Microsoft moves Office online

rpm said:
Microsoft moves Office online
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Of course a web-based Office suite is unlikely to be entirely free.
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.. and therein lies the rub. GoogleDocs are free. OpenOffice is free. Until MS moves to an advertising based model, these other free services are going to keep cannibalizing their users or potential users until they get in line with the direction that this whole thing is headed. It's a losing game MS. Unless it really is "dirt cheap" its not gonna fly.

... this of course is a moot point in South Africa since doing anything on the internet is NOT cheap.
 
Today while trying to submit something like 4 times and the page timing out with everything I had written.. I realised why webapps suck sometime.
 
w1z4rd said:
Today while trying to submit something like 4 times and the page timing out with everything I had written.. I realised why webapps suck sometime.
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Exactly - I don't want to use webapps as a major fiber node might go down and I'll be unable to finish my critical resume/report/work due the next day.

I might be old-fashioned, but I prefer my applications on my own PC, thankyouverramuch...
 
Office I must admit is one of Microsoft's better projects....unfortunately they just have this inability to cohere to international ISO standards, making interoperability so much harder than it has to be. I for one wont , use their online service, bluntly just dont see the need to. I'd much rather use Google Doc's or open office if I'm strapped for cash.
 
I agree that having Software locally installed is a lot more reliable and stable then Web Applications. But for those of you who have used the web based version of Outlook a.k.a Exchange 2003/7 then you know that Microsoft was streets ahead of the game with regards to web based applications a while ago. Granted Google and Zoho offer their services for free, dont forget that Google also owns the Advertising Model behind it namely Adwords & Adsense.

Unfortunately Microsoft got left in the dust with regards to that. They missed the boat, the harbour and all departing flights involving online marketing and advertising. It is that very fact that allows companies like Google and Zoho to offer their services for free. Facebook, Google, Yahoo thrive off PPC and other type of advertising means.

Microsoft has tons of potential in terms of "Platforms" provisioning, and software frameworks, and now with MS Azure, Google Apps Engine, Amazone Web Services all forming part of the Cloud Computing space, they all fighting for market share for niches in niches.

Question is what is Microsoft going to do with regards to Office Online??? I can guarantee that they will have to come out with a Free Version of it. Without that it will never sustainable no matter how much add on services they throw in. People like things for free. That's why Google rocks because they practically offer everything for free.

The other problem we face is Broadband provisioning in SA. Cloud Computing, Office Online, youtube, browsing, emailing, etc... all consumes bandwidth and with our "sub-standard" broadband offerings we will probably get left behind the rest of the world AGAIN.

Anyways it should be an interesting battle. You can be assured that the best minds and savviest of business people are battling away for market dominance.
 
...not a problem. This is what Open Office is there for! :D
Cloud Computing is all nice and all, but the world as a whole is not ready for it. Or at least South Africa isn't. We don't really have the ability to be online constantly just so we can type up a spreadsheet or a rich text document... we don't have the want to either, do we?
 
Open Office v 3 with Firefox and Thunderburd with Lightning plug in. ... Cant ask for anything more.. well except synchronisation to windows mobile 6,, hhmm thats where Vista has NO IDEA, stick to XP... other than that will see what the new Ubuntu has to offer for mobile devices.. But Open Office compared to Office is a winner all the way..

Stock standard installation on all my clients New PC's
 
Garyvdh said:
.. and therein lies the rub. GoogleDocs are free. OpenOffice is free. Until MS moves to an advertising based model, these other free services are going to keep cannibalizing their users or potential users until they get in line with the direction that this whole thing is headed. It's a losing game MS. Unless it really is "dirt cheap" its not gonna fly.

... this of course is a moot point in South Africa since doing anything on the internet is NOT cheap.
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I agree entirely.
Bandwidth is the more major concern in SA, but if/when (pipe dream?) that is resolved, why pay for a suite of applications that don't adhere to standards and come at a price, vs a free suite of applications that do adhere to standards and are generally fully functional in a cross platform environment.

On an aside, while Outlook Web Access does work in Firefox or any other non-M$ browser, you lose a large amount of the nifty stuff and extra functionality, so for me, that's a no go.
 
There's another problem with this - imagine an office, where 35 people use web-based Office on a 1024k adsl line - imagine how slow that line must be when all 35 loads large files/applications/etc at the same time...

Besides what guarantees do we have that your files be safe from snooping/prying eyes?

Another thing to consider is upgrading - will you be locked out when M$ upgrades their applications, or will you be allowed to use the older versions?

Also - will you be locked out due to nonpayment?
 
The_Librarian said:
There's another problem with this - imagine an office, where 35 people use web-based Office on a 1024k adsl line - imagine how slow that line must be when all 35 loads large files/applications/etc at the same time...

Besides what guarantees do we have that your files be safe from snooping/prying eyes?

Another thing to consider is upgrading - will you be locked out when M$ upgrades their applications, or will you be allowed to use the older versions?

Also - will you be locked out due to nonpayment?
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I would love if this could be available as a server option. IE> you install it on your server and domain/network users have access to the Office applications.

If that's possible then yeeehh haaaahhh!! ;) :D :p
 
teraside said:
I would love if this could be available as a server option. IE> you install it on your server and domain/network users have access to the Office applications.

If that's possible then yeeehh haaaahhh!! ;) :D :p
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exactly what i was thinking. coral office guys was talking about this in the late nineties. it made a lot of sense. newest app on older pc's. very cost effective
 
I don't really understand why they want to run apps in the browser, why don't they just publish the application via terminal services, so much simpler, faster and if you loose the connection you never loose work, and as a bonus no need to write software twice. ie the online version is the same as the version you can install on your desktop
 
eddief1 said:
I don't really understand why they want to run apps in the browser, why don't they just publish the application via terminal services, so much simpler, faster and if you loose the connection you never loose work, and as a bonus no need to write software twice. ie the online version is the same as the version you can install on your desktop
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Because this means they have to have a server capable of what you describe which isn't normally cheap
 
ye that is true, but if they were keen give google a run quickly surely that will give them a huge advantage. they could instantly host online versions of there apps without any additional software development. We host apps like that and publish just the app to the client.
 
dgcarter said:
LOL! You do realize this is the same company that seems to think every person on earth with an MS PC has their own personal T1 fibre.
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RDP functions perfectly well over 128kbps and sometimes apps are actually faster then running locally as the server hardware is superior.
 
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