Soluto.com – Help others with their PCs

Posted on January 7, 2012 by Faisal Khan

Came across this website, whilst watching Robert Scoble’s video on his YouTube Channel. Soluto is a real cool web app that lets you help out others (family, friends, etc.) with their PC problems. It is a non-invasive, very easy to use web app. Much better than other apps for remote desktop assistance, where privacy is a huge concern.

IFRAME Embed for Youtube

Here is the soluto.com intro video as seen on their website.

Soluto Intro from Soluto on Vimeo.

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Ubuntu 11.10 – Oneiric Ocelot Review

Posted on October 17, 2011 by BitHacker

The newly released Ubuntu, version 11.10, code named Oneiric Ocelot (The Dreaming Leopard). This new release comes packed with new features and bug fixes that are long awaited. Unity has undergone a major overhaul and I have to say that, Unity is here to stay. As you know, this is the second appearance for Unityand it looks far more usable and ‘polished’ than all the previous versions. Other than Unity as a desktop environment, Gnome 3 has been adopted and we’ve moved on from the previous Gnome 2. It is really amazing how the Ubuntu team has been able to add all those desktop environments to this one release. You have the option to choose from Unity, and Unity 2D from the new and improved login screen.

Backgrounds

These are said to be the most beautiful backgrounds that have come to the Ubuntu Linux. The artwork / designers team should be applauded here for selecting such beautiful pictures. Default wallpaper and theme is the same, which of course gives you a sense of consistency. You can open the background themes by right clicking anywhere on the desktop and selecting Change Background.

Apart from selecting the background, you can also have the basic theme changed to your liking.

Like other changes, the ambience theme has also undergone some tweaking. The title bar, screen moving corners, selection and dialogs are very polished and look really good this time in 11.10.

Dashboard

The ‘Dash’ is pretty much the core of the Ubuntu desktop environment since the release of Ubuntu 11.04. Clicking on the Ubuntu Logo on the left bar, you can launch your favorite applications, find files, play your favorite music. Just start typing in the search box and your favorite application or even setting will pop up. Like other graphic improvements, the ‘Dash’ has a frosted glass effect and hi resolution icons. Major improvements have come in from the additional lenses (tabs) at the bottom of the dash. Through extensions, you can add more lenses to the dash ‘s functionality too. Applications tab will allow you to not only see your installed apps but also the ones that are available for download and use.

Then there is the Files tab, which gives you the most recent files that you opened, recent searches and a quick access to your home folders like Downloads and Documents. The music tab in the end allows you to browse through your music and lets you search for a song instantly. Add filters to this, and you get a customized dynamic search, which really improves the search results. Another improvement that you’d see is the fade in fade out effect on the global menus. You get a default global menu, that is when there is no application open. But, when you open an application and maximize it, It goes into full screen mode. Just like Mac OSX but only this functionality is used from the Ubuntu desktop. You move your cursor to the top left and from there you can see the application file menu.

The draw backs of not including the global drop down menus and file menus of this kind are that a user does not know what to do and where to go, if he/she has no idea about the application or what the application is called that he/she is looking for. But, once you’ve figured it out. You’ll really enjoy working in this environment. The no distraction, full screen application. That being said, we think that Unity still has a long way to go and requires a lot more improvements (evolution) for it to compete with the likes of Gnome or KDE.

Indicator Applets

On the top right, you have the applications that we call, indicator applets. These applets also have gone under some tweaking for them to work with the GTK3. On far right is the power menu.

It gives you all the access to the basic requirements like the system settings, display settings, your startup applications and software update. Another improvement is that it shows you the currently attached devices too, with access to other stuff like Printers and Scanners, within the range of a single click. The Shut Down, hibernate and Log Out menu are also in this power menu. Next up is the user menu which effectively allows you to change a user, change your user accounts as well as your online accounts like Google, etc.

Calendar and Sound Menu remain the same. The network applet has one change where it now shows you the ID of current network device that you are using to connect to the network.

Probably the very first of its kind feature in any operating system which tell you about your associated network devices right within the network manager.

