Microsoft Office to go online — for free

[RamboLiberal]

Source: Fortune/CNN

It’s too early to say Microsoft has checkmated Google in online documents – the latest version of Office hasn’t shipped yet. But the sleeping giant in Redmond has clearly woken up to the Internet threat.

Get this: Microsoft – the king of paid software – will announce today that it is going to give a version of Office away for free online. Both the online and desktop versions are scheduled to arrive in the first half of next year. Yes, you read that right. The latest version of its ubiquitous productivity software, dubbed Office 2010, will come as both a piece of software you can buy for your computer, and as a service you can access in your browser.

For free. From Microsoft.

One could argue that the software giant is late to the giveaway party. Folks like Google, Zoho and SlideShare have been offering free equivalents to Word, Excel and PowerPoint for years. Unlike those companies however, Microsoft already has a very profitable $20 billion business selling desktop versions of its Office software. It would have been foolish to jump into the free game too hastily and watch that business evaporate overnight.

And that’s what makes this bold move to the web either the dumbest thing the company has ever done, or a stroke of genius. If Microsoft gets this wrong, it will cannibalize its own Office business, and investors will howl. If it gets this right, Microsoft will crush Google, Zoho, and all the other rivals who are nibbling away at Office’s dominance


Read more: http://bigtech.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2009/07/13/microsoft-office-to-go-online-for-free/

[hobbit709]

1. OpenOffice works better and has been free

M$ will find some way to squeeze money out of people.

[Ian David]

3. Of course. They'll do something to push you toward buying the package. n/t

[lurky]

13. Big orgs won't be in any rush to switch.

They are where the big money is, and most of them have a huge investment in infrastructure that depends on Office (like scripts that read spreadsheets and generate reports, etc). Not to mention they will worry about giving all their data to Microsoft.

I'm also guessing MS will have some really annoying ways of getting you to send money: "Want to print more than 10 pages? That feature is only available to premium subscribers!"

[DainBramaged]

59. I has taken up to this year for many huge corporations (and mine)

to switch from Office 2003 to Office 2007. Now they want to upgrade to 2010? I don't think so. We just bought 10 Outlook 2007 licenses for our managers and we're going to spend another $700 on the 2010 version? No. Hell no.

[merwin]

68. They should have considered Software Assurance.

Any corporation in their right mind should be purchasing Office with Software Assurance, being that Office 2010 is right around the corner. Costs a bit extra up front, but will save thousands in 3 or 4 years when the company decides to move to Office 2010. Office 2007 with Software Assurance is around $500 per copy, with a 5 license minimum. Beats the hell out of spending ~425 per license and then another ~$425 per license in a few years.

If you're going to spend that much money on software (which is far more expensive than hardware such as servers, which nobody questions having a minimum 3 year parts and labor warranty on), it pays to do it right the first time.

[sarcasmo]

73. Like leaving one of the better option out of the free software.

[Cronus Protagonist]

5. I wouldn't say OO is better

But it's usable and free.

[angstlessk]

6. Open office uses 95% of my available ram??? not good!

[hobbit709]

10. How much RAM you got?

and OpenOffice is nowhere near as bloated as Microshaft's apps. It doesn't hog my RAM.

[angstlessk]

11. I don't really know...but I recall the old computer used to count to 512

it's more now but how much more???

[DainBramaged]

60. It is a hog when you have workstations with one gig and multiple applications open

I have tested in under our environment and rejected it. We have many resource draining GM and Reynolds applications on many of the workstations (some with dual monitors) and OO is not up to the task. The other problem is our clients and customers use Office 2003, XP or 2007, and always gave us crap when we were experimenting with OO on Excel documents that used a specific GM developed template.

Sorry, OO is fun for home use, but lost in the office.

[lindisfarne]

14. OpenOffice can be very annoying. I used to like earlier versions but do not like the most

recent one. I installed it on a computer I borrowed for a while after my harddrive crashed, to avoid Office 2007, but found OpenOffice to be just as annoying (Open Office's version of PowerPoint, in particular, but also OO's version of Word).

I was very disappointed. I think OO would be ok for someone who uses the very basic features of Word (I installed it on my sister's computer 2 years ago for that very reason so she'd have basic word processing, which she doesn't need much at home), but for someone who uses more advanced features, I would now be more hesitant to recommend it (I'd suggest trying to track down an old, unused license for MS Office 2000 or 2003).

