Work's right out the box?
Hello All,
Apple is running adverts that imply the Mac is an awesome experience right out the box.
Now in the old days a consumer Mac (Performa, LC, iMac etc) would have AppleWorks bundled. AppleWorks of course including Database, Spreadsheet, Drawing, Painting, Word Processing and Presentations. Now I fully accept it wasn't the best package in the world but the fact was it gave every home-user the basic tools to do pretty much everything they needed to do. With the inclusion of iLife & AppleWorks on later iMacs a consumer wanted for nothing. It truely 'Worked right out the box'.
Nowadays consumers and Pros alike are treated to a 30 day trial of iWorks and Office only.
What like 30day trials?
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I can't be the only one who needs more than TextEdit will offer but don't want to spend out on Office for Intel in the future. (Yes I know about NeoOffice - but it's not pre-installed and I'm talking about creating an out the box experience here).
As a result I urge you all to send feedback (USE THIS LINK) to Apple that we want a new better, fuller versions of iWorks to be included with iMacs/MB/MM etc. Otherwise switchers and old hands alike will spend their first days of ownership buying and installing 3rd party software.
We all need this relatively simple software on our Future Hardware to do those routine jobs we need to do.
Apple is running adverts that imply the Mac is an awesome experience right out the box.
Now in the old days a consumer Mac (Performa, LC, iMac etc) would have AppleWorks bundled. AppleWorks of course including Database, Spreadsheet, Drawing, Painting, Word Processing and Presentations. Now I fully accept it wasn't the best package in the world but the fact was it gave every home-user the basic tools to do pretty much everything they needed to do. With the inclusion of iLife & AppleWorks on later iMacs a consumer wanted for nothing. It truely 'Worked right out the box'.
Nowadays consumers and Pros alike are treated to a 30 day trial of iWorks and Office only.
Quote:
14. Awesome out of the box.
Other computers include software, it?s true. But once you start using that software, you find that you?re hobbled in some way or another.
14. Awesome out of the box.
Other computers include software, it?s true. But once you start using that software, you find that you?re hobbled in some way or another.
What like 30day trials?
---
I can't be the only one who needs more than TextEdit will offer but don't want to spend out on Office for Intel in the future. (Yes I know about NeoOffice - but it's not pre-installed and I'm talking about creating an out the box experience here).
As a result I urge you all to send feedback (USE THIS LINK) to Apple that we want a new better, fuller versions of iWorks to be included with iMacs/MB/MM etc. Otherwise switchers and old hands alike will spend their first days of ownership buying and installing 3rd party software.
We all need this relatively simple software on our Future Hardware to do those routine jobs we need to do.
Comments
Also I thin kthey are trying to market off the Macs as a media/life computer. Does everything that you want to use the computer for fun-wise out of the box and the working stuff you ahve to add. Which I believe makes sense. Besides the first few days after i get a computer I probably won't be working on it.
I do think they should include iWork, and if they can't ge their act together with adding a spreadsheet
This is why I don't think they should include pages. Keynote just seems so powerful, and I am expecting Tables and Graphs and/or numbers so it would be too much. I toned down Pages would be enough for me.
Of course, it just occured to me that M$ would axe Word/Office for the Mac if they shipped a free word processor with each one...
And it also just occurred to me the reason Apple is creating, app by app, an Office replacement suite and selling it for $99 is because they will ship it for free the moment M$ threatens to axe Word, thus removing the one M$ app Apple "needs." Office/Mac's days are numbered... When the suite is complete, I expect Apple to end their relationship with M$.
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Of course, it just occured to me that M$ would axe Word/Office for the Mac if they shipped a free word processor with each one...
I've had either AppleWorks or ClarisWorks bundled with every Mac I've owned (I haven't bought new for about 3 years now). I've still bought Office 98/2001/v.X as I'm sure many many others have. Personally I wanted more than Works could offer and Office is the Pro app. If iWorks (Future) is as nearly as good as Word/PP/Excel then then Apple won't *need* Office/M$ anymore.
