Thread: Microsoft buys Skype for $5Bn

Originally Posted by Butterfly

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

They aren't competing because they're free

they are shit, name one that works at par with MS Office

and don't mention OpenOffice, it's garbage

You're talking out of your hat. For what most people do with Microsoft Office, Openoffice is a perfectly good alternative. And for the cloud, ThinkFree is actually better.

And I doubt you're bright enough to do anything in Microsoft Word that can't be done in AbiWord.

In fact that actually goes for an awful lot of commercial software. There are plenty of decent free alternatives out there for people who can be bothered to look.

Find Open Source Alternatives to commercial software | Open Source Alternative - osalt.com

Never made a profit, and MS is so desperate that it pays this price? Woah!!!

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

And I doubt you're bright enough to do anything in Microsoft Word that can't be done in AbiWord.

I use wordpad, much better than all those crappy alternatives

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

In fact that actually goes for an awful lot of commercial software. There are plenty of decent free alternatives out there for people who can be bothered to look.

you obviously never tried to install OpenOffice and those alternative suite in a professional environment. Most of the time users give up and go back to MS. Best advertising ever for MS.

ThinkFree is Java garbage.

Originally Posted by Butterfly

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

And I doubt you're bright enough to do anything in Microsoft Word that can't be done in AbiWord.

I use wordpad, much better than all those crappy alternatives

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

In fact that actually goes for an awful lot of commercial software. There are plenty of decent free alternatives out there for people who can be bothered to look.

you obviously never tried to install OpenOffice and those alternative suite in a professional environment. Most of the time users give up and go back to MS. Best advertising ever for MS.

ThinkFree is Java garbage.

You use Wordpad, Butters. That's the sum of your typing needs. So how on earth can you comment on anything more sophisticate without talking out of your arse.

I'm typing this on Linux and I can open Word 2010 documents in LibreOffice without any significant loss of functionality and if I had to pay for an office license, I'd have saved myself a few hundred dollars by not buying it.

Like I said, as usual you are talking out of your hat.

As for this:

Most of the time users give up and go back to MS. Best advertising ever for MS.

Utter bollocks. Prove it. (Without using a Microsoft funded "survey").

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

I'm typing this on Linux and I can open Word 2010 documents in LibreOffice without any significant loss of functionality and if I had to pay for an office license, I'd have saved myself a few hundred dollars by not buying it.

Like I said, as usual you are talking out of your hat.

again you are talking about your personal experience, I am talking from corporate experience, and I am very well aware of certain issues on OpenOffice that are not disclosed to the public for "marketing" reasons. It's a POS, and again I speak as an insider on that project.

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

Utter bollocks. Prove it.

Only if you knew, OO is not ready for prime time, never was. We actually found out that the majority of users would switch after a few months. It's highly unstable and unusable in a corporate environment. Sun users were going mad because they were forced to use it. Some would bring their own laptop with MS Office on it just to avoid using their corporate PC with that POS

Originally Posted by Butterfly

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

I'm typing this on Linux and I can open Word 2010 documents in LibreOffice without any significant loss of functionality and if I had to pay for an office license, I'd have saved myself a few hundred dollars by not buying it.

Like I said, as usual you are talking out of your hat.

again you are talking about your personal experience, I am talking from corporate experience, and I am very well aware of certain issues on OpenOffice that are not disclosed to the public for "marketing" reasons. It's a POS, and again I speak as an insider on that project.

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

Utter bollocks. Prove it.

Only if you knew, OO is not ready for prime time, never was. We actually found out that the majority of users would switch after a few months. It's highly unstable and unusable in a corporate environment. Sun users were going mad because they were forced to use it. Some would bring their own laptop with MS Office on it just to avoid using their corporate PC with that POS

Oh Butters, changing the criteria to suit your already weak argument? Really, tsk tsk.

The simply answer is that perhaps you should have spent some money on training then.