I hope OpenOffice improves because right now, I'm using an old license for MS Office 2003 someone provided, and never want to pay for MS Office in the future. For me, absolutely perfect compatibility between the two is important - absolutely no loss of fonts, formatting, and so one.

[boppers]

22. What OO "features" are missing for you?

Are you lacking core features, or edge features?

Are things like "embedding a 3D graph with sound annotation in a spreadsheet cell" the kinds of features you're referring to, or more mundane things, like "OO can't read my the documents I made with FoobarX 2.0"?

[lindisfarne]

28. Sorry,it's been a while since I used it and I did not compile a list of the annoyances I encountered

But, as I said in several other replies in this thread, I'd be hesitant to recommend it for more sophisticated users. I found it annoying on multiple levels - everything from interface to ease of being able to do certain things to ease of being able to find out how to do certain things.

Keep in mind, this experience changed the opinion of someone who used to have a very positive opinion of OO (although I never tried using OO;s version of PowerPoint in their earlier versions, so maybe that's part of it).

As I also said in a reply, I am just as annoyed by the new Microsoft Ribbon.

[bc3000]

16. Better? That's laughable

Hey, I'd love it if everyone told Microsoft to go jump in a lake too, but that is blatantly false. Open Office is almost as good MS office was three version ago. But they aren't even close to recent versions, and you do people a disservice by suggesting otherwise.

[angstlessk]

25. I like Open Office because it is not ICON oriented..I HATE ICONS

I prefer the older versions of Microsoft...sans the ICONS...it was created because ICONS are universal and not language specific...I HATE ICONS!

[ladywnch]

31. I've not used OO but I agree the newer version of Office is WAAAAAAY

too busy with all those icons!!! I looked at 2007 and almost plotzed! WHO thought that was good idea!?!?!?!?!!!! I won't go beyond 2003 either

[merwin]

50. The bar ribbon interface takes a while to get used to, but it honestly does

speed things up. I was cursing it from all directions when I first started using it, then I spent a few hours just clicking through all of the buttons and playing around and nearly all of the commands are within one or two clicks, just like 2003. Plus, it's context sensitive... so if you're working with a table, the ribbon will be geared to tables. And for those of us who are creatures of habit (myself included), you can still do the old key combos like "alt+f, s" to save just as in 2003.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

72. neo office (Mac) runs better than MS' MacOffice.

smooth, easy to run, and powerful.

[nilram]

26. Better might be under dispute, but it does everything I want, for free,

and it reads nearly every Microsoft Office document that I've thrown at it. Good enough.

[Zynx]

32. Works better my ass. Excel is vastly superior as a spreadsheet program.

[L0oniX]

33. Been using Open Office for many years ...it's all I need for my business ...even website design..

[merwin]

43. OpenOffice has quirks that make it unusable for someone who's worked in MS Office

for over a decade. The behavior in OpenOffice Calc is inconsistent at best when dealing only with the keyboard. I recommend OpenOffice to everyone who needs a cheap (free) office suite, but I would never recommend it to my business clients unless they were really hard up on cash. Partially for the reasons above, but also because of the lack of an Outlook replacement.

On a side note, the same goes for GIMP. While it matches up fairly well feature-for-feature, the implementation of some of the features just doesn't fly.

It's sad, as I would love to be able to go FOSS.

[jberryhill]

57. the lack of an Outlook replacement

I use MS Office 2007 for everything EXCEPT Outlook.

For that I use Thunderbird.

Outlook would be great if it wasn't for the reliance on a single .pst file for everything, and an undocumented size limit.

[merwin]

65. PST is pretty well documented.

2GB limit for the old style, 20GB practical limit for Office 2007, although with Office 2007 SP2 they changed the indexing inside of the PST database to speed things up, which will probably increase that 20GB limit by at least double.

And if you use Exchange, there's no reason to have PST files unless you want to store stuff off of the server. Everything on the server is cached in OST offline files.

Unfortunately, Thunderbird won't work for 95% or so of large corporations who use Exchange... unless there's an exchange connector for it. I really really really wish someone would come up with a version of Evolution that worked well under Windows. It was attempted but the end result wasn't really usable.

[jberryhill]

66. I don't use an exchange server....

But my business was crippled by Outlook once, and I ran for the exit.

[merwin]

67. It's gotten a lot better in 2007... That 2GB limit really screwed over a lot of people.

Especially since there was no check on the upper limit. If you went past it, then you just lost your data (unless you fork over $100 for a decent PST repair program). We invested in one because it happened to so many of our clients.

