available in OpenOffice.
To conclude: Microsoft are lying.
June 17th, 2007 at 12:40 am
Agreed. Track changes can be useful, but it’s by no means the next best thing since sliced bread.
That, or it’s not worth the money to convert to all Microsoft products.
June 23rd, 2007 at 5:54 pm
“To conclude: Microsoft are lying.”
Blasphemy: You will do as Microsoft requests you do.
If you think it is bad having to deal with Microsoft in Europe…just think of how bad it is to deal with them only 9/2 hours away. I know people that work for Microsoft, I know people that want to work for Microsoft. The amount of denial over here on the west coast is ridiculous! Anyway, just understand this…most corporations are the same. People tolerate them because they work for them and are afraid to strike out on there own (the security thing I noted on the race topic helps here), but they know that things can be done better even if the corporation lie though their teeth all day and note their endless accomplishments. And that my friends is the sad truth of the modern world, security and pleasure over innovation and sweat.