Just wanted to brag...

[D0pp139an93r]

A friend just gave me this cool evaluation thing from MS.

120 day free trials of all the new stuff.

Visio 2003
Office 2003 Professional
Windows Server 2003 Pro
Frontpage 2003
Exchange Server 2003
OneNote 2003
SharePoint Services 2003
SharePoint Portal Server 2003
Business Contact Manager 2003
Project Standard 2003
Live Communications Server 2003


I don't know what most of it is, but knowing MS it's probably expensive.

[fourdc]

This reminds me of a Dilbert strip where the boss says they'll give the software away for free. Then they'll charge people to remove it.

[MrLinus]

I don't know what most of it is, but knowing MS it's probably expensive.

Umm... hate to burst your bubble but 120 day trial stuff, as you even pointed out, is free. It's used to encourage people to use and get used to their products. They've been giving out those CDs at all their Free MS Win2003 Product tours (I still have mine with the "nifty" ad t-shirt they also gave out).

[D0pp139an93r]

I know the trial versions are free of course, I'm not sure exactly what I meant. I guess it had something to do with being able to play with expensive software from MS, even if it is only for a few months.

[MrLinus]

ROFL.. the question is will your hardware be able to handle it. Anyways, here's my understanding of each of the products to give you an idea of how good they are or if they are worth exploring. (all opinions are those of the poster)

Visio 2003 <--- network diagramming software
Office 2003 Professional <--- word processing et al.
Windows Server 2003 Pro <-- some schmucky server
Frontpage 2003 <--- some schmucky web/html editor
Exchange Server 2003 <--- some schmucky email server
OneNote 2003 <--- sticky note application
SharePoint Services 2003 <-- web site manager for multiple sites (e.g., you and company partners wanting to have affliate sites)
SharePoint Portal Server 2003 <-- see above
Business Contact Manager 2003 <-- sales tool to manage clients
Project Standard 2003 <--- some schmucky project software (allows you to project timelines for projects)
Live Communications Server 2003 <--- middleware management project software/server (means you know when your team is slacking)

[D0pp139an93r]

Thanks MsMittens, I have never really been in a business environment so I have never seen most of this stuff before. Looks to be a neat couple of months ahead.

[nihil]

My view is as follows, based on msMittens comments:


Visio 2003 <--- network diagramming software........Yes, it used to be very good up to about version 8(?) Then I could not get it to run under NT4.0 SP5


Office 2003 Professional <--- word processing et al. I guess that this is the "Rolls Royce/Cadillac" of office systems............shame about the price. I also feel that there is not much difference between Office 2000, Office 2002(XP) and 2003 to justify the cost? A marketing scam, but Lotus and Corel beat M$ to that in my opinion

Windows Server 2003 Pro <-- some schmucky server............a very good server I would have thought, if the 2000 version is anything to go by........however I would want *nix on my servers?

Frontpage 2003 <--- some schmucky web/html editor.....I never saw the market niche for this product?

Exchange Server 2003 <--- some schmucky email server......similar to above

I am tempted to have another look at visio, and I would say that if Office 2003 drops the price of office 2002, go for 2002. I honestly believe that these office products only do a major upgrade every 3 years or so?

I, along with many others happily run office 97, but 2002 is really nice because of the compatibility features.

Just my £0.02

[souleman]

Just wanted to point out that Visio is a diagramming tool. It does more then just networks. It can be used for flow charts/networks/corprate structure charts/etc etc.... Basically, any type of diagram that you need.