Applications

Like the previous versions of Ubuntu, this release also comes with default pre-installed applications that will cater to your basic needs. They’ve made some changes with the recent releases. We did install some other applications like VLC media player and Chrome browser. But, Ubuntu 11.10 comes with Firefox 7 for browsing and thunderbird 7 for your email. Keeping in mind that thunderbird is a cross platform application and many users already have access to it in their Widows Operating System. Other applications include the Libre Office 3 which is a comprehensive alternative to Microsoft Office. Then we have banshee media player and shotwell photo manager for all your basic photo browsing needs. A quick mention of the Alt+Tab changes. It gives you a quick preview of the application that you are running and also if you have two windows of same application open, it will allow you to preview those too and select between them.

Ubuntu Software Center

This is one of the major improvements in this release of Ubuntu Linux. This major overhaul has made it prettier and more accessible than ever before. Opening the Software Center will definitely give you the look and feel of other software centers like iPhone appstore. There are top rated application, which of course are rated by the Ubuntu Linux users with their reviews too.

This really helps a new user to help install a new application. You can also write a review for an application after installing it to your computer. Open it and you’ll find yourself delved into the sea of really awesome applications.

Ubuntu One

Some nice improvements here too. It is a 5GB free cloud storage system, free for all Ubuntu Linux users. You can also purchase extra space if you want to. It allows you to sync your notes, contacts, documents and anything that you want it to. With a Windows version available, this is a really handy addition to the cloud storage application that have come to Ubuntu Linux.

Verdict

As far as the performance is concerned, this is by far the fastest Ubuntu Linux operating system ever. Login and log out time is much much faster. Boot time has also decreased drastically. This is the most polished release ever by canonical as a lot of bugs have been removed from the previous two releases. I won’t be wrong if I say that from looks and the usability, this is really very closer to the Mac OSx, not to mention Ubuntu is the most developed and refined operating system in the world today. Much more stable and much more coherent, a simple desktop operating system for every user out there.

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How to Download and Install GIMP on your Computer

Posted on September 28, 2011 by BitHacker

A GNU Image Manipulation program, also known as GIMP is a versatile graphics manipulation package. It can be considered as a free alternative to Adobe’s Photoshop as you’ll find almost everything necessary for a basic image editing right inside this software. Main features of GIMP include photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. As a multipurpose image editing program, not only it can be used as a simple image converter but also for an expert quality photo retouching program too. GIMP is available for many operating systems including Windows, Mac OSX and Linux and has the support for many languages.

GIMP supports many file formats, the support ranges from the common file types likes JPEG (JFIF), GIF, PNG, TIFF to special use formats such as the multi-resolution and multi-color-depth Windows icon files. The architecture of GIMP allows it to extend these capabilities with a plugin. Different plugins can be found in the GIMP plugin registry. GIMP also allows you to load and save files from different locations such as FTP, HTTP or even a Microsoft Shares Directory.

To install GIMP on your Windows OS, Click here to download and install.

To install GIMP on your Mac, follow the instructions on this website.

To install Gimp on your Linux operating system (Ubuntu based) open Terminal (Press Alt+F2 and type: gnome-terminal) and copy the following commands in the Terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:matthaeus123/mrw-gimp-svn
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install gimp

New to GIMP? You can follow different tutorials, ranging from beginner to the expert level on this official website.

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Organize Appointments and To-Do Lists with a Stylish Desktop Calendar

Posted on September 12, 2011 by ShaikhRafia

If you’re looking for some Windows app that could let you organize your to-do lists, help you keep things manageable and schedule your routine than here is the solution. DesktopCal is a free calendar app for your Windows desktop. DesktopCal promises to help you manage appointments, to-do lists, schedules and much more.

DesktopCal is one overlaying calendar app that provides you with the facilities of organizing your files, folder according to the calendar dates. This app either uses your current wallpaper or takes multiple pictures from the specified folder and runs a slideshow for your wallpaper.

