Microsoft's Excel Program

Killer Joe

Killer Joe

New member
Since When have PC's not included Excel in their basic package? We bought a Dell last month and damn if I can't find the disk with Excel on it. I LOVE Excel way better than Word. Fortunately a guy I know has a legimate unused Excel desk and he'll give it to me, I hope :rolleyes:
 
turgy22

turgy22

Nothing Special
It's usually included in the Microsoft Office package, which contains Word, Excel, Outlook, etc. I ordered a Dell for work a little while ago and I know that MS Office is now optional on all machines, so you have to make sure and select it when ordering, so if you kind of breezed through all the "customize my PC" options, you might have missed it.

I just checked and the default (at least for some computers) is MS Works 8, which doesn't even include Word. Upgrading to basic Office is $149 extra and $279 for the small business edition (includes Powerpoint and MS Publisher). My guess is that you just skipped the option, but if you kept your order, you should check. If MS Office is selected, you should call Dell and tell them you never received it. Otherwise, you can go to Best Buy or Staples or anyplace else and pick up a copy of MS Office for around $200. But if you can get a legit copy for free, that's fine, too.

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S

Spiderman

Administrator
Staff member
Yeah, our eMachines computer has Office on it, but you have to call and get an activation number or some sort. You do get a 60 day trial period though.
 
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Nightstalkers

Guest
Usually you'll get a copy of the basics with a new PC. If I recall there was a big lawsuit against Microsoft for bundling Office with new computers. But they do usually give you a defective copy of Excel that they call "Microsoft Spreadsheet."

But usually you can pick up Excel for around $200 bundled with one of the office products or you can always torrent a copy.


"Yar Har Fiddle De Dee, Bein' A Pirate Is So Good To Be"
 
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EricBess

Guest
No, Office has never consistently been bundled on every computer. I've bought computers that didn't even have Word installed. There were plenty of lawsuits about Microsoft products being automatically bundled. The biggest were probably because of Word and Explorer. Microsoft was ordered not to bundle Explorer, but they basically ignored it since it was tied so closely to the operating system.

Actually, that's not quite true. They were actually ordered to have multiple versions of the operating system if they wanted to bundle and at least one version had to be the "basic" version without any extras.

The reasons were anti-trust (monopoly) laws. There were also issues with Microsoft not publishing system call information, which made it impossible for competitors' product to run as fast. WordPerfect was effectively put out of business because of this (they were bought by Corel, and I'm not sure if Corel is still around).

But the main reason everyone got a PC instead of a Mac was because Mac never released ANY of their operating system information and charged software providers a lot of money for the codes that were needed to develop. PC, on the other hand, made all of that information free.

Mac has historically been a faster, better computer, but most software developers didn't want to pay the royalties, so they developed for PC instead. If it wasn't for the increased speed, Apple probably would have gone out of business, but they attracted a niche group who wanted the extra processing power for music and graphics development (relatively few games were released for Mac).

Even now that Apple has relaxed their stance, it's typically artistic types who have become used to Apple and stick by their choice of computers.
 
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Nightstalkers

Guest
What I find wrong with Mac gaming is that there are few games released, the games tend to stay at a higher price longer than that of the PC games, and even if you do find the Mac games cheaper, it's relatively simple for you to convert the Mac coded games over to usage with PCs.

And I don't care how much you people scoff at the idea of Mac games running on a full fledged PC, I do it. I have Mac versions of Quake 3 Arena, The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion, Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2, and many others that only took a small patch to convert to PC.

I personally am pissed about the Mac commercials showing the PC having severe drawbacks as compared to a Mac. The PC can run as fast as a Mac now that they have the Intel chip Mac computers (don't believe me? I've seen it). The PC can run more programs than a Mac, have more games than a mac, and you can edit just about everything about a PC to your whims as opposed to a Mac.

But then again, to me a Mac is the Rolex or iPod (iPuddles lol) of computers.
 
Mooseman

Mooseman

Isengar Tussle
What I meant was that a lot of people "share" PC software instead of buying their own copy. This has been my experience. Since there are less Mac users, it is harder to find that software to "share".
 
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mythosx

Guest
the mac is simpler to use than a pc and it works more efficiently. those are the advantages of macs.
 
Oversoul

Oversoul

The Tentacled One
Mooseman said:
What I meant was that a lot of people "share" PC software instead of buying their own copy.
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This concept is totally alien to me and sounds illegal. I'm sure it is something I would never do.
 
