Software as a Service - MS/ Google

Hi...

I don't know if this is the appropriate place to post such a thread - so, admins, if you think not, please do the needful. Thanks.

Just to get the subject out of the way: I choose not to use FF for personal reasons. I just don't like it. My browser of choice, thus far, was/ is Opera. I like Chrome too, but somehow I have a problem with some elements of their EULA (which I think was diluted down after the initial release of Chrome). I like IE8 despite the few niggling problems that I continue to have with it.

With the final release of IE8, I am now seriously thinking of using the SaaS model. As for email, I live on Gmail. I like it. I have been able to appreciate the significant advantages of using it.

Now specifically about SaaS. I have played around with Google Docs. But I did that on Opera and as you know Opera is apparently not supported by Google. I then tried Zoho, which was good - works with Opera.

I just signed up for MS Live Services. Now, Office (2007) plays a very big role in my work. I like the interface (yeah, I know some of you must be mocking me!), and it has worked wonderfully as I completed my most recent text. I like the way I can use Powerpoint and Excel and Word seamlessly. I used to use Outlook when I was affiliated with an institution (primarily using Exchange), but now its only Gmail. However, when I get back to being with the institution, I am sure I will move back to Oulook. I won't give up Gmail, I will only use it through Outlook. Why I like Outlook - because (1) Calendar function and (2) Sync features with my Win Mobile. I also expect that I will doing a lot of collaborative work in the very near future and much of it, I suspect, will be in realtime, online.

The more and more I get on with my stuff, I find that I need to have stuff accessible on the run. This is forcing me to look at the SaaS model - despite the misgivings I have about having my work and details on 'the cloud'.

Given this, what would you folks suggest - go all the way with MS or move to Google (including embracing Chrome with all its warts)?

Apologies for this long post. And, thanks for your insights.

 

Um.. there are a lot more MS services that you haven't even heard about. I suggest going all the way with MS right now since their service is much better right now compared to google. You also use IE 8 which has great compatibility with MS products.

The service which i used are:
MS office suite
MS outlook connector
MS Office workspace
Live skydrive (25gig free storage space)
Live Sync (sync through the internet or lan)
Live mesh (Sync through cloud server + remote desktop)
Live photo gallery
Live photo
Live mail
Live messenger
Live maps
Live translate

Basically.. some of MS apps/software are either more powerful or about the same thing as google's alternative. Some of the more unique apps like live mesh aren't availiable from google thus I can't compare them.

 

Thanks! That was an eye opener....particularly, the Skydrive, Sync and Mesh services. Plus, I believe there is an upcoming online MS Office facility, which will also be great! Only thing is that I don't use Messenger (I use either Gtalk and/ or Yahoo IM), Live Photos, Mail (I use Gmail, which I think I could import into Outlook). Looks good actually.

Do you use these services in a work-environment? If yes, I would be very interested in knowing (1) how you set it up and (2) how it has improved your productivity.

 

The thing that I don't like is in Live Mail (the web-based service) are the eye-catching ads, which is something that is not a problem in Gmail! Oh Well!!!!

 

-Live sync offers a simple way to sync data between computers on local area network or anywhere in the world. All you have to do to setup is to install the 1MB program from MS. This service is pretty limited in work-environment because it requires the same .net account for all the "sync" devices.
-Live mesh offers similar capabilities as live sync, but better. You can "share/sync" data with different people with different .net passport/account. For employee, they can work on a project on their home computer or vise versa. The much simplified "remote desktop" is the fastest (faster than VNC), and the easiest to setup. You can connect to a computer with 1 mouse click (literally).
-For MS office document sharing amount employees, I suggest office live. It's basically a MS office plugin which connects office application such as outlook, word, excel, access to a network storage on MS's server. Since it's 100% integrated with word, you can open/save/copy/paste to this "live folder" so all/some/specific employee can view/copy/paste/edit/delete/sync through the "live folder". Very cool and userful plugin for MS.
-Live messenger is better in design than gtalk or yahoo im in my opinion. First of all, it looks cool and it has lots of userful features. E.g. remote assistance, photo gallery, "sync folder", groups, favorites..etc. The best feature for work-environment is the "groups" feature. It groups a bunch of people together so you can share information as a group. 1 click and you're IM to everyone in the group. No more "invite" everyone to your conversation. It also integrates with outlook pretty smoothly. Also.. it can replace yahoo IM since it supports yahoo acounts. You can add contacts from both MS .net passport and yahoo accounts. Though, there's no support for gtalk accounts. BTW.. with patches such as "apatch", you can remove all the advertisment, annoying features, and really customize the IM to "bare" to suit your needs. Really cool and useful.
-Live mail offers about 4-10x more storage space than gmail. But that much storage is useless. If you prefer gmail, use gmail. Since you're using outlook as e-mail client, live mail will be better since it offers more storage space (that's all the advantage). Also.. i believe Live mail has faster server.
To use Live mail in outlook, you'll need to download a plugin called "outlook connector". Once you install the plugin, everything is very simple to setup. It takes about 2 mouse click + username + passowrd to setup everything up.
-Outlook- dont' forget to download the latest update. It improves the performance by quite a bit. 100% recommended update.
-Skydrive - I have nothing to say. It's self explainatory. One thing to add is that it has crazy bandwidth. It maxed out my 30Mbit/s home internet connection, both upload and download. I don't think they even cap your download speed. The upload limit is 50MB, but that there are work arounds. SImply use winrar or 7zip to split into sections and compress it. Upload the pieces to a folder on skydrive. When you download it, choose, "download folder as a zip file". It'll batch download and compress it in an zip archive. You can decompress and open the comrpessed pieces on local computer. Too bad skydrive has 25gig storage limit and no network drive capablility, at least not yet.

