MS Reshuffle

27 Jun 05

A call to bloggers. Start writing 'how to switch from MS ____ to ____' articles. Simple. Effective. Some ideas:

  • How to switch from Hotmail to Gmail
  • How to switch from MSN Messenger to a Jabber account
  • How to switch from Office to Open Office
  • How to switch from ie to Firefox/whatever.
  • How to switch from Entourage/Outlook to Mail/Thunderbird (ahem) *
  • How to switch from Frontpage to Notepad/BBEdit (um)
  • How to switch from Windows to Linux (uh, perhaps a list of links here will do)
  • How to switch from Intel to PowerPC (quick! in the next 12 months)

* I'm doing Entourage -> Mail.

They should cover data import/export and the enhancements that come as a result of the switch. They should cover both Mac/PC users if applicable. Screenshots would be nice.

This all sounds basic to developers, but the most important thing here is that MANY PEOPLE are still locked on MS software, mainly due to having an abundant amount of information zipped up in it. I'm amazed every time I see a perfectly smart person using Hotmail. They are often unaware that some software in the world is designed with the user's well-being, flexibility and freedom in mind. All they need is a little guidance and they'll happily switch. Tutorials exist, but this iniative could be useful if approached the right way.

It'll take a developer 30 minutes to knock up an article. It could switch dozens of people. You will sleep soundly for an entire week. Come on, don't tell me you're busier than me. I won't believe it.

The deal is to aim this at a completely non-tech audience without patronizing people.

Everyone can obviously post on their own blogs but I'll try to aggregate links here. The idea is to synchronize the posts to go up on an MS Reshuffle date. I'm suggesting an MS Reshuffle date of 15th July, 2005.

If you know anyone who might be interested in participating in this please direct them here.

Update - New Ideas

  • Windows Media Viewer to VLC
  • .NET to Open-source architectures

Ernest says

I'll be more than happy to do the MSN/ICQ/AIM/Whatever -> Jabber article x

Nice idea, btw. Hope it works

Vangelis says

I was going to volunteer for the IM article but Nesty was too quick for me. Thus I'll go with the Ie -> Firefox one. Nice idea indeed.

Albe says

Alright geeks,
I will be happy to cover the switch from Window$ to Linux. Also, as I have recently bought a tiny Apple iBook (12", nice and handy) and installed Linux on it during its first day of life I can also talk of how beatifully Linux sits on powerpc architectures.

daniel says

Um, I could do Outlook to Thunderbird. Or IE to Firefox... Someone might wanna give me a hand with the tech-y stuff though.

Ralph says

There's some practical limitations on the hotmail --> gmail switch, though this would seem like a very logical step for people using hotmail to take, what with most pop mail clients being complete schaffnip.


A very good switch for most people would be to change from their hotmail to a gmail, and then change their clients; outlook (express) --> thunderbird (especially now the ball has started to roll on the ie.6.0 --> firefox switch). However, there is the difficulty of inviting all that many people to Gmail, as that is the only access for new users.


Perhaps someone can design a little cgi script in (puke) PERL, whereby people reading a changeover tutorial could click a button and instantly receive an invite (your invites, not mine... *ehem*)


Why hasn't google been so kind already I wonder? They obviously have the server space, and have sufficient Dollah.

anil says

Gmail's still in Beta. They want discerning users on the whole, capable of providing detailed feedback, product evaluation and bug-reports.

During Beta you shouldn't really encourage explosive growth, since you're actually testing the scalability of the system out in the real world for the first time. Having said that, Flickr is in Beta and allows anyone to sign up. However it's not really a beta anymore. Flickr feels like the real thing already.

The main challenge in all of these is data export. Microsoft always make it difficult for you. It seems to be part of a lock-in strategy that's been going on forever. The .doc format is a classic example.

So how do you export 7 years of emails and accumulated contacts from Hotmail? That's what the article needs to address.

andy says

Good plan. I've ended up sticking with Entourage as a mail client because of the ability to 'categorise' people in the address book. I book lots of musicians and have over a thousand names, categorised by instrument (some people play more than one thing) and it's very useful being able to quickly list all 'Double Bass' players, for example. If there's an easy way to switch to something quicker and cleaner, I'd be very grateful.

A

anil says

more talk on the Creative Commons mailing list:

http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/cc-uk/2005-July/thread.html#481