How close are you to being MS free?

jimdadjimdad
Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
Just occurred to me the other day after the keynote that when I purchase my copy of Keynote I will have, for the first time in many years, no Microsoft applications which I use. PP was the last one I used, being quite happy with Appleworks (despite the bad press it sometimes gets here).

Yes, I will have to use their apps at school but my desk at home is now officially a MS free area. The best bit is I'm not doing it out of spite but because I genuinely prefer all the alternatives (if Keynote is half as good as it looks). I wouldn't have thought this possible a year ago.

Anyone else in the same position?
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 23
    not unlike myselfnot unlike myself Posts: 2,037member
    This feels strangely like a get 'drug free' thread...



    But to answer your question...



    I still use Word. (like a lemming... I know)

    I will still use PowerPoint. (till Apple gives me a free copy of Keynote )

    I will still use Excel. (since they are the only show in town.



    I do not use IE, Outlook or Entourage. So I am only down to one pack a day now instead of quiting cold turkey.



    Man do I wish I had keynote... If anyone wan't to buy me a copy.... just PM me.
  • Reply 2 of 23
    shawnpatrickjoyceshawnpatrickjoyce Posts: 2,417member
    I still use Word because it's cross platform between the wind0ze machines at school and mac os x.
  • Reply 3 of 23
    spookyspooky Posts: 504member
    I have no MS apps aside from IE on my G4s at work but becuase 99.99% of the rest of the college is win only (including the network) I use word and excel at home.



    The sad thing is that we are looming ever closer to a total corporate win only policy which will mean that I'll be totally reliant on win software and wintel boxes.



    It looks like I'm slowly getting ever further away from a MS free life
  • Reply 4 of 23
    trevormtrevorm Posts: 841member
    I still use Microsoft Office v.X - But only Word and Excel and Entourage.



    As you can see from my Bookmark I dont use Internet Explorer.



    If Apple made a decent Mail.app, oh they do, but I dont like it and a good work/excel style app I would use any Micro$oft crap!
  • Reply 5 of 23
    emaneman Posts: 7,204member
    I've been using AppleWorks more than Word lately, but I still use Word. That's about it. Also, on the rare occasion that I have a project for school that I have to use Powerpoint I use it.
  • Reply 6 of 23
    aquaticaquatic Posts: 5,602member
    I use Word and Excel because they're still the best and most compatible. >32 character file names in Word would be kind of nice though, eh?



    However Mail is now cleaner than Entourage in combo with Address Book and iCal.



    Apple's way of slicing tasks into seperate apps is looking like a better way of doing things to me.



    We just need AppleWorks 7 with 100% M$ compatibility, but I don't know if M$ will ever allow that. Damn them and their billion dollar payouts.
  • Reply 6 of 23
    jimdadjimdad Posts: 209member
    [quote]Originally posted by ShawnPatrickJoyce:

    <strong>I still use Word because it's cross platform between the wind0ze machines at school and mac os x.</strong><hr></blockquote>



    Shawn, can you not use Appleworks? That's what I use when I want to transfer WP files between home and school. Works fine for me apart from occasional lapse in formatting. It used to just be the edu version but I'm sure as of the last update the translators were included in the normal version.
  • Reply 8 of 23
    jimdadjimdad Posts: 209member
    [quote]Originally posted by spooky:

    <strong>I have no MS apps aside from IE on my G4s at work but becuase 99.99% of the rest of the college is win only (including the network) I use word and excel at home.



    The sad thing is that we are looming ever closer to a total corporate win only policy which will mean that I'll be totally reliant on win software and wintel boxes.



    It looks like I'm slowly getting ever further away from a MS free life </strong><hr></blockquote>



    Same with us , Spooky. No consultation about it and very difficult to shift them. We've been Win only purchase wise until last year when we managed to get a few Macs back to pursue DV . Seems that even they can't argue with Apple's lead in this area.
  • Reply 9 of 23
    spiffsterspiffster Posts: 327member
    The only one I use is Word. I hate to admit it, but AppleWorks' word processor doesn't hold a candle to it. I use the rest of AppleWorks though. No Entrouage, Excel, PP. DEFINATLY NO IE!
  • Reply 10 of 23
    spookyspooky Posts: 504member
    [quote]Originally posted by jimdad:

    <strong>



    Same with us , Spooky. No consultation about it and very difficult to shift them. We've been Win only purchase wise until last year when we managed to get a few Macs back to pursue DV . Seems that even they can't argue with Apple's lead in this area.</strong><hr></blockquote>



    I feel your pain. the college moved to win2000 last year and now this year the policy is to move ALL machines over to XP.