It is a pretty simple calendar app that blends into your desktop, is less obtrusive and very convenient to use as it doesn’t block the access to your desktop icons. DesktopCal takes half of your desktop space by default but you can change the size at any time according to your convenience and need. Apart from the size, you can adjust the size and months, week views to be displayed as personal ease and suitability.

Right click on the DesktopCal from the system tray to open the Desktop Calendar’s administrative options.

Whenever on a busy day you want to add a reminder note or schedule your routine, just double click on the date box and enter your text to add a to-do list. It quickly lets you jump into the future dates to add the reminders and to-do lists. DesktopCal is a rather flexible application as it doesn’t permanently stick to your desktop and be exited at any time and opened from the system tray again.

Right click on the floating button on top of the calendar to switch between dates, week, months and wallpapers.

In Administrative options, choose the Display tab to adjust transparency, background color of the calendar, rows for displaying weeks and months, etc.

Picture tab lets you add the pictures to be run in a loop as your desktop background. Capture from Desktop allows you to use the current wallpaper.

Manage to-do lists

Advanced tab gives you options for auto-start with Windows, language selection, etc.

The highlights of DesktopCal are Muliti-language support, quick double click access to adding reminders, and a rotating wallpaper for your desktop.

DesktopCal works on Windows Vista, 7 and XP. Have fun with the wallpapers while managing your schedule, setting appointments or adding to-do lists.

Snapshot source: DesktopCAL

Download DesktopCal

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How to set Windows as default Operating System in Linux Grub Menu

Posted on September 5, 2011 by BitHacker

GRUB (short for GNU GRand Unified Bootloader) is a boot loader package from the GNU Project. GRUB is the reference implementation of the Multiboot bootloader program that allows you to select from different operating systems installed on your computer, in order to boot any one of them. If you followed our previous article of ‘How to install Ubuntu Linux on your computer’, you’d have noticed that Ubuntu installs a menu that shows up at the start, when you turn your computer on.

This menu has set ‘Ubuntu’ as default operating system with a time out of 10 seconds. Which means that if you don’t do anything (select any other OS by pressing up/down arrow keys), it will boot you into Ubuntu Linux. If in any case you want ‘Windows’ to be your default operating system, then follow the steps below.

What you need?

A program called startup manager. This small program will allow you to select your default operating system. With this, you can also tweak some other setting like, changing the time out and resolution of the boot menu.

Install Startup Manager

To install startup manager, go to Applications > ‘Ubuntu Software Center’.

Type ‘startup’ without quotes in the search box and you’ll be shown the ‘Startup Manager’ application. Just click on it and press ‘Install’

Enter the ‘user password’ when prompted, and you’re application will be installed in your computer.

Opening ‘Startup Manager’ and changing boot menu

Go to System > Administration > and select ‘Startup-Manager’

It will analyze your system and then you’ll be shown the program screen

Just select your operating system from the drop down menu of ‘Default Operating System’, you can also change the resolution and the ‘time out’ in seconds too.

Restart your computer and you’ll see ‘Windows’ set as default OS in GRUB menu.

Manual Editing

Since the release of Grub2. The configuration entry for GRUB menu is no more in ‘menu.lst’. It has now shifted to ‘grub.cfg’ file.

Open it with your favorite text editor by the following command and entering the ‘user password’,

:~$ sudo gedit /boot/grub/grub.cfg

Select the Windows entry (you can find it by Ctrl+F, you can see that ‘Windows’ is highlighted) and cut/paste it above the ‘Ubuntu’ entry. Save it and restart your computer.

Caution: Make sure to save a backup of this file before doing any kind of editing.

These steps should help you change the default operating system on your dual OS computer from Linux to Windows.

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How to install Ubuntu Linux on your Computer

Posted on August 26, 2011 by BitHacker

Before you proceed further, I hope you’ve read the previous parts of this series of ours ‘Going Open Source’. We started with ‘Why you should use Linux systems’ and then told you some ‘basics and pre installation steps’ about Ubuntu Linux. In this post, we’ll go through the steps that are required to install Ubuntu Linux on your computer. Everything is very simple and I tried to explain these steps as much as I could. Installing Ubuntu Linux was a dim and distant job in the past, it was sometimes very difficult, but the developers now have it down to a fine art, so it should take only 30 minutes or so on a modern PC. But if you still have a confusion at any step, you can reach me in the comments at the end of the article and I’ll be happy to help you in any way.

