The software isn't bad--in fact, you could argue it's the hot-selling Macintosh computer's secret weapon--but no one was gasping in awe as Schiller showed off the ability to add a stone texture to bar charts in Numbers, Apple's spreadsheet software.

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And Zoho is already pushing into more sophisticated applications, offering customer-management and project-planning software alongside basics such as word processing, spreadsheet and presentation software.

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Still, Google's package of e-mail, word processing, calendar, spreadsheet and presentation software does have some advantages.

FORBES: Office Killers

And while Google Docs online spreadsheet and word processing software is stripped down (when compared with Office), it does make it easier for workers to share a single online document and collaborate on it with colleagues--something that gets complicated fast when multiple copies of a Microsoft Word document are blasting around the office.

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The machine itself ships with a couple of good games, the AppleWorks (formerly ClarisWorks) word-processing and spreadsheet package, some graphics software, both the Microsoft and Netscape Web browsers, and a good e-mail program.

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Additionally, cloud alternatives like Zoho, Google Docs, LotusLive Symphony and Acrobat.com are challenging the very notion of requiring desktop-based software to be productive in creating text, spreadsheet and presentation documents.

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Examples of assembly language software you may be familiar with are IBM PC DOS and the spreadsheet program Lotus 1-2-3.

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Sixteen years ago, Massachusetts-based VisiCorp was a major software company, having fueled the PC revolution by commercializing the worlds first spreadsheet, VisiCalc.

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While Google can launch online spreadsheet and word processing applications, Microsoft can't respond without damaging its powerful Office software business.

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