At first, it might lower your productivity since you'll be facinated with all its features. Once you get used to everything, your productivity will skyrocket.

BTW... online office suite is no match for office 2007 or the upcomming 2009 in terms of speed and functionalitiy.

 

Hmmm...wow! Thanks! That is a lot of info! Let me digest this! Also, do you use all these services for work?

BTW +1 Rep!

 

Unfortunately not, unless you call "part time" job as work. I'm still a student. It'll be at least 6 years before I'll find work. I use them daily at home and at school. Teachers from my school, especially tech teachers, liked these apps/programs/plugins.

I do part time as tech support for my high school during professional days (Pro-D days).

 

and you say you don't like firefox.... *sight*

 

Same here. I don't use firefox. It's not compatible for lots of things I use. It's also a lot slower than IE 8 on both my quadcore computer with vista 64bit and 4gigs of ram and my acer aspire one netbook. Also I like the interface and functionality in IE8.

Anyways.. it's not a big deal. Lots of people don't like firefox. Lots of people who pretend firefox because their friends liked it. Lots of people actually take advantage of the plugins for firefox and truly loved it.

 

I am sorry, I don't follow. Is there a problem with me not preferring FF?

 

i find it funny how you talk about stuff you don't like like the big ads in the live services and state you don't like firefox, being the greatest browser in that regard: removing ads with adblock..

it's just some funny irony.

and jackluo, here it runs around as fast as the corresponding ie. the interface and functionality in ie8 are much more limited than firefox (and can be copied over if really wanted, though i know ui design and don't know what one could like about ie8). and i don't have any incompatibility on any of the things i use.

anyways, to each it's own. i just found it funny.

 

Well...considering I use Gmail, if you did take the trouble to the read the previous posts and the related contexts, the question of using ad-block does not arise. Before IE8, I was quite content (as I still am) in using Opera.

Yeah...as you said it, each to his/ her own...I would appreciate it if you have something to add to the SaaS questions that I originally posted.

 

I absolutely like using the Live Mesh service, and hope that one day it'll support viewing documents that are on the live desktop via the web browser. I'm hoping Mesh gets file viewers in it to make it easy to view files in the browser. A challenging endeavor, but should be possible.

 

Try microsoft live mesh on firefox and you'll how limited firefox can be at times. You know, firefox isn't the only browser that can accept plugins or adddon. Ad blocker is one of the.

Firefox browser gives me no "extra" features I need. IE has them all and I don't even use all the features in IE.

I hate firefox from the beginning because of its horrible stock interface which majority of firefox user use. so that's why i made mybackup briwser (firefox) look "exactly" the same as IE 8.
http://tsr-pr.deviantart.com/art/Make-FireFox-3-Look-Like-IE8-105565778

 

Um.. why? Your ideas will never come true in live mesh. It's simply not what it's designed to do. Though MS will probably come out with new software to do what you've said above.

 

Microsoft does have an SDK to allow developers to write add-on's to the Mesh environment, so I'll hold out hope that someone writes up file viewers for it (maybe me if I can find the time from my other projects). The following link points Microsoft is providing tools to develop stuff for Mesh, so to me it's highly plausible that it can be done.

https://www.mesh.com/web/developer.aspx

 

I think Microsoft is headed in this direction eventually. They intend to to make Office available with limited functionality over a web browser. Like Outlook Web Access.

The challenge, of course, is the fact that web standards are all over the place, and making an application that powerful and compatible over a browser is a pain in the rear.

 

Of course, MS is headed in that direction. What i'm saying is that it probably won't happen on MS live mesh ( a syncing program from Live).

 

I'll just leave this here - Microsoft Groove.

 

We've used Groove for a short while at my workplace... it didn't survive long at all since no one liked how it worked.

 

LOL.. I never got the hang of groove either. It came with my office 2007 enterprise.

 

Since we were discussing LiveMesh...this looks like an interesting read:

http://redmondmag.com/columns/article.asp?EditorialsID=3007