The only thing stopping most corporate users from using free products is (a) the fear of God MS put into them, most of which is the same horseshit you're spouting here, and (b) the integration of office with other products like Sharepoint, from which open source vendors are conveniently locked out by inadequate API documentation or crippling license agreements.

I laugh at corporates who have such cretinous or frightened IT management that they are terrified of Open Source because Microsoft tells them to be.

Were you one of the ones recommending?

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

The simply answer is that perhaps you should have spent some money on training then.

it goes beyond the training issue, but again since you have no corporate experience, this is all lost on you. Users hate it because it's not usable, and IT management hate it because it's unstable. What's more need to be said ?

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

The only thing stopping most corporate users from using free products is (a) the fear of God MS put into them, most of which is the same horseshit you're spouting here, and (b) the integration of office with other products like Sharepoint, from which open source vendors are conveniently locked out by inadequate API documentation or crippling license agreements.

oh yeah, it's a big MS conspiracy. Take your meds, will you ?

it goes beyond the training issue, but again since you have no corporate experience, this is all lost on you.

And there's more:

oh yeah, it's a big MS conspiracy. Take your meds, will you ?

Here's a direct quote from Microsoft in a 2003 SEC filing....

Microsoft noted that it has built its business on the commercial software model, where developers are paid for their software. But under open source, developers work in communities, "and the resulting software and the intellectual property contained therein is licensed to end users at little or no cost," Microsoft said in the filing.

"To the extent the open-source model gains increasing market acceptance, sales of the company's products may decline, the company may have to reduce the prices it charges for its products, and revenues and operating margins may consequently decline," it added.

Companies routinely warn in their SEC filings about events that could hurt financial performance; many of those events never materialize. One person posting to a Slashdot discussion said Microsoft has included warnings about Linux and open source in official filings for several years.

One thing not noted in the Microsoft filing is that free software is not free in the financial sense of the word. The software itself is free, but it requires service and support. Indeed, the total cost of ownership of Windows is lower than Linux in many applications, according to an IDC report late last year commissioned by Microsoft.

Getting the point yet?

Nah, you're a bit dim really, aren't you?

^ and your point was again ? or do you like to post old random links just for argument sake ?

remember it's a conspiracy,

Originally Posted by Butterfly

^ and your point was again ? or do you like to post old random links just for argument sake ?

remember it's a conspiracy,

Hard to argue with your particular combination of ADD and dementia.

yes, I like the bit about using a SEC 10k filling for making a case about a MS conspiracy

keep up the good work,

Originally Posted by Butterfly

yes, I like the bit about using a SEC 10k filling for making a case about a MS conspiracy

keep up the good work,

It illustrates..... oh never mind. It's obviously beyond you. Not hard to see why.

^ yes, next time you should quote the Bible, or better yet, Steve Jobs memoirs, to make more sense

Originally Posted by Butterfly

Skype is shit,

it's cheaper to call overseas from Thailand, I pay 5THB/min,

try to beat that with Skype

Easily done, I use Skype on my mobile phone to call family and friends both in the UK and OZ, cost me .08baht per minute for the data usage when Iam not within a wifi zone.

Originally Posted by Butterfly

^ yes, next time you should quote the Bible, or better yet, Steve Jobs memoirs, to make more sense

Make sense? To you?

I'd say that's nigh on impossible.

Originally Posted by Fondles

Originally Posted by Butterfly

Skype is shit,

it's cheaper to call overseas from Thailand, I pay 5THB/min,

try to beat that with Skype

Easily done, I use Skype on my mobile phone to call family and friends both in the UK and OZ, cost me .08baht per minute for the data usage when Iam not within a wifi zone.

I must admit, I was wondering how Microsoft were going to slot VOIP into Windows Mobile 7. Still seems a pricey way to do it. It's a $6 Billion gamble if you add in what they gave to Nokia.

I just got a notice from Skype letting me know my bill for Thailand unlimited will go from 35.55 euro to 119.88 euro. Sounds to me like they are fu----- it up very fast.

I use Viber these days anyway. Much better.