Overview

Before we proceed further, you need to download the latest Ubuntu Linux ISO Image file. ISO image files of the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Ubuntu 11.04, which you can burn to a blank CD-R/RW disc by following How to burn an ISO image on CD/DVD or better, you can write these images on your USB Flash Drive which is 40 to 60 % faster than a CD/DVD. If you are a novice user, just download the default version of Ubuntu Linux that comes with ‘Unity’ desktop environment (see other available desktops variants here). The installation program of Ubuntu is a little different from that of Windows. After you’ve booted from the DVD-ROM or USB Flash Drive, a menu will appear. You can choose the Install Ubuntu option, and the CD/DVD will continue booting to a graphical installer. Alternatively, you can choose the ‘Try Ubuntu without installing’ option. This allows you to run Ubuntu from the DVDROM or USB Flash Drive, in which you are actually trying it out without making any changes to your computer. Running Ubuntu Linux from a CD/DVD or a Flash Drive is often referred to as ‘Live mode’. This will be the exact duplication of Ubuntu Linux as you’d have installed it on your computer, just with some minor draw backs. Your performance won’t be the same as it won’t be running from the hard disk so there would be a little delay in data read/write and any changes made to the system (except in case of partition) will be forgotten once you reboot your system. This is where the persistent file comes in handy if you’re trying Ubuntu Linux live from a USB Flash Drive.

Step 1.

If you are installing Ubuntu Linux side by side with your Windows operating system then you should make sure that you perform this step. Scan the disk for errors….

To scan the disk, open Computer, right-click your Windows drive (usually C:\) and select Properties. In the window that appears, click the Tools tab and then click the Check Now button under the Error Checking heading.

Ensure that there’s a check alongside Automatically Fix File System Errors, and click the Start button. You will then be prompted to schedule the disk check the next time your computer restarts. Select to do so and reboot your computer, so the disk check can take place. (Scan disk will start right away, if its not a C:\ drive)

Make sure that Windows is shut down correctly. (Do not hibernate.)

Step 2.

Now when you’ll restart your system, you need to boot it from the CD/DVD OR the USB Flash Drive of Ubuntu Linux . If you don’t know how to write a USB Flash Drive with bootable Ubuntu Linux and then booting from it, then please refer to our previous article on ‘How to create a bootable USB Flash Drive of Ubuntu Linux’ because that is what we’ll be following in this article.

Step 3. Install Ubuntu

When you’ll boot your Ubuntu Linux from USB Flash Drive, you’ll be taken to the UnetBootIn menu. By default, it would be on ‘Default’, there are options like ‘Try Ubuntu Without Installing’ and ‘Install Ubuntu’ too.

Try Ubuntu without installing: This option lets you run Ubuntu “live” from the USB Flash Drive, so you can try out its features, albeit in a slightly limited state. If you’ve never seen Ubuntu up and running, choose this option and play around. To install Ubuntu Linux once you’ve booted into ‘Live Mode’, just double click on the ‘Install Ubuntu 11.04’ icon on the desktop.

Install Ubuntu: This will start Ubuntu’s installation routine. Choose this if you want to get straight on with installing Ubuntu on your PC now.

Step 3. Choose your language

Choose ‘Install Ubuntu’ and hit ‘Enter’. It will show you the booting screen of Ubuntu Linux 11.04.

Next it will boot you into the main screen of Installation procedure. It will automatically connect you to the internet (via LAN or WIFI) it will . Choose your Language, often ‘English’ and press ‘Forward’.

Step 4. Preparation

This next step will prepare you for the installation.

