[ssmit132]

I was reading the article about Google Chrome in PC User, and I thought 'can Google really dominate over Microsoft?' Sure, Google is cheaper and they have a plethora of offerings, but then Microsoft's stuff is on the hard drive and can be accessed offline, while Google's stuff is on the Internet, so if you're offline, you're stuck. Surely, quite a few people would stick to Microsoft's off-line (and, well, not perfect, but certainly proven, widespread and easy to find) stuff, especially ones who do not have broadband access (like me  , hopefully that will change soon). Also, if Google make an OS, then if it's online (which I doubt) then IMO it wouldn't be as popular since people wouldn't want all their dependencies on a computer, would they?

Just wondering what your opinions are on this.

[Fury]

Eh. Both companies have a plethora of different products and services, both online and offline. It's not a matter which company dominates the other, but rather what product or service should they compete for same target group. They have different products for different needs. Instead of Google's online apps, more direct competitor to MS Office (which I assume you were referring to) would be OpenOffice.

And Google does have their own OS. If I remember correctly, it is a debian based linux distro they use internally. They may bring it out to public, but I dunno if it is able to offer anything other distros does not already. They have the money and resources to back it up though, more than Canonical anyway.

Personally I don't really care either way. I want products and services that fulfill my needs and I will use whichever does so, regardless of what company it comes from. However, domination is not optimal situation to customers. Competition is. Neither should be dominating the other.

[Androgeos Exeunt]

And now both companies have their own Internet browsers.

Microsoft has SkyDrive as its online Cloud Storage system. What does Google have?

[Fury]

Google planned to bring out something similar years ago, but apparently it backfired on them because they had no unified storage system shared between all their online apps. So I guess they're busy reworking that and it's probably tough stuff to do.

[Mongoose]

Google vs. Microsoft

Whoever wins...we lose.

[Charismatic]

Google vs. Microsoft

Whoever wins...we lose.

How certain is that?

[Androgeos Exeunt]

Whoever wins...we lose.

*cough*

Firefox, Linux, OpenOffice.org. An Internet browser, an operating system, and an office suite. All are free, and all are not made by Microsoft or Google.

[Grizzly]

Whoever wins...we lose.

*cough*

Firefox, Linux, OpenOffice.org. An Internet browser, an operating system, and an office suite. All are free, and all are not made by Microsoft or Google.

And off-course, Google and Microsoft will do anything to convince to go to them, which will make compatability bethween those an issiue.

[Spicious]

OpenOffice is pretty painful to use though.

[Grizzly]

OpenOffice is pretty painful to use though.

I kinda like it. The only painfull thing happening is that I forgot to save some documents that were needed at school in .DOC format instead of the .odt format.

[ssmit132]

The only painfull thing happening is that I forgot to save some documents that were needed at school in .DOC format instead of the .odt format.

The reason that I use OpenOffice.Org is that it's free - I don't want to fork out several hundred dollars to buy MS Office when OpenOffice does just fine. I've had that problem with formats, however - I once had to delay a oral presentation one day because my PowerPoint was still in OpenOffice format. My Mandlebrot Set write-up for Maths C (Top level high school maths in Australia) was a nightmare because OpenOffice kept adding random amounts of blank pages - I didn't fix up some little mistakes on it because it wasn't worth getting frustrated for it. I was so relieved when I handed it in.

Firefox, Linux, OpenOffice.org. An Internet browser, an operating system, and an office suite. All are free, and all are not made by Microsoft or Google.

I'll get my head bitten off for this - there's a few reasons I don't use Linux:

• Windows comes pre-installed, and I'm perfectly happy with it.
• Even if I liked Linux better, it doesn't run games that were made for Windows without an emulator, IIRC.

Personally I don't really care either way. I want products and services that fulfill my needs and I will use whichever does so, regardless of what company it comes from. However, domination is not optimal situation to customers. Competition is. Neither should be dominating the other.

'Domination' was the wrong word. Probably 'market share' would have fitted better. And Microsoft has IIRC had the lion's share of the OS market, despite the many users using Mac OS and Linux distributions.

[Androgeos Exeunt]

Well, I don't use Linux, but I do have a Mac.

I've tried OpenOffice.org before, but I couldn't get used to it. At the moment, I'm still keeping it as a last resort in the event where I have a computer that does not have Microsoft Office installed.

I wish I had iWorks. Apple's version of PowerPoint, Keynote, can do 3D transitions.

And then we have a replacement for Notepad called Notepad++...and if anyone needs a free audio player that can play almost everything, either Winamp or XMPlay fits the bill well. The latter can barely work on Mac under Darwine, so I still use it even after my partial switch from Windows to Mac.

In fact, the only thing I use from Google at the moment is their search engine and, at times, Google Earth.