I don't know if I use any MS stuff in my day to day life anymore. I don't have Windows, but more importantly I don't use office. I do all my office related work on Google Docs. With that out of the way and being on the Ruby stack I don't have any real need for MS apps.
Matt Cutts 30 day challenge for October: No Microsoft Software
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Re: Matt Cutts 30 day challenge for October: No Microsoft Software
#32What about no Windows CE? You wouldn't be able to use many ATMs
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Re: Matt Cutts 30 day challenge for October: No Microsoft Software
#33What I find interesting is how incredibly easy it is to do this. I use Microsoft products maybe once or twice a month, almost exclusively for testing (or opening up the occasional Excel file, but that's just because I haven't yet bothered to install OpenOffice on my Mac). I don't even go out of my way to avoid Microsoft software, their products simply don't provide anything that I need.
Yea seriously, if you don't use windows it's not that tough. I'm a student using mac and haven't touched word this year yet, and that's about the only Microsoft app I can even use. Mac comes with text edit, calculator, even vim and bash. Great 'cause the environment is so similar to my Linux server.
Where Microsoft gets you is with advanced uses. People with sophisticated macros, vbscript, corporate workflows integrated with some Outlook feature -- these are the reasons why M$ is entrenched.
Re: Matt Cutts 30 day challenge for October: No Microsoft Software
#34Although his challenge is no software I don't get why he wont ditch his MS keyboard. There are plenty of nice keyboards out there they are not expensive so making the switch seems like a worthwhile thing to do.
In general, Microsoft hardware does a lot better with standards compliance than their software.
Re: Matt Cutts 30 day challenge for October: No Microsoft Software
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's been three years for me. Still not over.
You're no longer chemically addicted, but you're still fighting the habit you've formed. Some people are chemically dependant, some smoke through habit, most are a combination of both. Knowing which applies to you can really help you quit and there's questionnaires that can pinpoint which you are. Sample questions: Do you smoke a cigarette when you wake up? (low nicotine in the blood) Do you smoke after a meal? (forc…
I strongly suspect that I am (was) a lot of both. I also strongly suspect that the distinction is hard to make.
I smoked to wake up, to go to sleep, to be alert, to relax, to suppress hunger, to get an appetite to think, to take a break or to sooth the lonesome heart. I really loved smoking. Still dream I'm smoking (and feel guilty) about once a week.
Re: Matt Cutts 30 day challenge for October: No Microsoft Software
#36What about no Windows CE? You wouldn't be able to use many ATMs
Also a lot of POS (Point of Sale) software runs on windows. So no overpriced Starbucks coffee for 30 days.
Re: Matt Cutts 30 day challenge for October: No Microsoft Software
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
Search: I can use Bing or Yahoo, no problem here. Mail: gmail is integrated deeply into my workflow. Hard to live without it. Money: Adsense pays for my hosting bill so can't drop them, besides there is no worthy competitor with Adsense (for small blogs) Analytics: Google's product is great and free but i would be very happy to try some alternative. Docs: don't use google docs a lot. Not important. Calendar: I have t…
I can use Bing or Yahoo, no problem here. I tried using Bing for a month. I lasted about 48 hours. One problem was that Google dominates Bing for technical searches and searches in Japanese, both of which are sort of important to me. A bigger problem was that my fingers will type www.google.com into my URL bar without me even asking them to any time I have a question about something. (In browser search box, what's th…
I am using ctrl+l on chrome, so 2 keystrokes to get to a search 73,000 key presses (asides from search terms + enter) if I am doing 10 searches a day for 10 years.
If you are using the mouse to get to the location bar that's an insane time delay, but if you are using ctrl+l then typing "www.google.com" you are at something like 584,000 over the same 10 per day for 10 years period. That's an entire novel of "www.google.comwww.google.comwww.google.comwww.google.comwww.google.com", plus the time spent typing and the time for the extra unneeded page load. Think hard about changing to ctrl+k on firefox or ctrl+l on chrome (or ctrl+l plus "g" hotword on firefox if you got rid of the searchbar).
Re: Matt Cutts 30 day challenge for October: No Microsoft Software
#38Having not used any MS software for years outside of work and occasional troubleshooting for friends, this just doesn't seem like a big deal to me. Familiarity breeds contempt, I suppose, but for someone who could even consider doing this (i.e., no vital Windows-only applications, no PC gaming, etc.), I can't imagine it making much of a difference. If my day job didn't involve .NET, I'd never touch MS software and wo…
> Is it just that I've gotten unusually lucky in my experiences with Ubuntu or something?
I don't think so. I made the transition from Windows XP to Ubuntu earlier this year and it was surprisingly painless. In fact, the main thing I noticed is that most of the things I do with a computer actually got considerably easier in a Linux environment.
Re: Matt Cutts 30 day challenge for October: No Microsoft Software
#39Challenge for November: No Google Software. That's where I'd have trouble.
MS is not a problem. I rarely use it now but Google I could not avoid. Gmail, Reader, Calendar, Docs etc etc etc
Re: Matt Cutts 30 day challenge for October: No Microsoft Software
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can use Bing or Yahoo, no problem here. I tried using Bing for a month. I lasted about 48 hours. One problem was that Google dominates Bing for technical searches and searches in Japanese, both of which are sort of important to me. A bigger problem was that my fingers will type www.google.com into my URL bar without me even asking them to any time I have a question about something. (In browser search box, what's th…
I am using ctrl+l on chrome, so 2 keystrokes to get to a search 73,000 key presses (asides from search terms + enter) if I am doing 10 searches a day for 10 years. If you are using the mouse to get to the location bar that's an insane time delay, but if you are using ctrl+l then typing "www.google.com" you are at something like 584,000 over the same 10 per day for 10 years period. That's an entire novel of "www.googl…
the dropdown suggestion bar will reduce the 584,000 somewhat