Google office suite (professional)

Big issue is security - your work products are on google servers and storage. If they get compromised, who's liable?
 
I use LibreOffice https://www.libreoffice.org/ It is truly free, is available for Windows, Mac and Linux and I have never had any compatibility problems. I have used OpenOffice as well. I would not trust Google with my work data, or personal data for that matter.
 
dsbrantjr said:
I use LibreOffice https://www.libreoffice.org/ It is truly free, is available for Windows, Mac and Linux and I have never had any compatibility problems. I have used OpenOffice as well. I would not trust Google with my work data, or personal data for that matter.
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Open Office is the same thing aimed for PC's - it works perfectly well for 95% of what I do. Intensive formatting, such as automated tables of contents, etc... are still easier to deal with on the actual Office Word but very doable using Libre Office or Open Office.
 
Old Geek said:
Google what? I still use Wordstar and vi.
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If someone forces my hand, I open up the document in LibreOffice convert it to text, then continue, If I really have to create a snazzy looking document. I've found vi + LaTeX to be far less frustrating than clicking around in a WYSIWYG editor.

20+ years working with computers, only Word and it's clones have made me want to throw a computer out the window.

As far as google docs vs office, it's a little more primitive but available anywhere. MSFT has a competing product called Office365 or something.
 
rainsux said:
> vi

EMACS forever! ... And you kids with your "vi", get off my lawn. <g>
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forever? Is that how long EMACS takes to boot up these days? EMACS is a fine operating system, it just lacks a decent text editor. :D
 
bartmc said:
forever? Is that how long EMACS takes to boot up these days? EMACS is a fine operating system, it just lacks a decent text editor. :D
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Had a friend once who said that EMACS was really fast....





when you're the only one on the Cray!
:hairraise::yesnod::rofl:
 
jtheune said:
Where do you find new 8" floppies? :)
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I could always snag a few from up at work.. No idea where THEY get them.

Its amazing how long some medical devices remain in use. The camera they used for nuclear tagged tracer studies up at my work place used 8" floppies. This was where they labelled red blood cells with radionuclide, then stuck the patient under a camera and looked for signs of abnormal distribution (bleeding).
 
I use WordPerfect, am on X5 now, but Corel just released X6. Don't know whether we need to upgrade or not.
 
TMetzinger said:
Big issue is security - your work products are on google servers and storage. If they get compromised, who's liable?
Click to expand...


I don't see Google servers getting hacked. If they were it would be by a government backed hacker and I doubt many reading my words have much another government would want. Besides, if that same government can hack Google it can hack where ever else you decide to put it. Even a thumb drive under your bed in a floor safe can be gotten to given enough effort.
 
The company where I work recently transitioned to Google. I still have Office 2003 on my machine and continue to use that for word and excel (and occasional powerpoint).

Some folks continue to use Outlook for email (syncing with Google server), but most have transitioned to Gmail with Chrome as the browser. I have and I like it. The "Boomerang" extension for Chrome makes Gmail even better.

Side note - I was a heavy folder user in Outlook. In Gmail, I switched to labels and archiving. It seems to work very well.

I suppose I could try the SS tool more often, but I don't.
 
bartmc said:
If someone forces my hand, I open up the document in LibreOffice convert it to text, then continue, If I really have to create a snazzy looking document. I've found vi + LaTeX to be far less frustrating than clicking around in a WYSIWYG editor.
Click to expand...

After living in MT, I thought the state was 20 years behind. Now I'm certain.:D
 
woodstock said:
Hi

Does anyone use Google instead of MS Office at work?

Pros, cons?
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Well, I use it at work but not for work. :hairraise:

I do most my personal stuff on Google Docs (now Drive).

For most office-related stuff, it should work fine. There are some glitches and annoyances like lag and various compatibiliy issues with IE and XP. Works better at home on Win7. I imagine if you use Chrome it will work fine. I don't bother with the Chrome plug-in.
 
I have not really even looked at Google Docs or whatever it's called, for various reasons. But is there a local copy kept? Are you able to get full read/write access to all your stuff if you have no Internet access, like when you're on a commercial flight? If not, that alone would be a deal breaker for me.

As for the other reasons... OK, call me a Luddite. I'm perfectly willing to use the 'Net as a tool to connect me to where I want to connect. However, the concept of storing anything I value on remote anonymous servers over which I have no control, and that are run by a company whose only real motivation is to find new and unique ways to extract profit from it... no thanks. I'm not lacking in local hard drive space, nor in teeny little FLASH drives, nor strong encryption. Known security on my local machines: Pretty darned good. Known security with anyone else: Zip.
 
DaleB said:
I have not really even looked at Google Docs or whatever it's called, for various reasons. But is there a local copy kept? Are you able to get full read/write access to all your stuff if you have no Internet access, like when you're on a commercial flight? If not, that alone would be a deal breaker for me.

As for the other reasons... OK, call me a Luddite. I'm perfectly willing to use the 'Net as a tool to connect me to where I want to connect. However, the concept of storing anything I value on remote anonymous servers over which I have no control, and that are run by a company whose only real motivation is to find new and unique ways to extract profit from it... no thanks. I'm not lacking in local hard drive space, nor in teeny little FLASH drives, nor strong encryption. Known security on my local machines: Pretty darned good. Known security with anyone else: Zip.
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Yes, but you are forgetting. Google is NOT EVIL. So you are covered.
 