You have to have at least 4.7GB space available but as we discussed in our previous article, it’s better that you have at least 10GB space available.
You are plugged into a power source, if you are using a laptop. In case, you run out of battery during the installation process, you’ll have to start over again and you might loose some important data too if you are in the middle of partitioning your hard drive.
Connection to the internet is required if you check the option ‘Download Updates while installing’. In case you’re not connected to the internet, updates can always be downloaded when you are done with the installation.
Next up, do check the ‘Install Third Party Software’, this will allow you to play some proprietary media files like mp3s. Click ‘Forward’ in the end.

Step 5. Choosing and partitioning your hard disk

On the next screen, you’ll be given the option to Partition your hard disk. If you have no operating system installed on your machine, you’ll see a screen like the following. You can safely choose ‘Erase disk and Install Ubuntu’ If there is no data on your hard drive because choosing this option will erase your entire hard disk and will create partitions that are suitable for Ubuntu Linux. So be careful at this step.

but if you have a Windows operating system installed you’ll see a screen as below. It will detect your operating system be it ‘Windows XP Professional’, ‘Windows Vista’ or ‘Windows 7’.

You can choose ‘Install Ubuntu alongside Microsoft Windows (whatever your version is), this will calculate the free space and will install Ubuntu alongside your current operating system and you don’t have to worry about the partitioning your hard disk.
Second option, ‘Replace Microsoft Windows with Ubuntu’ will of course, delete your Windows Installation.
Third option is a little bit advanced, it allows you to repartition or resize your hard disk and we’ll cover that in another article.

Choose the first option and click ‘Forward’, it will calculate the space and will come up with best configuration possible. In my case, I had a 40GB hard drive with Windows XP Professional installed on it. It detected my Windows operating system and size of the hard disk and showed me the best configuration. Now it will automatically resize the Windows partition to 21.8GB and then make another 21.2GB partition for Ubuntu Linux. This process is seamless and you don’t have to do anything here. (The installer will take as much space as Ubuntu needs, without shrinking the existing partition too much.)

In case you want to give your Windows partition more space, you can drag the divider to the right side and it will allocate that space to the Windows partition. If you think there is not enough space on your hard disk, you can reboot your computer, go into Windows and remove some files, see our previous article on how to free up some space. You can also resize your Windows Partition inside Windows if you are using Windows 7 or Windows Vista. Keep in mind that at this stage, it is not committing any changes to the hard disk. This is just an visual overview. Once you are done with the changes, click on ‘Install Now’ button. This will ask you to confirm your changes, click ‘Continue’ to move forward or ‘Go Back’ to make the changes again.

Warning: Once you click on ‘Continue’, it will commit the changes, partition your hard disk and you’ll not be able to undo that.So double check your changes and then click on ‘Continue’.

Step 6. Keyboard Layout and Location

Now that the installation is underway, Ubuntu will next ask you to choose your time zone and then keyboard layout. (They’ll be in separate screens but I’ve put ‘em in one step to save space and time.) If your PC is already connected to the Internet, Ubuntu may already have detected your location correctly. You can select your time zone manually by clicking your location on the world map that’s displayed or by selecting the nearest city from the dropdown lists at the base of the page.

Similarly, your keyboard layout should correspond to your language and locale settings, and will be automatically selected, so you can just click the Forward button.

Step 7. Setting up a user

Next you’ll be prompted to say who you are and choose the name you want to use to log in. In answer to the question Your Name? you can enter the name by which you’ll be formally identified on

the system to anyone who uses it. Next is your computer’s name by which it would be identified on the network. Give it something understandable so that you’ll be able to identify it, if you are accessing it from another computer in a network. Next, you’ll be asked for the name you want to use to log in. This username needs to be unique; users on the same computer cannot have the same username. Also, it must follow these rules:
• The username should be one word without any spaces in it.

• You can choose any username consisting of uppercase and lowercase letters and numbers, but not symbols or punctuation.

• The username cannot begin with an uppercase letter, although you can use uppercase in the rest of the name.