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EricBess

Guest
Nightstalkers said:
I personally am pissed about the Mac commercials showing the PC having severe drawbacks as compared to a Mac. The PC can run as fast as a Mac now that they have the Intel chip Mac computers (don't believe me? I've seen it). The PC can run more programs than a Mac, have more games than a mac, and you can edit just about everything about a PC to your whims as opposed to a Mac.

But then again, to me a Mac is the Rolex or iPod (iPuddles lol) of computers.
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Historically, Macs have always had faster processors than the PC. It has only been recently that the PC has caught up and not long ago, the Mac released a new processor that once again leaves the PC in the dust.

But guess what? None of that matters anymore because processor speeds are now fast enough that the extra speed is often going to go unnoticed because even with the most processor-intensive programs, the bottle-neck is often still the user.

And again, the biggest problem Mac has is what you pointed out - no one wants to develop for them. Historically, it was because they had to pay too much to do so, and now it's because they don't think enough people will buy their software.

For the record - I own PCs. But I also understand why people who are into art prefer Macs.
 
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BigBlue

Guest
How does a discussion about Excel become a Mac vs PC arguement... :) only at the CPA....

You are getting to the crux of the problem for Mac...

1) It cost more to develop for Mac users - due to Apples insane thinking that people will pay a premium for their machine because they are better... Wrong... Even if they were twice the machine, hell, even 3 times the machine... it's all about economy...

2) Since they have such a small percentage of the market... a developer can't afford to spend a fortune porting to the Mac... Hell, it's sort of sick, but if Microsoft hadn't developed a version of Office for the Mac... I think they would have folded a long time ago... they need more than just the fringe artist buying to sustain themselves...

I watched an excellent program on PBS by Bob Kringley a few years ago... It pretty much explained (not in black and white) why PC's won the market.

For those of you too young to remember the days before PC's... There were several small companies making Personal Computers (not what is now thought of as Intel PC). Apple, Tandy (Radio Shack), and IBM were pretty much the big 3. IBM developed the PC and PCjr... but, they made a crucial mistake when it came to their relationship with Microsoft. Bill Gates is a very savvy dude... IBM contracted with his young company to make a basic interpreter - because IBM figured EVERY PC should have a programming language to make it useful (and marketable)...

Well, M$ wrote QBasic for DOS... IBM needed to get DOS (Disk Operating System) for their machines... But the company who wrote it, for whatever reason wouldn't sign the non-disclosure agreement. IBM went back to Gates and said, no deal... no OS, no Interpreter, we'll find it elsewhere... Gates said - We'll write an OS for you... They reverse engineered DOS... it was virtually identical to the one by the other company... Then, in the biggest pulling the wool over the eyes in corporate history... they "Licensed" their software to IBM... They didn't sell it to them and they didn't exclusively license it either....

IBM brings their PC & PCjr to market... Their prices were pretty comparable to Apples at the time (if I recall correctly around 3 to 5 thousand dollars for a PC.) They sold a few, and the market was pretty even... Maybe even Tandy had a slight edge because they were lower priced by a bit...

Then, out of the blue... someone realized that the PC could be duplicated... And better than that, people could purchase the same OS as IBM... So, the "PC Clone" entered the marketplace... an early one I remember is Franklin... Anywho... These clones were selling for half the cost of IBM's PC... They started to bark at M$... but M$ showed them they didn't buy DOS, only licensed it... thus, businesses started buying clones by the handful... because they were much cheaper than other options... M$ wrote Word & Excel around the same time we had Wordperfect and Lotus123... Then they started the whole bundling thing... and 20+ years later, we have the market of today... IBM has never been able to compete in the PC market, they tried several times... worked with M$ to develop their own "OS/2" which was actually better than DOS - and in some regards, better than Windows (it was GUI). But, the damage had been done... Mac meanwhile stumbled along, with no clones because it was all developed internally and proprietary...

Anywho... that's a bit of perspective for those who haven't heard this before. I'm sure theres a much better wikipedia article somewhere on this...

Oh, and for those who wonder about the rival OS company... it's gone as far as I know... But they did market DR-DOS in the early days of PCs... before Windows 95 came out...
 
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Nightstalkers

Guest
Well, that's the thing.... People think macs are faster and all that and that's better... but you don't just throttle up your planet skipper to max after pointing it at a planet. From my experience programs are either not made for the tremendous power of the chip so they don't take advantage of the speed and they are primarily bottle necked at other points such as the user, the RAM, or even the GPU.

And.... Mac Vs. PC stuff comes up whenever someone even mentions macs in a topic.... happens all the time.
 
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