Thursday, September 25, 2003

NYT: Microsoft Office 2003 Reviewed

Microsoft Office 2003 Reviewed "In Office 2003, Microsoft has made shockingly few changes to Word, Excel and PowerPoint. The message seems to be: "You people didn't like it when we piled on features? O.K., fine. Let's see how you like it when we add none at all."
In a way, the company is conducting a fascinating experiment in human psychology: will the masses reflexively buy the upgrade just for the sake of owning the latest?
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Speaking of payment, by the way, Office 2003 requires a PC running Windows 2000 or Windows XP. If you're among the millions of people with an earlier version of Windows, you had better factor a Windows upgrade into the price - and therefore maybe a new computer. Monopolies have their privileges."

Despite the negative tone in the intro and concluding sections, the rest of the review is fairly balanced and useful.

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