back to article Microsoft moves Macs closer to PC parity

Microsoft has announced two products designed to provide users of Office 2008 for Mac with improved access to existing server-based Microsoft services. The first of the two, Microsoft Entourage for Exchange Web Services, will be a free upgrade to Entourage 2008 for Mac that will enable that email, contacts, and calendaring …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    Noooo

    Keep the coloured pencil people away from us. I don't want to share their positive thinking from the thought cloud....

  2. Kevin Thomas
    Coat

    But surely...

    There would have been no need to invent the DCC if IE was fully W3C compliant :)

    Mine's the one with the blue touchpaper in the pocket...

  3. Avi

    I've long wondered about this disparity

    Where users of MS on Mac get the more shoddy versions than those using Windows get.

    Surely if there's anyone MS should be trying to convince of the high quality of their software, it's the generally-anti-MS mac using crowd?

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    DCC sounds great!

    It's like the LaTeX/subversion setup we use at the moment, but with global locks and shit typography!

  5. Giles Jones Gold badge

    @I've long wondered about this disparity

    "Where users of MS on Mac get the more shoddy versions than those using Windows get."

    I've used Office 2004 and it's better than any Windows version I've used. It looks nice, there's useful templates for documents.

    Obviously there's features lacking and you don't get Access (only really a problem for small businesses).

  6. Christian Berger

    Document locking?

    Uhm, why lock documents, just make is so n people can edit it at once. How hard can it be to have a text-editor with n cursors on different positions?

  7. Pierre

    "Microsoft moves Macs closer to PC parity", huh?

    You mean, MS is giving away massive market shares to Job? Old news, Vista is almost 2 years old now. As for DCC, exchange and all that stuff, why bother with a MS version when you can get real, working software?

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Yay more infections for mac!

    SO instead of 5 threats due to microshaft office for mac.. .we get 10!

    YAY!!!

  9. Colonel Panic
    Gates Horns

    Notes and Tasks sync ?

    If M$ is serious about feature parity they need to drag Entourage into the 1990s and give us frackin' note and task sync.

    Palm Pilot's could do this when Steven Jobs was still at Next for crying out loud... its not astrophysics people, get it sorted

  10. Gordon Grant
    Boffin

    If only.....

    MS would stop changing the file format ever so slightly each time they bring a new version out half of this "3rd party" type addon combobulation software thingy wouldn't be needed as it would be native as it would all be built into the software. Oh wait that would mean we'd need to code correctly.

    There is a solution Open Office works, okay it doesn't play with exchange but then again it doesn't really come with an e-mail client. Here is the surprise it will open most MS docs and TRY it's best to save them in the right format also if you save it in it's own format, you can then open it in any version of the software, as if the version doesn't understand the formating tag it ignores it.. and tells you it's ignoring it I believe.

    Yes lets make like we like "macs" and sell more trash - MS memo...

    They are just trying to steal the march on stuff like Google docs which works in the browser.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    Yuck!

    How about a plug-in to get the file system to interface directly into the Finder, similar to MacFuse, etc. Then you can add locking and other items using the context sensitive menus with a Finder plug-in.

    A separate 3rd party application for access files is dumb. At least replace the file dialogue code in office so that it can access these files using the normal open and save dialogs in the Office suite.

    How hard can it be?

    Entourage days are numbered once Apple release their new Mail.app with proper Exchange support I hope. Just been quoted over £450 for Office 2008 Standard (for Exchange support). That's a rip-off. Thankfully I can still find it for £280 even that's still daylight robbery.

  12. Hans

    DCC?

    Why on earth did they create a separate app? Users want to use their browser, not some crappy app ... everything's going to be done in a browser and all that can be done in a browser.

    I guess they found no easy way to make it work in ff on mac and fail with the same browser on other Unices ... or they do not have developers that know web standards .... pathetic!

    When are they gonna fix owa so that it does no longer matter if you use ie, ff or safari?

    We have a rich web app that works accross all main browsers on all main platforms ... it is not that hard.

    DCC useless

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