Google & Microsoft
Posted on 23 February 2007
Come on, I am not gonna write about their everyday battles and the long time war. This post is about how Google has transformed out lives and kicked out Microsoft.
It has been only a few years since Google has launched. But the way it has impacted users like me is phenomenal. In just over 3 years when I first subscribed for GMail, I have become highly dependant on Google services for my daily activity. On date I use more than 15 (precisely 17) Google services. And all of them for FREE.
Google came like a ray of light in utter darkness for users, when every other free service was getting paid, or had started neglecting its free users. Google changed the whole scenario. The focus is now more on Quality services rather than those flashy interfaces.
Today I use Microsoft only for Windows as an OS which came down with my system. And may be that’s the only product of Microsoft I use today, apart from a few free plugins. I shifted to Open Office than MS Office, shifted to Thunderbird and Outlook, use Google Docs more than OpenOffice even. I use Eclipse and SharpDevelop for development. Some years back it was all Microsoft (and that too pirated, was in college yaar)
Google’s upgradation of App for Domains product yesterday, has been terrific. For a start-up company, it can reduce the cost tremendously. They won’t need expensive servers to keep their documents and mails on. They won’t need licence’s to Outlook any more, and won’t have trouble configuring Outlook Web for that matter even. What they all need would be a browser enabled web-connected system. And the promise of 10GB mailbox is 10 times more than what my present company offers using Microsoft Outlook. Should I recommend it to them as well. Nah!
Just a wish of early morning, if Microsoft could ever wake up and provide its services as a quality one and remove the clutter from its interfaces. If they could provided their outdated products like Windows 2000, Office 2000 (which they have discontinued) for FREE, it can come as a boon for developing and under-developed nations. Do some real charity Microsoft, are you listening!!!