Tuesday, May 21, 3:55 pm

Microsoft calls Zoho the “Fake Office”. Zoho responds with fakeoffice.org

Written by Mel Kham on November 5, 2009. Posted in News

One of the reason why Microsoft attracts so much bad press is their trash talk. If you follow Microsoft’s recent track record you will see a pattern. It begins with Steve Ballmer or any spokesperson from Microsoft making a disparaging comment about something, usually a competitor’s product. Later the product goes on to become a huge success and those blockheaded comments come around to kick Microsoft on their ass. More often than not, Microsoft ends up eating their own words.

In a recent interview, Ron Markezich, corporate VP of Microsoft’s online Office application – Microsoft Online, said:

We’re not seeing any inclination that Zoho or Google or Zimbra or any other of those offering fake Office capabilities can replace [Microsoft Office]

Mr Markezich’s comment carries a certain degree of truth. But the name calling is uncalled for.

Sridhar Vembu, CEO of Zoho, made a fitting reply. Then they decided to get some chuckle out of it and registered a new domain FakeOffice.org to pitch their views on Microsoft. This is so amusing!

Fake Office – The Movie

{youtube}l0yoINwZyPo&feature=player_embedded{/youtube}

Links :

For questions please refer to our Q/A forum at : http://ask.unixmen.com

fakeoffice

MSoffice

zohos

17 Comment(s)

Mel Kham

Founder of Unixmen, Living in Amsterdam. Am working in my free time to help people to understand the Opensource and to explain them in easy way how to make the fist steps to the the light. Working day and night with my Co-founder Zinovsky to keep this website live even with less resources.

http://worldoweb.co.uk/ Tracy

:D It’s nice to see someone fight back against the power of Microsoft. Good for you Zoho!
bob

The product that M$ trash talks about is bound to become pretty popular because a) they trash talk about threats and b) everyone will listen to a M$ announcement, so free advertising. Kudos to the guys at fakeoffice.org for rolling with it.
http://bssandbrninalain.blogspot.com Brian Hall

is lying, it seems to me. If what Mr. Markezich said in that interview was “We’re not seeing any inclination that Zoho or Google or Zimbra or any other of those offering fake Office capabilities can replace [Microsoft Office]“, then truncating his quote to “Zoho … can replace Microsoft Office]” is completely reversing what he said. Being completely blunt, this is lying.

It would be like Microsoft releasing a press release that took this article and quoted the author as having said:

Unixmen recently wrote that “If you follow Microsoft’s recent track record you will see a pattern… a competitor’s … blockheaded comments … More often than not, [they] end up eating their own words.”

All words that the author wrote, and in the correct order, but hardly what he meant, is it?
Kagehi

As much as I usually despise quote mining, and especially the tendency for certain types of people to use it in an attempt to slander people that don’t believe the same things they do, or undermine certain sciences, this is one case where I can almost let it slide.
zinovsky

[quote=Brian Hall]……
Unixmen recently wrote that "If you follow Microsoft’s recent track record you will see a pattern… a competitor’s … blockheaded comments … More often than not, [they] end up eating their own words."

All words that the author wrote, and in the correct order, but hardly what he meant, is it? [/quote]

I advise you to read this link :
[url]http://blogs.zoho.com/general/microsoft-calls-zoho-the-fake-office-so-does-that-mean-bing-is[/url]
Patrick

Come on. This is a send up, a joke, a piece of humour.

They are obviously taking the piss out of Microsoft and here you are worrying that they have edited a quote to fit in with the joke.

Lies? OMG I’d hate to hear to you attempt to tell a joke.

“One day and Englishman, and Irishman and and a Scotsman went into a pub. Well, not a pub, more an upmarket drinking establishment and the Englishman, well his father was from Ireland, so I guess he’s not really English. I suppose he’s Anglo-Irish. I think he was Catholic, but maybe he was Protestant.
I guess from an Irish Nationalist perspective he’s really not ‘really’ Irish if he’s a protestant. Though some may think he is…anyway…the Irishman. Well, he was from the south, rather than from the North. He was Catholic. Well, he was born Catholic but he’s really agnostic now. But his mother thinks of him as Catholic. Anyway, back to the joke…
http://bssandbrninalain.blogspot.com Brian Hall

I get the joke. In fact, if you had read the comment that you are replying to, the part where I said “I agree, it is a really cool idea to take the whole ‘fake office’ idea and run with it.” might have helped you figure this out. I really do try not to be obscure about these things.

Let me try to explain something else about mocking someone: If in the course of your jape you do something even more evil than what you are mocking, it ruins the joke. So yes, blatantly lying while mocking someone for insulting you is still wrong.
Kagehi

why I stated that I “almost” supported their quote mine. Now, if they had evidence that MS was doing the same to them, it would be a) a lot funnier and b) an equitable exchange. The problem is, by using the tactic they associate themselves with the tactics and methods of some of the worst slime, liars and hypocrits in the country right now, since the only people that “use” quote mining regularly do so for the **express** purpose of supporting other things they are stating, which are lies, or to claim that their opponents either actually agree with them, or are saying things they are not. Its a dishonest tactic, usually resorted to by people with **no** ethics at all, no facts to back their position, no valid point, and only an agenda they want to push to as many people as possible.

In short. Using the tactic makes them look more like what MS claims, a group with an inferior product, than it makes fun of MS, at least in the eyes of people that don’t a) already figure MS is the one lying, or b) are not completely fed up with people using quote mining to try to support unsupportable claims. Its like watching someone overweight pig out in a restaurant, while being interviewed about “proper diet and exercise”. The behavior undermines the message.
bob

tosser! Get a life!
bob

Brian Hall I mean. God.. pedantic idiot.
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http://bssandbrninalain.blogspot.com Brian Hall

have to do with the fact that Zoho was lying by misquotation? Am I just missing something?

I agree, it is a really cool idea to take the whole “fake office” idea and run with it. But if Company A is going to respond to Company B’s insults with lies, it hardly seems as if Company A is the white knight in this case.
http://bssandbrninalain.blogspot.com Brian Hall

unless you agree with the person doing it? Really?

Well, I guess that it isn’t that hard to believe, since you did say “I usually … quote min[e]… especially … to slander people that don’t believe the same thing…”.

See? Unfair, isn’t it. :wink:

And really, is Zoho really so incompetent that they cannot argue against MS and their bloated software without lying?

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