Life Without Microsoft

April 01, 2007 | archives

On March 12, I wrote an article called Life Without Microsoft that made these points:

• Vista is not selling well
• PCs and traditional software are a hassle to upgrade and maintain
• Tech support is so unhelpful that it's non-existent
• Open source, free software such as Firefox, Thunderbird, Linux, and Open Office are better alternatives to traditional software
• Online-only software such as Google Apps is a better way to get work done with less hassle

At the end of that weekend's letter, I asked for feedback from my subscribers. I received a great deal of thoughtful, detailed, informative responses which I've sifted and edited down to a real-world follow-up worthy of your time.

Each subject presents my commentary followed by thoughts sent by Kelly Letter subscribers.

Use An Apple Macintosh
This is a great suggestion, and one that I'm considering for my next round of office upgrades in a few years. Macs are elegant, and they may finally have a chance to grab more market share now that the internet is erasing the compatibility issue. Anything you can do online with a PC, you can do with a Mac. Same site addresses, same applications, same scripts getting work done.   more