08/07/2006, 5:40pm, EDT
Monday, August 7th
Universal Mac Office, Messenger coming
The Macintosh Business Unit (Mac BU) of Microsoft today announced that it would offer a Universal version of its flagship MS Office productivity suite and Mac Messenger client. The company said it has made great strides in gradually transitioning to the new platform as Apple completes its transition to Intel-based Macs. The impact of the new architecture and operating system capabilities combined with the Mac BU's support of Mac OS tools and technologies has led the Mac BU to several product roadmap decisions aimed at providing Mac customers with solutions to meet their needs. "Tens of millions of lines of code have been 100 percent transitioned to Xcode on the road to a Universal version of Office for Mac," says the Mac BU.
"The Mac BU also will provide free, downloadable converters to allow users of current versions of Office for Mac to read the new Microsoft Office Open XML formats following the availability of Office for Windows," the company said.
Microsoft Messenger for Mac 6.0 is the first Universal application from the Mac BU, and will be available in late 2006. The software will deliver numerous new features which include federation for Messenger for Mac personal users with Yahoo! Messenger customers, customized emoticons, and spell checking. Additionally, users can display a personal message or the song they're listening to in iTunes.
Universal Remote Desktop Connection
A new, free, Universal version of the Remote Desktop Connection (RDC) Client for Mac is already under development that allows Mac users to access Windows-based computers on their network. The next version of RDC is planned as a fully supported free product.
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I use Visual Basic scripting extensively on Excel for my job. I'm going to have to look long and hard at using NeoOffice in the future. I sure hope it supports VB...
A beautiful illustration how formerly good programmers can become marginalized and mediocre. Pity.
Well done... NOT!
Except Apple's not known for making really great complex apps. The ones they have they've generally bought. I just don't see Apple coming up with an Excel killer with all the scripting people need in it (and even if they did, without Office compatibility, it may not help).
You might have well said the grass is blue and the sky is green.
I agree it is a management issue. They just won't let them complete these very simple additions. They are WAY too afraid of the interoperability.
Killing VB is likely the same issue. Why in the world would it be difficult? Unless microsoft is dropping VB across the board for something else and we just don't know that fact yet. Can you imagine if MS comes out with Vista and Vista Office which has a whole new scripting language?
(don't call people trolls. be nice.)