Next choose a good password, a combination of Upper and Lower case letters with numbers. For example, ‘W3bsc0p1A’. This password is ‘Good’ and easy to remember. You can also use special characters in your password too, to make it stronger. You can also choose to encrypt your ‘Home Folder’, in that case it won’t be accessible from outside without giving a password.

Step 8. Import documents and settings from Windows Operating System

The next step is to migrate accounts by importing documents and settings of existing user accounts from your Windows partition to Ubuntu. (This screen won’t come if you’re installing Ubuntu on a fresh hard disk or have chosen to overwrite your Windows partition.) This is certainly a handy feature to be offered by the installer but then again, there is no point in importing if you have a large amount of data, such as music and video, stored on your Windows partition. You would be merely duplicating large amounts of data on the same disk, which makes no sense given as your Windows partition will be accessible from your new Ubuntu system.

Click ‘Forward’ after every step and by the time you are done with these screens, your installation procedure should be finished. All this time it was busy ‘Resizing your partitions’, ‘Copying files’, ‘Updating your system’ (if you were connected to internet), ‘Configuring Hardware’ and ‘Installing System’. At the end, it will install GRUB, the boot loader on your hard disk, that will allow you to choose between ‘Windows and Ubuntu Linux’ to boot from. Ubuntu Linux in the meanwhile will be showing you some introductory screens.

Once the installation is complete, it will show you a dialog box asking you to restart your computer. Remove any installation media (in this case we had a USB Flash Drive) and click on ‘Restart’.

Step 9. Bootloader Screen

Upon the reboot you’ll be greeted with the GRUB screen. This is a bootloader which detectes all the operating systems in your hard disk and displays them accordingly and as you can see there are options for ‘Ubuntu Linux’ and ‘Windows XP Professional’. Choose the first default option ‘Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.38-8-generic’ to start Ubuntu Linux. (2.6.38-8 is the version of Linux kernel)

Step 10. Login Screen

You’ll be presented with a login screen, just click on the username that you created during the installation procedure, enter the password, and click on ‘Login’

By following the steps in this article, you should now have Ubuntu installed on your computer.

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Stream Media to Any Device with Pogoplug

Posted on July 13, 2011 by Shobz

I love the fact that technology has gone such a long way that its possible for me to watch my favorite programs on my laptop, stream my favorite music on Spotify or Yahoo Music and check out music videos on YouTube. It has made my life easier and eliminated the need for me to subscribe to all the premium channels on Cable. The great thing about music and video files is that you can stream them easily to your TV via any device. The fact that I had to manually copy movies and tv programs to my USB data drive so I could watch them on TV was a major deal breaker. Fortunately, one does not have to rely on this old fashioned method as now it is possible for a user to be able to stream media directly to the device of his/her choice.

Pogoplug for Streaming Media

Pogoplug is well known for making hardware devices which support media streaming. They have come up with their first hardware free solution which allows for streaming of photos, video music from your computer to wherever you are in the world. The software is available in two versions: Free and Premium ($29- Onetime fee). The free version allows for streaming over your private network while the premium allows a user to stream and share data from devices outside the home network. There is no limit to the number of devices you can install this software on. It is available for Windows (XP, Vista ,Win 7), Mac and Linux.

Pogoplug Setup

The setup goes without a hitch though it does end up installing a virtual network adapter as well as some .NET framework files, followed by a reboot. The rest of the setup involves setting up an account with Pogoplug and registering your Premium License (if you have one). This is when you are prompted to select the folders you want to make available for remote access. Do remember that you don’t have to include every folder as you can simply choose the ones which are required. Once the software is activated you can check the drive which has been mapped for sharing.

I like the way they have designed the interface as it was quite straight forward. The web access interface gives options of streaming video and music to computers as well as the iPad and iPhone. There is also an option to share the files with friends via Facebook and email.

Pros of Pogoplug

Streaming media and remote accessing it is very simple. You can access your shared data easily via a browser.
There is no storage limit as Pogoplug simply turns your system into your own personal cloud.
It is an easy solution for all those people who just want to share files with friends and family.
The streaming process was smooth and did not involve any hiccups. It supports all well known file formats except for MKV.
It supports streaming to the PS3, Xbox 360 and TVs with a Tuner card.

