And they had Skype, which was practically a genericized trademark for "video call--" until first Apple's FaceTime and then Zoom utterly took them apart.

And they had Office, which defined the product category so completely that it's called "office software--" but then Google Docs took them apart on a molecular level.

Microsoft is the king of snatching defeat from the clutching jaws of victory.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 24 points 12 hours ago (2 children)

but then Google Docs took them apart

Tapping the breaks on that one.

Google Docs is very lightweight, but it's also very stripped down. Word remains the first choice in word processors for 90% of the market. It (and Excel) are a big reason offices haven't seriously begun abandoning Microsoft.

[–] zarkanian@sh.itjust.works 3 points 6 hours ago

Tapping the breaks on that one.

You don't wanna do that. The whole thing could shatter!

[–] ilinamorato@lemmy.world 0 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago) (3 children)

I don't think that's the case, but I only have anecdotal evidence for that. I haven't ever worked at a company where Office was the preference, and the last three I've worked at didn't even offer it as a default. And I'm in my forties.

[–] firelizzard@programming.dev 1 points 2 hours ago

Virtually every company I’ve worked at used Office primarily. And by the looks of the other comments your experience seems to be atypical.

[–] ICastFist@programming.dev 5 points 9 hours ago

Many govt agencies around the world pay for Office 365 or similars. Where I work (govt health), some higher ups demand pro-level M$ office accounts. Those ain't cheap.

I suspect the vast majority of USA govt (state and federal), plus many European govts, pay a fortune for Office

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 12 points 11 hours ago

I haven’t ever worked at a company where Office was the preference,

I haven't worked at an office where it wasn't. And I've done years of consulting at Deloitte, so I've seen a few places.

[–] eatham@aussie.zone 4 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Google docs is far worse than office, in every way except for collaboration. It does not destroy them at all. LibreOffice is on par except for having no collaboration, but is not widely used so definitely haven't destroyed them. Office is still very successful and probably won't be gone anytime soon

[–] ICastFist@programming.dev 2 points 9 hours ago

Office is still very successful and probably won’t be gone anytime soon

Unfortunately for almost the entirety of the corporate world and govt bureaucracy.

[–] red_tomato@lemmy.world 13 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago) (1 children)

They also had Internet Explorer. When it was released it was actually good (compared to the competition). Internet Explorer was dominant, but then it turned into the punching bag of web browser memes.

[–] ilinamorato@lemmy.world 8 points 12 hours ago

I think that Microsoft is paralyzed by corporate culture. Everything needs to be signed off by multiple stakeholders, everything needs a dozen meetings before anyone can make a decision, and as a result the stuff that's "good enough" (read: still making money) languishes--or worse, becomes a dumping ground for whatever corporate pet project is exciting--until it's unacceptably awful, mired under decades of technical debt and spaghetti code fixes.

At least they have the sense to let the successful companies they acquire manage themselves. There's no AI in Minecraft, for instance.

[–] timestatic@feddit.org 4 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

And discord somehow took everyone from skype.

[–] ICastFist@programming.dev 2 points 9 hours ago

And from TeamSpeak.

[–] kilgore_trout@feddit.it 11 points 13 hours ago (2 children)

Microsoft acquired Skype, did not create it. Then destryed it with its own hands.

[–] socsa@piefed.social 6 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

It wasn't that they destroyed it, it was more that they let it bit rot. Skype was honestly never a great user experience by today's standards. The audio was bad, the connection was very unstable over mobile networks, and push notifications for calls was hit or miss. Microsoft acquired it, slapped a Microsoft login screen on it and then basically didn't do anything to improve it. Meanwhile, Google created and killed seventy different video calling apps, which all worked better than Skype, and Apple stuck the landing with FaceTime.

[–] zod000@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 6 hours ago

Actually, they didn't just let Skype rot, they changed a bunch of things on it for the worse IMO. Skype used to be peer to peer (I believe the name is literally supposed to be a combination of "sky" and "peer to peer"), MS took that away to funnel it all through Azure. They redesigned the UI multiple times trying to follow the trend of whatever new app became popular (one was clearly trying the be a knockoff Snapchat). They forced all users to create Microsoft accounts to keep using Skype.

Not all their changes were bad, they did finally make a Linux client, which after many years became stable enough to use.

[–] ilinamorato@lemmy.world 11 points 12 hours ago

They acquired practically everything they have. They haven't created anything truly new since the mid-90s.

[–] FizzyOrange@programming.dev 4 points 11 hours ago

which defined the product category so completely that it’s called “office software–”

Err, no it's called office software because it's software you use in an office. Microsoft didn't invent the word "office".

[–] driving_crooner@lemmy.eco.br 3 points 12 hours ago (3 children)

Is Google Docs as popular as Microsoft Office?

I work in finance/insurance and can't see a way to move away for Excel (there's still there spreadsheets with 10+ years still being used).

My wife's company uses GDocs, but they're do food research and barely uses those programs.

[–] socsa@piefed.social 1 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

This is because Microsoft intentionally breaks excel and PP compatibility with Google docs in small but important ways. It's the only thing keeping them afloat at this point. I have gotten into heated debates at work over this, because I prefer Google docs, but my boss will be like "we need to deliver this to customers who will open it in office and the formatting will break" and I'm like "that's what a pdf is for."

[–] Quill7513@slrpnk.net 1 points 8 hours ago

yup. anything you ship to anyone should be PDF regardless.

[–] ilinamorato@lemmy.world 1 points 12 hours ago

As far as I can tell, Google Docs is at feature-parity with Office, and yes, is incredibly popular. The contest might be a bit more even in the corporate space, but at the last three companies I've worked for, GSuite was the default and you had to ask for Office.

[–] eatham@aussie.zone 0 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

I would doubt it, it is nowhere near as good as office and google sheets specifically has much smaller worksheets than excel, with only 26 rows.

[–] OpenStars@piefed.social 2 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Do you mean... columns?

[–] lagoon8622@sh.itjust.works 0 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

But Google Sheets isn't limited to 26 rows, 26 columns, or 26 worksheets. Idk what GP was talking about. It's certainly limited but not to that extent

[–] OpenStars@piefed.social 1 points 6 hours ago

I wonder if it is more limited in certain contexts, such as on a mobile device (like on iOS? I don't have one to test).