To me this is a new greed we can see in Apple. A 2004 iMac G4 was bundled with AppleWorks. Today you can have AppleWorks but it's a $79 purchase in the store. I suppose Apple is trying to keep the base price of it's machines low but how many PCs do you see shipping without the supplied ability to write a letter or manage a household account in a spreadsheet? A switcher will expect this kind of functionality and be disappointed without it. When they find themselves paying out $79 that disappointment will turn to anger.
This is why I don't think they should include pages. Keynote just seems so powerful, and I am expecting Tables and Graphs and/or numbers so it would be too much. I toned down Pages would be enough for me.
Keynote needs to be powerful. PowerPoint-type presentations are getting more and more common in school environments. As for Pages, it has light page layout capability, but as a word processor it's definitely in the MS word/ AppleWorks class. Pages cut down would be text edit. It would have to add a lot of features to be a "word killer". The only feature it really needs is a better GUI for word processing. The app is definitely designed around page layout first and foremost. I expect charts/lasso/whatever and filemaker light to be equally consumer oriented.
I've had either AppleWorks or ClarisWorks bundled with every Mac I've owned (I haven't bought new for about 3 years now). I've still bought Office 98/2001/v.X as I'm sure many many others have. Personally I wanted more than Works could offer and Office is the Pro app. If iWorks (Future) is as nearly as good as Word/PP/Excel then then Apple won't *need* Office/M$ anymore..
They won't come out with a Office competitor for the same reason they don't have a photoshop killer, if they challenge Microsoft, and Microsoft pulls Office from the Mac, they could loose a lot of marketshare.
Keynote needs to be powerful. PowerPoint-type presentations are getting more and more common in school environments.
Oh I love how powerful Keynote is, but to bundle it free with a Mac? I don't think that would really be needed, though I suppose it could possibly help sell slightly more Macs.
Also last time I bought a PC Office wasn't included. Just Word Perfect. As I remember it Office was quite a lot of money to pay for something most people don't need.
Back to Keynote, I love it so much I make stupid random presentations to get a better feel and then to "Ohhh" and "Ahhh" everyone when I play a "PowerPoint"
And for god's sake, can we get a grammar checker in one of these non-Office apps!?
Oh I love how powerful Keynote is, but to bundle it free with a Mac? I don't think that would really be needed, though I suppose it could possibly help sell slightly more Macs.
Also last time I bought a PC Office wasn't included. Just Word Perfect. As I remember it Office was quite a lot of money to pay for something most people don't need.
Back to Keynote, I love it so much I make stupid random presentations to get a better feel and then to "Ohhh" and "Ahhh" everyone when I play a "PowerPoint"
iWork is word perfect, it's the replacement for Appleworks. Apple does not have a pro office program.
I guess textedit is technically as good as Wordpad for windows, but it'd be really killer if they actually included something better.
Actually TextEdit is way better than Wordpad.
Actually TextEdit is way better than Wordpad.
I've started using TextEdit a little on my TiBook as I literally haven't got around to re-installing Office since I upgraded to Tiger. It's fine for the odd letter but it's ceased to be the basic text editor that OS X needs. I don't have anything to do a quick HTML tweak nowadays.
She uses Word a lot under Windows and the state of Office on the Intel Macs actually managed to reduce her to tears. Who wouldn't be upset if you spent so much money on a brand new machine and you can't even do word processing? As I've said before, if something as simple as word processing is so appallingly bad on the Intel Mac then what are switchers supposed to think other than Macs are rubbish? That's three switchers I've seen very disappointed with Macs and all because they need to do basic word processing.
Today I cautiously recommended trying Neooffice knowing how slow it had been for me on my G4 and I was very impressed with the speed on the Intel Mac. A lot of Java stuff seems to go much faster. Seeing Office 2004 and NeoOffice side by side made me wonder if Apple should include NeoOffice by default on Intel Macs. Since it's open source, they could even put in some effort to make it more Mac-like.
The only downside is that as mentioned, it would give Microsoft an excuse to put less effort in developing Office for Mac. However, I don't see that Office is even usable at the moment on OS X so I don't think it would matter. I mean, what is up with that stupid fading panel in Office for Mac?