Cons of Pogoplug

This is not an ideal solution for people sharing business sensitive data.
One has to keep his system on all the time to make sure that files can be accessed remotely.
Pogoplug tends to be a bit resource hungry at times when streaming files.

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Microsoft Office 365 – All You Need to Know

Posted on June 28, 2011 by Shobz

Office 365 is Microsoft’s cloud-based online business application subscription service which will be launched formally on the 28^th of June. It is a well known fact that Microsoft is threatened by the existence of Google Apps, which is poised to erode Microsoft’s share in the Productivity Suite market. Microsoft generates a bulk of its revenues through Windows and Office. It can’t afford to lose market share to Google Apps at any cost. Office 365 is not a new service as it’s merely a re-launch of Microsoft’s Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS). Customers who have subscribed to BPOS will get an upgrade to Office 365 so they don’t have to worry about losing out.

Advantage to Corporations

Office 365 is a huge advantage for both organizations and Microsoft. Organizations are usually slow when it comes to adapting to a new operating system or productivity suite. It costs a lot of money to upgrade servers and maintenance costs aren’t low either. It makes sense for them to move to a Cloud based solution as the cost is usually lower and they don’t have to pay for maintenance. Small organizations tend to benefit as well as they don’t have to spend thousands on setting up an infrastructure as everything is ready for them. It is a win for Microsoft as organizations tend to be more receptive towards adapting, which in turns adds to their bottom-line.

What is Office 365?

Office 365 is not merely a web version of Office 2010. It contains Microsoft Office as well as Exchange, Sharepoint and Lync. Microsoft claims that Office 365 will have a 99.9 percent uptime guarantee, which should make it a must have solution for all windows based businesses. There are two options available for Office 365 users at the moment. High end users can opt for the $24 dollars per user option which gives them access to Office 2010 document editing via the cloud as well as an offline copy of Office 2010 Professional Plus. This is a failsafe mechanism for those businesses that fear losing out on productivity if their internet connection ever goes down. Small to medium businesses who can’t afford the $24 tag can opt for the $6 per user package. This package only comes with online access to Office Web Apps. It does not come with a local Office 2010 client. The great thing is that both packages offer access to the web version of Outlook as well as Sharepoint and Lync.

Advantages of Office 365

Office 365 is a good solution for all those businesses that are still on the Windows Environment. It makes it easier for them to utilize Office 365 instead of adapting to Google Apps. Office 365 has more features as compared to Google Apps. Google Apps is more suitable for those companies who don’t have much to do productivity wise and have light usage needs.Office 365 has a huge advantage over Google Apps as it allows for some sort of Offline access. Outlook Web App syncs easily with Outlook on the desktop while SharePoint Workspace offline tool will allow users to work on the desktop and sync it when they are online.

Components of Office 365

All of the components of Office 365 are on the cloud. Microsoft Exchange will sync perfectly well with a local copy of Outlook and can be accessed anywhere in the world online with the help of Outlook Web App.It is quite easy to use the Office 365 versions of Word, Excel, Powerpoint on Office 365 as they work as well as the desktop version. There are no hiccups as they work quite smoothly and offer basically the same as the desktop verson.

SharePoint 2010 in Office 365 is virtually the same as its offline version but is not the full solution. It does offer easy add features but does not remove the need for a website. This is a useful solution for those companies who don’t want to spend too much on IT or time on the web by giving them a simple web presence.

Lync 2010 is the instant messaging solution with video conferencing. It is good as it helps with productivity and saves a lot of time. The only thing missing from it is telephone integration. It also allows for desktop sharing and will allow you to save time and money. It links all of the company users together and makes it easy for them to collaborate on the go.

Conclusion

Microsoft has come up with a great product this time round. The product is highly superior to Google Apps in many ways even though the desktop client part does not make it totally rely on the cloud. The only advantage Google has is with its price and the fact that everything is totally online. Office 365 may finally be the solution which will put Microsoft back as a real SaaS contender.

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