[JVS]

44. While OO is good, ultimately there are hiccoughs here and there with compatibility...

that have only one bulletproof fix, conforming to the norm and getting the standard.

[HughMoran]

47. I've had disk space and compatibility issues with OO on my origami PC

I had to switch back to MS Office even though I really didn't want to.

[Regret My New Name]

61. ehhhn... Not a fan of open office..

I use it if it's what I have, but I find MS office to be far more polished.

[Ian David]

2. Bill Gates has giant balls of steel. n/t

[angstlessk]

4. what does OEM version mean?

[The Second Stone]

19. Original Equipment Manufacturer

it's the version that a company like HP or Dell will put on their computers before shipping them out.

[bc3000]

20. Original Equipment Manufacturer

Technically, OEM versions of software are only supposed to come with a new piece of hardware. But the reality is that you can often buy things cheaper and with less packaging that way.

I remember newegg.com used to require you to buy a piece of hardware with OEM software and people just bought the cheapest item they had. I don't think they have that requirement any longer.

[no limit]

30. The problem with OEM is that legally you are only allowed to load it on one computer

if that computer dies or is replaced the copy of that software must stay on that computer and can not be loaded on any thing else.

[Occulus]

46. Micro$oft will still validate the product key, though.

I've used my OEM copy of XP Pro 64-bit on something like three different PC's I've owned, one after another as I replaced them or rebuilt them, and it's never been an issue.

[no limit]

54. Sure. But you are still in violation of the license agreement

That might not mean much to you, I dont know. Just be aware that you are breaking the terms you agreed to when you installed that software.

By the way it will only let you validate after a certain amount of time has passed. I dont know the exact time frame but its a few months if not a year or more.

[merwin]

56. You can always call them and they'll re-validate it for you.

Takes 5 minutes and just tell them that you upgraded the processor, ram, video card, whatever and it said it was invalid.

Works every time.

[no limit]

58. Sure, half the time they wont even ask that. But again, you are still in violation of the license

What you are doing is just as illegal as downloading pirated software off a torrent site.

[merwin]

64. I don't do it myself. I'm an MS Partner, so we get all the good stuff

for free :)

That's just my experience from dealing with the good folks in India.

[ecstatic]

7. Might as well. Who actually pays for it

anyway? :shrug:

[Amerigo Vespucci]

8. Open Office is already free

http://www.openoffice.org/

http://www.openoffice.org/dev_docs/features/3.1/index.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4ARctdsAtM

[lindisfarne]

15. But OO has issues for users of more advanced features; see my reply in #14. I have the same sorts of

complaints about MS Office 2007, however! The ribbon is hateful for anyone who is a more sophisticated user.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

17. I hear you...I have Office 2003 and no intention of purchasing an upgrade

I bought Office as part of the software package when I got my computer, then upgraded to 2003 Professional when it was released. It meets my needs, as I primarily rely on Photoshop / Dreamweaver / Fireworks / Flash to do what I do.

[Posteritatis]

21. The ribbon gives me soul cancer

I can't stand the new Office's interface at all, and it's definitely a compatibility nightmare when they do fun things like upgrade mid-semester on a university campus.

With OO I've only really had a problem with Base, which I dislike slightly less than MSO07's ribbon, though that's like saying I prefer a femoral fracture to a compound femoral fracture.

[lindisfarne]

23. The worst thing about the Ribbon is Microsoft, in dictatorial fashion, doesn't allow the user the

option to go back to the old menu display.

The best you can do is hide the old ribbon and then, go through and find the features in Word you use most and put them in the "favorites" tool bar (That's not what it's called but it essentially works like that; I did that on a computer I rarely use and it made it slightly less hateful. But it's idiotic that users are reduced to spending time trying to make Office 2007 semi-usable.)

[Posteritatis]

27. Didn't they change around the keyboard shortcuts too?

I've had little experience with the new Office - I recoiled in disgust and terror and only used it when I had to print something on campus. But with previous versions (and OO, which I mainly use) I used shortcuts most of the time and seem to recall discovering most of them no longer worked.

[lindisfarne]

29. That very well could be true. The basic ones remain; I am force to interface with the ribbon when I

bring my flash drive into the printing department. But that's just control-P, sometimes control-S, control-W.

[goclark]

35. I have Office MS, what is "ribbon?"

[lindisfarne]

36. Try google for a picture.n/t

[goclark]

40. thanks!

