I've been a huge and loyal Apple customer for 6 years...never once have I had any major issues. Today, I upgraded to the new Apple OS X Lion operating system on my very new work computer. After installing the $29 upgrade, I discovered that none of my Microsoft Office 2004 applications are compatible with Lion.
95% of my work is done using these applications: Word, PowerPoint, Entourage (email), Excel, which means, my nearly brand new Apple computer is now useless to me unless I either want to spend the money to purchase an external hard drive and reinstall OSX Snow Leopard or if I want to spend another $150 for the newest version of the Office suite.
I thought I had done my research, but not once did I read any kind of warning from Apple telling me these issues would take place if I went ahead with the upgrade (yes, there are warnings out there, but I missed them all and none of them were communicated to me during the upgrade process). Apple customer no-service was completely unwilling to take responsibility or to offer me any direct help to resolve this issue. To say I'm disappointed in Apple (as a huge and loyal Apple customer) is an incredible understatement.
All of that to say, maybe this short blog post will keep one of you from making this same mistake and losing faith in Apple.
Now, here's a photo of Gwyneth that makes me feel happy and helps me remember that even Apple can't steal my joy.
Nate
Good Lord! Office 2004? No offense but it may be time to upgrade. :)
ReplyDeleteI only update/upgrade as needed...I don't care about having the newest and best. Office 2004 meets all my needs, especially running on my new macbook pro. Should have stayed safely with OS X Snow Leopard...
ReplyDeleteThis post is worth me delurking. I am not an Apple user, but we had to get a new PC because our dinosaur computer crashed. Windows 7 isn't compatible with our Office 2000 (got it when I was in college and could get Office Pro for very cheap). I am like you and don't need the newest. Very frustrating!!!
ReplyDeleteNate,
ReplyDeleteCan you try using Open Office? It should allow you the same program, except Entourage, as Office and you may be able to locate a free upgrade for Entourage. Good luck!
I am not an apple/mac user but I still appreciated the information. Sometimes I think about converting and it is nice to have an honest opinion.
ReplyDeleteOh and I always skip to the photos of Gwenyth first. *Ü* I can look at her and witness the continuing miracle... Tricia too.
ToOdLeS.
I am not a mac user either, but I totally relate to not running out and upgrading to the latest and greatest. Those with kids and medical issues can relate. There are simply other priorities in life.
ReplyDeleteGweneth is a DOLLBABY! She makes me smile too!
Have you considered using iWork? It's much better than Microsoft Office will ever be.
ReplyDeleteI switched. I refuse to go back to Office. You can save all of your projects as the Microsoft equivalent.
I'm not an apple user (except iPhone) so thanks for the cute picture :p
ReplyDeleteWell, when Gwyneth goes to school (like Kindergarten age,) you can get the educational upgrade rate for a lot of software :-)
ReplyDeleteThank you so much I would have upgraded and the exact same thing would have happened to me. I'm not in the mood to spend the extra money to upgrade at this time.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the warning...we would've been in the same boat.
ReplyDeleteI almost upgraded yesterday, but had a distraction. Thanks for the heads up.
ReplyDeleteBeckie in Brentwood, TN
I'm an Apple user so thanks for the heads-up. Gwenyth is absolutely beautiful.
ReplyDeleteIt's not all a loss, as someone previously said - there is open office. That's what I use because I am a PhD student who can't afford office. I have a Mac Book Pro, not as new as yours, but still fairly new. I am able to go back and forth between open office and MS Office.. along with stats programs such as SPSS, STATA, R and SAS. Some of it isn't as seemless, but it can still be done. I promise. If you have any questions - please feel free to contact me. Why offer me as any help? My PhD is in Instructional Technology, so I am more of your average geek. Plus, I am all over apple - from my MacBook, to my phone, to my TV.
ReplyDeleteOh and Entourage.. I'm not sure all the ins and outs of Entourage - what you can do with it. A quick look shows me that Mozilla Thunderbird probably isn't a good match. Apple Mail may be of some help, then there's Gmail which more and more integrates with Google Calendar, task list, etc..
Really, good luck.
PS. For what it's worth, I haven't upgraded to Lion and don't intend to because it doesn't look to be as an amazing upgrade as it could be. Also, it may cause problems with my, much needed, stats programs.
ReplyDeleteI am not a techie, but I was troubled by this post, as my husband is an engineer/programmer at Apple. Aside from him being pretty shocked you were running MS older than 6 years... he said you should be able to just restore the old OS with your backup. I don't know exactly how that works, but I'm assuming with all the photos you take, you do backups regularly... please tell me you do. Anyway, you're out the 30 bucks b/c I don't think Apple will take back your Lion, but you can have your machine up and running in no time (assuming you had backed it up???) It's not a complete loss, as you make it out to be.
ReplyDeleteI'm shocked at how many people are so disappointed with Lion. Hasn't apple shown that it's willing to let its customers bear the brunt of its grudges with competitors in the past? Several times, in fact? If you're using a mac but running all PC software, just work with a PC and be done with it!
ReplyDeletewow- great tip, thank you for bringing this to my attention. we just switched to mac a few months ago and were wondering about Lion... I think we'll skip it for now
ReplyDeletep.s - how CUTE is that pic!?
"I'm shocked at how many people are so disappointed with Lion. Hasn't apple shown that it's willing to let its customers bear the brunt of its grudges with competitors in the past? Several times, in fact? If you're using a mac but running all PC software, just work with a PC and be done with it!"
ReplyDeleteThis would be true except that I work with so many people who own PC's that it's much easier for me to use Office software. Office is about the only PC software that I use. Despite this setback, I'll never purchase another PC. Mac is still the way to go.
Apple pretty much displays the same attitude toward it's customers that AT&T used to have (and still has) toward its customers, that Lilly Tomlin used to make fun of. http://youtu.be/k9e3dTOJi0o
ReplyDeletePretty much the second you upgrade anything, you have to also expect something else becomes obsolete. It's just the way, but yes it does suck and you don't always see it coming. Unfortunately, you just have to upgrade whatever else needs it when this happens...everything is evolving. It would be AWESOME though, like you said, for the upgrading guys in your machine to tell you which programs you have on your computer that will become outdated. But then...they may lose some cash from all the abandoned-carts. :) Blahh.
ReplyDelete