Let me tell you a little bit about my dad. He is a Project Manager and Estimator for an electrical firm here in town. He is an incredibly hard worker and highly intelligent. Anytime I need something fixed around the house he is there and knows how to fix it. He is in his mid 50's and likes technology but I wouldn't call him cutting edge by any standards. None of that really did him justice, but needless to say, I truly am blessed to have a dad like him.
Why do I tell you about my dad on Tech Thursday? Because this week I got my dad to check out Zoho. Zoho is on online Microsoft Office competitor plus other tools for free. It has a word, excel, powerpoint, and outlook product for free. Did I mention that it was free. Why is this important? Because Zoho has made it to where you only need a web browser. If you want to go offline then you can do that too. Just install Google Gears and you are set. Now you can open, edit, and save Office files, unless you are using Office 2007, right there on the web or offline and access these files from anywhere. I have been following Zoho now for over a year and a half. Their products rock and it seems like every week they are making them better. I like them so much that I subscribe to their blog. Their user interface or UI is very recognizable even for electricians who can't use Microsoft Office because it doesn't work with the Estimator program that they use. I will let you know how my dad is coping with cutting edge programs like Zoho. So far I haven't heard any complaints.
By the way, a new thing for me in 2008 is going to be seeing if I can use a PC but not use Microsoft. I can't wait to buy a computer and basically have nothing on it but Firefox and survive. That is going to be the day.
Anybody else using Zoho? What do you think?
December 13, 2007
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2 Responses to "Tech Thursday: Zoho"Sounds to me like you are ready for a mac. :-)
I kind of resent that comment Samuel... ;)
Good stuff Matt. I wasn't really familiar with Zoho, but I'll totally be checking it out. I have Office 2007 and love the changes, but I've honestly been using google documents more regularly. Why, because I can access them from anywhere and share them with anyone very easily. It seems like Zoho (along with google gears) has the great feature of taking the files offline. Very cool.
I'm actually planning a post in a week or so about what you've written... the fact that we're right around the corner from no longer having an "operating system" per se, but the web browser becoming our operating system.
Go for it dude... be Microsoft free (which doesn't automatically mean you have to be a mac-head)!
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