This is a key reason that I won't use Office Docs on a personal basis:

Google Terms of Service said:
Some of our Services allow you to submit content. You retain ownership of any intellectual property rights that you hold in that content. In short, what belongs to you stays yours.

When you upload or otherwise submit content to our Services, you give Google (and those we work with) a worldwide license to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works (such as those resulting from translations, adaptations or other changes we make so that your content works better with our Services), communicate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute such content. The rights you grant in this license are for the limited purpose of operating, promoting, and improving our Services, and to develop new ones. This license continues even if you stop using our Services (for example, for a business listing you have added to Google Maps). Some Services may offer you ways to access and remove content that has been provided to that Service. Also, in some of our Services, there are terms or settings that narrow the scope of our use of the content submitted in those Services. Make sure you have the necessary rights to grant us this license for any content that you submit to our Services.
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Google Apps for business is different. It involved a contract has confidentiality provisions & is generally akin to a commercial business services contract. A corporate lawyer is better placed to evaluate the terms of the contract with G in the context of their business.
 
DaleB said:
I have not really even looked at Google Docs or whatever it's called, for various reasons. But is there a local copy kept? Are you able to get full read/write access to all your stuff if you have no Internet access, like when you're on a commercial flight? If not, that alone would be a deal breaker for me.

As for the other reasons... OK, call me a Luddite. I'm perfectly willing to use the 'Net as a tool to connect me to where I want to connect. However, the concept of storing anything I value on remote anonymous servers over which I have no control, and that are run by a company whose only real motivation is to find new and unique ways to extract profit from it... no thanks. I'm not lacking in local hard drive space, nor in teeny little FLASH drives, nor strong encryption. Known security on my local machines: Pretty darned good. Known security with anyone else: Zip.
Click to expand...

You're confusing the free "Google Docs" with the "Google Apps for Business".

They're the same apps, but there are privacy provisions in the contracts, and the business pays a per-user fee every month for the privilege (so Google makes money without mining the data).
 
> VMS operating system. Yay DEC!

Damn kids. Get a real operating system. TOPS-10. Nobody will ever need more than a
36-bit wordsize.
 
> I don't see Google servers getting hacked.

Already happened. Multiple times. Both S3 and EC2.

Store nothing in the cloud that you are uncomfortable seeing painted
on the side of a bldg, along the main drag, in your hometown.
 
EMACS ... the only editor so obtuse that it tells you how to get out of it at startup when you accidentally end up there.

vi now ...

EVE and TPU on VMS back in the good old days ... yeah, augmented by lots of cool DECUS stuff

Poor DEC ... another elephant devoured by mice

for those times when I had to rescue WordPerfect documents on a PC-MOS system when the o/s lost its mind (at least once a week), Norton Editor in binary mode to put the scattered blocks back together into the "I can't afford to lose that document" document.
 
Last edited:
Oh come on now:

Recording text: a fine goose quill on parchment.

Editing text: recopy page on a new sheet of parchment, omitting the error.

And we had it good. My dad had to use a chisel on slate, after he quarried the slate . . . and forged the chisel over an open fire made from buffalo chips while warding off sabre-toothed tigers with a club.:yesnod:
 
wsuffa said:
This is a key reason that I won't use Office Docs on a personal basis:
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I use Google Docs to manage my checkbook, bills, etc. I do NOT store logins, passwords, cc numbers, or other data of interest to identity thieves on Google Docs. I subscribe to an analogue to the "Big Sky" theory of flying. "Big User Base" means, to me, that the only fear I have is that an anonymous and uncaring computer may use my docs to 1) target ads to me, and 2) perform other generalized demographic analyses. I already run my private mail servers through Gmail and have already agreed to that. For me, that is the price of the service and it is a price I am willing to pay. YMMV.
 
JeffDG said:
You're confusing the free "Google Docs" with the "Google Apps for Business".

They're the same apps, but there are privacy provisions in the contracts, and the business pays a per-user fee every month for the privilege (so Google makes money without mining the data).
Click to expand...
I'm not confusing them... in short, I don't care about either one, for pretty much the same reasons. I trust me with my stuff. I don't trust them (regardless of who the "them" may be on any given day) with my stuff, regardless of whether or not I'm paying them.
 
l8evator said:
Oh come on now:

Recording text: a fine goose quill on parchment.

Editing text: recopy page on a new sheet of parchment, omitting the error.

And we had it good. My dad had to use a chisel on slate, after he quarried the slate . . . and forged the chisel over an open fire made from buffalo chips while warding off sabre-toothed tigers with a club.:yesnod:
Click to expand...

Time for the Medieval Helpdesk video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFAWR6hzZek
 
rainsux said:
> VMS operating system. Yay DEC!

Damn kids. Get a real operating system. TOPS-10. Nobody will ever need more than a
36-bit wordsize.
Click to expand...

OK. How about CRBE or JCL on an IBM 360/67? VMS was over 10 years later in my programming life. :D
 
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