I’ve been offline for a while because of a computer crash (mostly fixed) and perhaps that is skewing how I’m reacting to the news that Microsoft is going to be offering its core Office free online next year. It’s clear Google, which is giving away everything from WiFi to satellite photographs of Planet Earth, is the elephant in the room.
UPDATE: The comment below that this is not really “free” Office may be correct. According to DigitalMediaAsia: The initial Office Live offerings are targeted at small businesses worldwide that have fewer than ten employees. These services can be used independently but also integrate with Microsoft Office programmes, including Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Office Live Meeting and Microsoft Office Small Business Edition.
We may have to wait for the beta (2006) to find out.
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6 Comments
1. Jeff:I read the article and don’t see where they plan on giving away what is now referred to as Office (Word Excel Access Powerpoint etc).They are going to give away all kinds of other stuff (storage, email etc). for free with an advertising supported scheme. And then there are “upgrades” (not specified if these are free or not) and they can be “integrated with existing products”. But free Office? Nope. Its still the cash cow of MSFT.
Nov 2, 2005 - 7:58 am 2. Jamie Irons:Roger,
Perhaps the old cliché about “not being able to give [Product X] away” applies in Microsoft’s case…
Though I am fond of Microsoft Word for Mac…
I just hate the Windows operating system, which I am forced to use in my workplace.
(Note: This is not intended as an attack on any of my friends who prefer or even love Microsoft and its Windows; I am certain they have good reasons for their preferences. I am expressing an opinion which, like all opinions, may be “wrong.”
Jamie Irons
Nov 2, 2005 - 8:00 am 3. tefta:Jamie, I fully commiserate with you and all other users of MS Word on Windows.
The funny thing is that we switched from Macs years ago when my CPA husband was having problems with MS Excel crashing and thrashing. MS Word was a joy with nary a problem.
So we switched to Windows, first 98 and then XP and the reverse is true. Excel works like a charm and Word pulsates, crashes, freezes, insists on changing my format, my sentence structure and decides when to capitalize my words and no amount of telling it to stop has worked.
This problem is well known, so why haven’t we been offered an upgrade to fix it — free or otherwise. Most people would pay big time to never have to restore the normal template again. I know I would.
Nov 2, 2005 - 8:23 am 4. Silicon valley Jim:I’m a heavy user of Microsoft Office (I make my living writing Excel, VBA, and Access) and my opinion is that Excel and Access are MUCH better than the rest of the Office suite. I’ve been told that Microsoft bought the original Excel from somebody else (I don’t know whether this is true) and that it was originally developed for the Macintosh (I think that this is true, but I’m not sure). In any event, it looks to me as if the quality of Microsoft’s software ranges from poor (I have PowerPoint) to excellent (Excal and Access), and probably depends on the quality of the team that developed each suite of software.
I’ve also made my living developing sofware on a Macintosh, and I’ve never seen what the big fuss was about.
Nov 2, 2005 - 8:32 am 5. tefta:valley Jim, Tell us. Is there any way to get Word to behave?
Nov 2, 2005 - 9:15 am 6. Silicon valley Jim:valley Jim, Tell us. Is there any way to get Word to behave?
None that I’ve found. A lot of my use of it is in ways that most folks don’t use it, like using Excel to generate a Word document that includes calculated numbers, pronouns and verbs that change in form depending on whether the client in question is an individual or a couple, etc. What I have to do to get Word to work properly is frequently unnatural.
In terms of things that non-geeks are likely to encounter, tables in Word are an abomination (as they are in PowerPoint); as are columns (try syncing up two columns!) I’d be a much happier man if Word and PowerPoint worked as well as Excel and Access (and their associated VBA) do.
Nov 2, 2005 - 11:48 am