I've been banging away on an ancient, Windows 98, no-name PC for years. Of course, I suffer the same problems as anyone who runs an old machine. I just bought a new HP multi-function printer/scanner/copier, and in attempting to install it, discovered my PC didn't have enough RAM to run the software. There wasn't even a notice on the box about how much RAM was required, I think they just assumed that anybody with a computer as old as mine probably wouldn't be buying new printers anyway. Besides the printer difficulty, I also occasionally come across cool software I want to install, but of course, discover that it doesn't like Win98. Granted, it's an old machine. If it were a car, it would have tailfins. My wife finally got tired of seeing me growl at my computer, and this Valentine's Day rewarded me with a brand-new Toshiba notebook running Windows Vista. 

The notebook comes with a 30-day trial version of Microsoft Office. Now I do have a copy of Office 97 already, but suppose I will have to break down and spring for the new version after my 30-day trial's over. There are, of course, alternatives. Google announced a subscription-based version of the Google Apps service for businesses. Costing $50 a year, the Google Apps Premier Edition includes some extra goodies like more storage, phone support, and the Google Docs and Spreadsheets applications. The Standard edition is still free. In the Google Docs wordprocessing application, several people can work on a document at the same time, and there's version control -- a feature that's great for people in the publishing business.

Google's own blog describes some of the new functionality of Google Apps (http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/02/google-apps-grows-up.html), including partner solutions, so third parties will be able to layer even more features on top of Google Apps. Still, although these are useful features, it's not something most people need. Although I could see using Google Apps for a large publishing project, it's not going to completely replace Microsoft Office. Google Apps isn't really a serious competitor to Microsoft Office, despite what some others may think -- but more of a supplement, useful in certain niche areas. Some people of course, think otherwise, and while the future may be software-as-a-service, that future is not here now. Rafe Needleman's blog on CNet (http://news.com.com/2061-10812_3-6161411.html) points out that there's really no comparison -- Google Apps is still nowhere near having the functionality of Microsoft Office. It doesn't have a presentation program like Powerpoint, and you can't exchange data between the word processor and the spreadsheet.

Although there is a lot of excited chatter in the online world about how Google Apps is going to eat Microsoft's lunch, it's just not going to happen. The ZDNet blog (http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=4549) calls Google Apps a "completely different beast," but still won't replace, and isn't intended to replace, Office. Of course, the biggest drawback is that it's strictly online, which isn't practical at all for people who want to work on documents offline, or for people that still have dial-up connections.