As a consumer and professional journalist, I have basically been forced to buy software from one company, namely Microsoft.
Don't get me wrong, I don't dislike Bill Gates and acknowledge he is a marketing genius and has brought much good to the computing world.
However, I as millions of others, have always resented having to purchase the majority of my software from just one company.
I have also resented this company's licensing policy.
Here's an example of what I'm talking about.
Periodically, I erase my hard drive to get rid of all the countless extraneous programs that somehow have been downloaded onto my PC without my consent or knowledge.
When I recently performed this maintenance, I got a message from Microsoft that I could not reload my copy of Office because I had exceeded the number of installs allowed for the license.
It didn't matter to Microsoft that I had only used it on one computer and had only purchased it about a year ago.
No. The giant dictated that I must pay for it a second time!
This ripped me so badly that it caused me to begin exploring other options for my word processing, proposal and spreadsheet needs, as well as all of my computer needs.
After doing some researching on Google, to my delight I discovered the company's free Gmail document product, which includes a comprehensive and -- in my opinion -- more user-friendly and flexible product that offers all of Office's features and more!
Don't get me wrong, I don't dislike Bill Gates and acknowledge he is a marketing genius and has brought much good to the computing world.
However, I as millions of others, have always resented having to purchase the majority of my software from just one company.
I have also resented this company's licensing policy.
Here's an example of what I'm talking about.
Periodically, I erase my hard drive to get rid of all the countless extraneous programs that somehow have been downloaded onto my PC without my consent or knowledge.
When I recently performed this maintenance, I got a message from Microsoft that I could not reload my copy of Office because I had exceeded the number of installs allowed for the license.
It didn't matter to Microsoft that I had only used it on one computer and had only purchased it about a year ago.
No. The giant dictated that I must pay for it a second time!
This ripped me so badly that it caused me to begin exploring other options for my word processing, proposal and spreadsheet needs, as well as all of my computer needs.
After doing some researching on Google, to my delight I discovered the company's free Gmail document product, which includes a comprehensive and -- in my opinion -- more user-friendly and flexible product that offers all of Office's features and more!
Last edited:
