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UC Berkeley chooses Google apps over office 365 based on this analysis

technology.berkeley.edu

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Re: UC Berkeley chooses Google apps over office 365 based on this analysis

#31

Post by rbanffy »

tikhonj wrote: post #24
redwood wrote: post #8

Glad to see Cal quitting MSFT. Perhaps they're looking for a donation from Schmidt (alum). Gates hasn't given to Berkeley afaik while he has to Stanford. Yes I acknowledge this is a cynical perspective but perhaps makes sense considering public universities are so strapped for cash while privates keep on getting donations.

On the other hand, they just signed a contract providing Microsoft licenses to all the students, which is unfortunate. Earlier they did the same with Adobe. This is their solution to lowering costs--lets provide Microsoft and Adobe products to everybody! I, naturally, disapprove, but that has never mattered...

Their students are smart. The'll figure out there are better solutions.

And having seen how not to do it is also an invaluable lesson. ;-)

(Burn, karma, burn)

Re: UC Berkeley chooses Google apps over office 365 based on this analysis

#32

Post by mbreese »

At least they aren't doing what Indiana University did - use both and let the students decide which system they want to use. Now they can choose between Imail (Microsoft) or Umail (Gmail). But on the administration side, IU is still pretty much a Microsoft shop though with the faculty having an Exchange setup.

Re: UC Berkeley chooses Google apps over office 365 based on this analysis

#33

Post by Andrex »

tldrtldr wrote: post #17

I think they got it wrong, Google offerings SUCK (REALLY BAD) when it comes to collaboration. In a large organization like UCB, I wonder why they don't use any collab tools? "Both Google/Microsoft offerings were NOT reviewed" "These applications were not extensively reviewed during this process, but are already used in other departments for teaching and learning purposes." "Office 365 comes with its Office online app…

Isn't Gmail white boarding the same thing as Google Docs Drawings? Except Drawings are vector-based, obviously.

Re: UC Berkeley chooses Google apps over office 365 based on this analysis

#34

Post by deserted »

tonfa wrote: post #25
furyg3 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who makes these devices?

Googlers? Edit: maybe that? http://code.google.com/p/radishdisplay/

Actually that's the code for an older 20% project:

http://code.google.com/apis/gdata/articles/radish.html

Re: UC Berkeley chooses Google apps over office 365 based on this analysis

#35

Post by tikhonj »

rbanffy wrote: post #31
tikhonj wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the other hand, they just signed a contract providing Microsoft licenses to all the students, which is unfortunate. Earlier they did the same with Adobe. This is their solution to lowering costs--lets provide Microsoft and Adobe products to everybody! I, naturally, disapprove, but that has never mattered...

Their students are smart. The'll figure out there are better solutions. And having seen how not to do it is also an invaluable lesson. ;-) (Burn, karma, burn)

I don't think most of the people taking, say, a class on Nabokov will complain much about needing Microsoft Word. In fact, I suspect the only inconvenienced person will be the lone EECS major using Linux (me :)).

As long as professors want hard copies, it won't be an issue. (Using MLA format with LaTeX is really, really easy.) However, some do expect digital copies for whatever reason. I've seen them ask for docs uploaded to the internal class website system, which is itself pretty horrible. I just hope I don't have to deal with it--even opening LibreOffice is more annoying than one could hope.

Re: UC Berkeley chooses Google apps over office 365 based on this analysis

#37

Post by rbanffy »

tikhonj wrote: post #35
rbanffy wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their students are smart. The'll figure out there are better solutions. And having seen how not to do it is also an invaluable lesson. ;-) (Burn, karma, burn)

I don't think most of the people taking, say, a class on Nabokov will complain much about needing Microsoft Word. In fact, I suspect the only inconvenienced person will be the lone EECS major using Linux (me :)). As long as professors want hard copies, it won't be an issue. (Using MLA format with LaTeX is really, really easy.) However, some do expect digital copies for whatever reason. I've seen them ask for docs upl…

It could be worse. The class website could be a Sharepoint portal.

Re: UC Berkeley chooses Google apps over office 365 based on this analysis

#38

Post by ig1 »

richardburton wrote: post #36

I am Google Apps addict but they still don't have a web-based Excel-killer. I think that when bankers and corporates start using Google apps to build their financial models then Microsoft should worry.

Even for startup business modelling I'd rather use a fifteen year old version of Lotus 1-2-3 than Google Apps. Their spreadsheet is definitely a second-tier product.

Re: UC Berkeley chooses Google apps over office 365 based on this analysis

#39

Post by centur »

Huh, there is some points to check : Points 2.Location of Data 3.Data Management and Transfer

have exact same description (copy-pasted?) but have different advantage results.

For 2.Location of Data advantage goes to "Microsoft (slight). Google has more qualifications on U.S. data storage obligation in minor respects."

For 3.Data Management and Transfer it suddenly become "Draw"

Re: UC Berkeley chooses Google apps over office 365 based on this analysis

#40

Post by moontear »

The "analysis" seems to be strongly favoring Google products in the Email/Calendar Cloud/Local Solution section.

- Integration with Collaboration Tools: SharePoint Online is all about collaboration. As they want to continue using Microsoft Office, there is no better way (at the moment) than SharePoint. Google's cloud connect Add-In for Office is the first try at this, but it is still rather ugly (who wants a large bar on all documents, what about using the ribbon?) They also misspelled Lync, which is the Google Talk of Microsoft, goes much further than GTalk and integrates in ALL Office applications. You can chat with the people currently editing the same document you are editing on your local computer.

- Ease of Tools Development: "Google has a more robust and documented API" - NO, simply not true. "aligned with the skillsets on campus" is a valid argument. But saying it is easier to develop for Google products than for the MS stack is a stretch.

- User Familiarity: They say, that they use MS Office. Familiarity therefore is high with Office 365.

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