[jberryhill]

70. MS Office uses these:

[MetaTrope]

63. You can download add-ons to install a 2003-style interface for 2007

Here's a freeware version: http://www.ubit.ch/software/ubitmenu-languages/

Commercial mods are also available.

[juno jones]

9. Beware of highly commercial bloatware bearing gifts.

Microsoft does nothing for free.

I installed Office 2003 once. I am still digging crap out of my registry.

Most people I know use Open Office.

[lindisfarne]

12. Be aware that anything that happens online is not confidential. n/t

[sellitman]

18. Let them put Windows online for free and I'll be impressed.

I've got Apples Works programs on my Mac and Open Office for my last Windows machine.

Yawn!

[ejpoeta]

24. I don't trust anything from microsoft. probably some kind of trojan horse.

I refuse to use their 'bing' search site... and if I could do it, I'd sever all ties with any microsoft products. It's bad enough that there are sites I go to that will only work with internet explorer... otherwise i use firefox.

[Frank Cannon]

34. Oh, don't be a killjoy

You remember what happens to killjoys.

[Angleae]

37. It won't be free forever.

They release the product for free, using profits from other departments to cover the losses. Then, after everyone is out of bussiness or pushed (further) into obscurity and they have the market all locked up, they start charging exobatant prices again.

[liberal N proud]

38. Advantage Microsoft...

They own the corporate world.

[CatholicEdHead]

39. Prepping the masses for a Software as a Service model

So if they can get people hooked, then to use the basic services you need to go to some Cloud Computing (Azure in this case) server to get your data, and not on your local Hard Drive.

[Occulus]

48. I read an article a couple years ago stating that Micro$oft was considering

doing that for the entire operating system eventually.

Which will push massive numbers of people to linux.

[regnaD kciN]

41. Microsoft Office Online "free"...???

Oh, sure, it'll be free...until they've fought off the threat from Google's upcoming O.S. Once ChromeOS is dead, look for MSOffice Online to suddenly become a "subscription" service with a monthly fee.

I know how Micro$oft works. "Free" is never really free.

[onehandle]

42. Oh boy! Free viruses! nt

[IrishBuckeye]

49. Ummm whatever you say bub. /nm

nm

[Spoutwell]

45. wow - now that is what i call competition! hat's off to google and linux

now, can M$ actually pull this off is another question...

Capossela told me that Microsoft has studied it closely, and Office Web Applications, the free, ad-supported version of Word, Excel and PowerPoint, will probably appeal to tightwads who weren’t going to buy a copy of Office anyway.

however that kind of mindset doesn't give me much confidence that they actually get 'it', yet.

we'll see.

[eilen]

51. I foresee a "free" version

who's format is incompatible with every other document software. Kind of like the
Word for Works! or Publisher docs.

[hunter]

52. I won't use Microsoft unless someone pays me.

My own machines run Linux.

I'll bet someone ends up paying me to run their "free" Microsoft Office.

It astonishes me how people get so tangled up in Microsoft software they can't escape. It's like a tar pit.

Oh well, time for me to feed the elephants:

[rd_kent]

53. NOTHING from Microsoft is for FREE.

Nothing.

[bitchkitty]

55. I just don't think they can pull it off.

Of course, I am now retired and rarely if ever use .doc or .rtf or spreadsheets. When I do, Google serves.

[totodeinhere]

62. No thanks. Google Docs is just fine for me. I don't need Micro$oft Office. n/t

[merwin]

69. For home use, you're right.

Although, I'd recommend OpenOffice over Google Docs any day. More feature rich, and you're able to work on documents offline :)

[Javaman]

71. That's nice and all, but frankly, I think they would be better served

making it cloud based.

they days of downloading or having hard copies of software are coming to an end.

the packages are becoming way too enormous to download and store on a drive.

Why do I as a consumer need to have a massive hard drive to accommodate THEIR software?

The technology is now available, especially via microsoft, to make this very do-able.

[merwin]

74. But you will never get the responsiveness of having it on your PC.

The only way to achieve that is to have the software locally. However, I could see uses for image manipulation software (of which there are already a few), where it can offload a lot of the heavy lifting for complex processing. However, there's data transfer over the net that's involved.

In any case, no web app can currently match the performance of a local one. There's always lag after clicks. To get any reasonable speed you'd have to put a local GUI app that does web calls. That would at least make it at least seem responsive to the end user.

As someone who's business tools are all web based, it's a pain in the ass, for speed and usability