I have been Liberated - the Mac switch is done. Microsoft officially sucks.

A quick post to hereby declare my Apple Fanboy status. After much deliberation, thought, and planning - I have made the 100% switch to Mac.

I can't really put into words how much I love this new MacBook - the trackpad is just fantastic. Until you use one and see your productivity skyrocket you can't fully understand.

One hiccup during the switch that I must say was most irritating, and I do apologize to the CSR @ Microsoft I probably made cry last week, was that Microsoft Entourage isn't compatible with Microsoft Outlook. I am not kidding - you cannot import your inbox/sent items .pst file to Microsofts very own product on the Mac. They provide no conversion tool, you are just SOL. There is a complicated and time consuming method of importing to Thunderbird then exporting to a Mac friendly format - but if (like me) you live inside your PST file, I strongly suggest paying the 10$ for O2M - this software from LittleMachines did exactly what it was supposed to do and converted my entire .pst folder to mBox.

Apple isn't perfect, but compared to Microsoft - they are in a league of their own.

Live Documents - without the Microsoft Price Tag!

A gentlemen by the name of Sabeer Bhatia (would love to meet this guy sometime), has fired a shot across the bow of Microsoft's stranglehold on the Office workspace. If the name rings a bell, you would be correct in remembering Mr. Bhatia as the creator behind Hotmail, Microsofts free email service. Live Documents is another of Mr. Bhatia's creations and from the outside (I haven't got my beta invitation yet.. grr. apparently they were swamped with applications yesterday) looks unbelievalby cool. It essentially provides shared desktop/web document collaboration (think Google Doc's but actually usable for business) updating and a web based version of Office 2007. This is a big deal, smaller teams will snatch this service up in a heartbeat - and if it is scalable and secure larger companies will follow suit. If you only have to install a toolbar in Office and suddenly can create/share and collaborate on documents for free! it is a no brainer.

The Live Documents team is based out of the IT wonderland of India - looking at the About Us section on the website you can find this little gem..

Statutory Disclaimer: While our products are built primarily around the Microsoft Office suite, Microsoft Corporation was not involved in any way in the development of these solutions and does not endorse them in any formal way. Please see our IP Disclaimer for more information.
(Note: That said, since Sabeer Bhatia is a co-founder, a very small part of the millions that he received from Microsoft for Hotmail.com funded our development efforts - so thank you Microsoft!).

Note to the Live Documents team.. get me in the beta :) hurry...