Jim Tate is the Client Solutions Director for PC Helps, a support provider for core office software applications and mobile devices.

FORBES: Microsoft Software Upgrades: When The Help Desk Needs Help

One company would sell the Windows operating system, another would sell software applications such as the Office software suite, and the third would sell internet-related software and services.

BBC: Software giant 'faces split'

The MS Office suite entails productivity software applications like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Access.

FORBES: Microsoft Stock Has Upside To $28 But Office Franchise Is A Drag

OpenGamma, a startup which has so far received two rounds of funding from Accel Partners and FirstMark Capital, is creating a open-source-based platform for trading and risk analytics software to support front office applications.

FORBES: Open Source for Vertical Apps: Is Wall Street Ready?

We use Windows Terminal Server as a thin client to operate our three main software applications: Microsoft Office, QuickBooks and GoldMine, a customer relationship management program.

FORBES: Why I'm Moving To The Cloud

Gates also revealed the addition of new applications to Microsoft Office, the company's dominant productivity software suite.

FORBES

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

FORBES: A Messy Marriage

We also moved our critical applications (office productivity) away from Microsoft to OpenOffice, the free software developed by Sun and thankfully still supported by Oracle.

FORBES: In parting shot, Steve Jobs kills off industry he created

The U.S. patent office, moreover, has minimal expertise in software, and is facing a growing backlog of applications, encouraging under-resourced patent examiners to err on the side of granting applications.

FORBES: At CES, Companies Large and Small Bash Broken Patent System