Bonum Certa Men Certa

Sidal Highlight: Another Reason Why Microsoft Fears Google (and Web Standards/ODF)

Additional key link for understanding the argument over formats

In some recent communications (unfortunately not available for public viewing) it was qucikly realised that several people do not truly understand the poker game (and poker face) involving Google and Microsoft in office suites and enterprise search.

Microsoft keeps quiet about it because it's still in the "ignore phase" (as in "ignore, laugh, then fight"), hoping not to draw people's attention to Google Apps, which for most people can render Microsoft Office obsolete. It was already argued some time ago that 80% of all Office users only make use of 20% of the program's available features. There is no scientific method for measuring this, but it makes a figure of speech at the very least. This was even mentioned a couple of days ago:

But critics say that Office has become so bloated over the years that 80 percent of customers use only 20 percent of its features.


Google stays humble and quiet, but it's gaining new customers, some of whom base their (desktop) environment on GNU/Linux. Appended in the second part of this post are several examples from the past year.

“The Burton Group's role as anti-Google Apps proxy was first spotted back in August.”Cowardly enough, Microsoft is attacking Google from proxies (this includes legal assaults, e.g. [1, 2]). The Burton Group's role as anti-Google Apps proxy was first spotted back in August. Then, the press covered what it called anti-Google Apps propaganda (early observations and links here).

Quite a few businesses appear to be using Microsoft Office and Google Apps in tandem, but this might just be a transitory phase. About half a year ago, when a Microsoft executive (or manager) was questioned about the online version of Microsoft Office, his answer was telling. It was a disappointment. Many stories in the press and even analysis in Microsoft Watch concurred. Both adoption levels and technical deficiencies were to blame.

The Reality of Google Apps



Consider the following set of articles an evidence of success which does not receive sufficient press coverage.

Can Google and Linux Topple Microsoft?

The story had a certain flair. In early March, the chief information officer of the Federal Aviation Administration, David Bowen, was reportedly considering forsaking Microsoft Windows and Office in favor of the Linux operating system and the Web-based Google Apps Premium office suite.


FAA May Ditch Microsoft's Windows Vista And Office For Google And Linux Combo

Bowen said he's in talks with the aviation safety agency's main hardware supplier, Dell Computer, to determine if it could deliver Linux-based computers capable of accessing Google Apps through a non-Microsoft browser once the FAA's XP-based computers pass their shelf life.


Three Minutes With Google's Apps Manager

This move, which puts it in direct competition with software heavyweights like Microsoft, builds on Google's first steps as an enterprise vendor years ago when it launched its first enterprise search product.


Google manager: Google Apps replaced Microsoft Office at 100,000 businesses

Google's newly released online productivity suite Google Apps has already replaced Microsoft Office at more than 100,000 small to medium enterprises and has been deployed at two of the largest companies in the world, according to the search leader's enterprise product boss.


Apps vs. Office: Google Ups the Ante

So apparently do some 100,000 small businesses and organizations that use Google's productivity and communications software. Even larger corporations, such as General Electric and Procter & Gamble , are becoming adherents.


Dumping Office for Google Apps

Google has a friend in Disney, and that could leave Microsoft screaming like a jilted lover.


Consider all of this in light of a new article:



Why Google Apps is a Serious Threat to Microsoft Office



[...]

The significant advantage is collaboration. Since I started working on a new project where we all agreed to use Google Docs from the start, I have hardly used MS Office at all - even on other projects.


In the future, this post will most likely be cited as a reminder of Google's risk to Microsoft Office, which tends to be forgotten or overlooked. Other companies offer facilities that are similar to Google's, but Google succeeds partly because of its known and respected brand.

Microsoft can try to use OOXML to break and further stifle interoperability with Google Apps, among other online office suites. Do bear this in mind.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Throwing Money at Lawyers Can't Stop Us (It Never Did)
Even just trying to censor things can result in the opposite of the desired outcome
BetaNews Has More or Less Died After Experiments With LLM Slop, Is Linuxsecurity Next?
It doesn't seem like BetaNews knows what it's doing, let alone what it talks about
 
Microsoft is a Problem Not Just for Denmark
Every country should consider what Denmark is doing, why Denmark is doing it, and then do the same
The Slopfarms' Self Detonation
If more sites like BetaNews go under, then maybe we can still salvage some of the Web
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, June 14, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, June 14, 2025
Links 14/06/2025: FDA Changes Priorities, Cassette Data Storage From The 1970s
Links for the day
Gemini Links 14/06/2025: Steam Next Fest and Thoughts on Gemini
Links for the day
Site/Datacentre Maintenance Next Week
speed things up
Bulgaria: GNU/Linux Near 10%
The Bulgarian market seems to be changing
I Never Spoke to BetaNews. But BetaNews Wants to Ensure I Never Will, Either.
Sometimes just the reluctance to talk about it can say a great deal
Online Search or Large Search Engines Aren't Working Anymore
business models that directly compete with interests of Web users
Holidays and Breaks
I've hardly taken any long breaks since I got married
Danish OpenDocument Freedom
"year of Linux"
When Abusive Law Firms (Working for Microsofters Against Us) Assert That Someone Writing in Social Media About Himself is Confidential Information
There was no reason to throw "GDPR" into 2 SLAPPs; they know it, but the goal was to increase the cost of a Defence and lessen the incentive to challenge the SLAPPs
Links 14/06/2025: Wars and L.A. Distortion Effect
Links for the day
Gemini Links 14/06/2025: Historic Ada Design and GeminiSpace.Club to Expire
Links for the day
Links 14/06/2025: India Plane Crash and Middle-Eastern War
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, June 13, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, June 13, 2025
Gemini Links 13/06/2025: (Not)virtues and Project Yeet Broadband
Links for the day
Links 13/06/2025: Journalists Targeted by Cracking, China-Japan and Israel-Iran Tensions Grow
Links for the day
Links 13/06/2025: US Reduces Nonessential Staff at Baghdad Embassy Ahead of Strikes in Iran, Invasion of California Debated
Links for the day
X11 is Free Software
Whether you agree (e.g. on politics) with the person/s forking it doesn't matter
The More Time Passes, the Better Our Advice on Social Control Media Seems
At the end of the day, any platform you do not control yourself is working for someone else
Twitter (X) is Dying, Now It's Just Like a Mafia-Type Operation of the Man Who Does Nazi Salutes in Public
a form of extortion
UK High Court Blasts Brett Wilson LLP for Misusing "GDPR" After Failed Efforts to Censor Critics Using 'Libel' Claims
No wonder this firm is rapidly shrinking
Recent Blunders in Microsoft GitHub (e.g. Slop-Generated Bug Reports or GPL Violations 'as a Service') Taking Their Toll?
Put bluntly, if you still use Microsoft GitHub, then you're slave to Microsoft
American Imperialism and Microsoft Plagiarism
Techrights will therefore do what Microsoft does not want it to do: it'll write even more about Microsoft
When They Have Nothing Left to Help Advance Abusive Litigation for Microsoft People... Other Than Throwing ~500 Pages of Someone Else's Work Into a PDF
Microsoft is having a very tough year
The Price of Exposing Corruption in Poland (and Elsewhere)
It's easier to participate in corruption than to merely do the right thing and oppose it
Slopwatch and Yet More Holes in 'Secure Boot' (as Usual!), Promoted Inside Linux by the Man We Are Suing
Today's Slopwatch will be short
Gemini Links 13/06/2025: People You've Left Behind, Life Update and OS Changes
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, June 12, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, June 12, 2025