    Safari hasn't helped. I had one IT manager complain when I tasked permission to download it that apple was becoming less standard ! I told him that IE was available for mac and he just said "Yes, but for how long?"



    It isn't just us. we deal with a lot of companies (18 in total) for work experience and the odd bit of commercial work for our students. All of them have in the last two years switched to windows.



    Even the old argument we used to make that we need to teach kids on the kit the industry uses is wearing a little thin.
  • Reply 11 of 23
    splinemodelsplinemodel Posts: 7,311member
    I don't use any MS apps. I don't really mind PowerPoint, but most of the work I do is technical, and I have no need for MS apps. If keynote can read powerpoint presentations, that would be cool, since most of the use I've had in the past with powerpoint has been for viewing presentations.
  • Reply 12 of 23
    ast3r3xast3r3x Posts: 5,012member
    took a dive for the worst, my brother went back to college so i now have a PC in my room...and not only a PC but an OLD and SLOW PC
  • Reply 13 of 23
    pscatespscates Posts: 5,847member
    How's this for irony: I had gotten down to only ONE Microsoft app: Internet Explorer. Then my ex-brother-in-law, who's a Microsoft MVP (or something like this) gets these incredible deals and gets me Office v.X for Christmas (for next to nothing, to boot).



    THEN, two weeks later Apple releases the one thing that I was waiting on from them, software-wise: their own browser.



    Had Andy not bought me Office v.X, I'd pretty much have nothing Microsoft. I mean, it's on my Mac, but I just don't use most of it. I've dabbled in Word, but I don't know if a guy like me would EVER use Excel. And I like Mail just fine. And Keynote mops the floor with PowerPoint, at least for anything I'D be doing in that realm.



    So, when it comes to actual, day-to-day use, I'm fairly Microsoft-free, minus the occasional launch of Word or Explorer (just to compare it to Safari for a particular site).



  • Reply 14 of 23
    shawnpatrickjoyceshawnpatrickjoyce Posts: 2,417member
    [quote]Originally posted by jimdad:

    <strong>



    Shawn, can you not use Appleworks? That's what I use when I want to transfer WP files between home and school. Works fine for me apart from occasional lapse in formatting. It used to just be the edu version but I'm sure as of the last update the translators were included in the normal version.</strong><hr></blockquote>



    I don't have AppleWorks because it just didn't come with my PowerBook. But it's not like I paid for Office v.X though
  • Reply 15 of 23
    costiquecostique Posts: 1,084member
    Here am I to proudly announce that I am 100% MS free. God save me from the idiots who keep bringing me 300 bytes unformatted text files in doc format! :o
  • Reply 16 of 23
    stunnedstunned Posts: 1,096member
    I use all the apps in MS Office X. MS may suck when they do software for PC, but I must admit Office X for mac is a great program.







    IE goes to the trash though.
  • Reply 17 of 23
    jbljbl Posts: 555member
    I have Office, but I only really use Excel. I need to figure out if gnumeric is a decent substitute. I do use Word (and until last week PowerPoint) when people sent me files in those formats (and occationally when I was required to give people files in those formats and didn't have the time to fight the requirement).
  • Reply 18 of 23
    thegeldingthegelding Posts: 3,230member
    kids use word and excel and powerpoint (freakin middle school kids too...)...if we get iWord and iExcel, like we got iPowerPoint with keynote, i will make both iMacs in the house MS free...g
  • Reply 19 of 23
    amorphamorph Posts: 7,112member
    I haven't had an MS app on any machine of mine since MS announced Word 5. That was when I realized that they were gunning for a monopoly at the expense of everything else and swore them off.



    Compatibility has only rarely been a problem, mostly thanks to MacLinkPlus.
  • Reply 20 of 23
    giaguaragiaguara Posts: 2,724member
    I don't own a pc ... = No windows No MS office



    Just Internet Exploiter that i use only if nothing else works (chimera, icab, safari) ... lets say i've used it 10 times in 4 months or so.
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