[AccessD] Poll on Access 2007

Hi Eric:

I will reply inline...

Jim

-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Eric Barro
Sent: Saturday, June 27, 2009 9:22 PM
To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving'
Subject: Re: [AccessD] Poll on Access 2007

Microsoft is going to protect their investment in their cash cow -- MS
Office. Which is why they are pushing Sharepoint and have made it as part of
the MS Office system. Sharepoint 2010 and Office 2010 are going to be
tightly integrated. Look around and you will see more and more companies
jumping into and experimenting with Sharepoint. It has two flavors -- a free
one called Windows Sharepoint Services and one that requires the purchase of
licenses called Sharepoint Portal Server. You can do a lot with WSS but the
way MS is packaging Office and Sharepoint licensing you will end up getting
MS Office cheaper than if you just bought into MS Office.

<
SharePoint is nice but adding or enhancing MS Office's sharability does not
access the root of the problem. MS Access has become the developers, start
point of choice, for embarking on full Office automation. Access's
capabilities for generating a comprehensive presentation interface which has
now been further enhanced, by almost 20 years, of the developers community,
is unmatched.
>
    
It's not a question of whether "if Microsoft ever fully succeeds in moving
us into their .Net world" as it is a question of when. .Net has been around
for quite a while and while there is still some reservation in the minds of
many developers, .Net is the way to go if you want to support Microsoft
products. 

<
Rather than Microsoft building .Net into its Office products it has chosen
to decouple the development from Office automation... and now Office
development will be shunted out of the main stream and away from the
developers.
>

If you haven't played with Sharepoint yet you might want to take a look at
it right now and understand the concepts behind it. It is a technology that
integrates with Active Directory services, Windows server technology, Office
interoperability, Windows Workflow Foundation, Windows Presentation
Foundation with SQL server as the database that controls everything (yes,
every element and item of information) and it is all web-based. It's basic
concept is the list analogy. Everything is a list. Calendars, Tasks, Issues,
Announcements, Links, Wikis, Document libraries. When you create any list it
creates the CRUD forms for you automatically. 

<
Once you move your development work into the web the desktop and the
products supported on it become irrelevant. There is no way for MS to stop
that. Developers make their money by creating products. Low end and low paid
IT guys make their money by cutting, pasting and dragging and dropping...
There is no money in that type of design work and where there is no money,
there is no developers and if there are no developers, there is no one to
recommend or even supporting the product. (...and if MS believes that their
phone support will fill the gaps and grow the products maybe they should be
looking at Dell's declining sales and quality so they can fully grasp their
destination.)

OTOH Oracle, as an example, which in all truth is no better of a product
than MS SQL, has generated a super loyal following of developers. Certified
developers are the only ones that receive the leads and all inquiries into
the product are through their developers. All designs are through
recommendations from their developers. In comparison to much of the MS
products they are very over-priced but they just keep making major sales.
They have become the corporate standard of most 500 companies and
governments. The key to the whole thing is Oracles support of their
developers and they in turn have been their best salespeople. ...And as long
as there is good money to be made there will be developers.   

In a nutshell, Microsoft's efforts to make their products simple and easy
have been their biggest blunder. Like the old axiom; if you make it so
simple that even an idiot can use it, only an idiot will want to use it. 
>