Office

Minimal Mac on Microsoft’s Biggest Miss:

You see, she said, missing all of the opportunities was just the start of a much deeper problem. Microsoft for many years had convinced the world that, in order to get “real work” done, you needed Office.

Since I was one of the few (like you, probably) who never believed that Office was the one indispensable app suite, I missed noticing this. But it makes sense.

To Mac die-hards in the ’90s, Microsoft was the black beast. “Redmond” might as well have been “Mordor” in hex. But that’s no longer true (as I have to keep reminding myself — mental habits die under protest), and now I find Microsoft utterly fascinating.

My company even uses Azure for our server side. Partly because our server guys know the platform, but also because I like diversity, even as a Cocoa developer and long-time Apple fan. (We use Google for email and in-house docs. And we use Macs, PCs, iPhones, iPads, Android, and Windows 7 phones.)

The biggest, happiest surprise — at least to me — to come out of Microsoft is the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. They are doing great and needed work.

I never thought I’d say, but I will say, that Bill Gates is a good and great man.