Zoho.com: Who Needs Microsoft Anyway?

Quite some time ago, I wrote a post on Google Docs and Spreadsheets. When the post was accidentally sent out in the feed last week, a reader comment (thanks Whitney!) caused me to think about a site I've been using since then, called Zoho.com. As much as a I love Google, Zoho has created a much-improved alternative, with more capabilities. Part of a new wave of the "software-as-a-service", web 2.0 movement, Zoho really is a break-through way to handle your formerly desktop computing needs.

While Google only offers Docs and Spreadsheets (think MS Word and Excel), Zoho offers a full range of hosted applications, including (this is taken directly from the Zoho.com home page):

• Zoho Writer
• Zoho Sheet
• Zoho Show (think PowerPoint)
• Zoho Wiki
• Zoho Notebook
• Zoho Virtual Office
• Zoho Projects
• Zoho CRM
• Zoho Creator
• Zoho Planner
• Zoho Chat

I have experience with the Writer and Sheet applications and I highly recommend them. It's amazing what the open source movement has done for us. No need to spend $450.00 or more on the MS suite, just use Zoho.com. The other advantage - no matter where you are, if you have an Internet connection, you can access all your files. Zoho stores your docs, spreadsheets, etc online. You can even share them with others, giving read-and-write, or read-only access.

I'd be interested to hear if anyone out there has used the other Zoho online applications with success?