Microsoft takes aim at Google with online Office suite

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Comments

  • Reply 21 of 80
    tenobelltenobell Posts: 7,014member
    This is a big misconception that iTunes is a Trajan horse for Quicktime. iTunes is useless without Quicktime, as most of the media provided thru iTunes works on the QT media framework. iTunes does not use Windows Media framework.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by anantksundaram View Post


    Is that much different from iTunes and Quicktime?



  • Reply 22 of 80
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by TenoBell View Post


    This is a big misconception that iTunes is a Trajan horse for Quicktime. iTunes is useless without Quicktime, as most of the media provided thru iTunes works on the QT media framework. iTunes does not use Windows Media framework.



    I made no suggestion about it being a Trojan horse. I was just making the point about the two being bundled, that's all.
  • Reply 23 of 80
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ascii View Post


    If Microsoft is making an online version of Office, Google might as well pack their bags and go home. They can forget their netbook with Google Office dreams.



    The article's author reminds me of a magazine writer I knew who used to take a bunch of words which seemed relevant and use those fragments to create sentences & paragraphs using them.



    OF COURSE Google doesn't present a challenge to Microsoft.



    What Microsoft needs to keep an eye on is OpenOffice. This is what the author missed.



    The odds are Microsoft will require IE to exploit all of all forthcoming MS Office versions.

    Use anything but IE? -> Basic functionality. IE? Full features.



    If not this release, then any subsequent release.



    Will MS try to make MS Office a SaaS?



    Can Microsoft do the "best available" now that they are having problems with "best possible", regardless of the product?



    And...can they accomplish either of these goals with their existing code base? At some point, they'll be better off to grab a product team whose members don't eat|drink|sleep the existing MS Office and start over.



    Otherwise, Online MS Office will be a kludge.



    ________________________________



    I'm not anti-Microsoft. They've put a lot of money in my pocket in the previous twenty years. If I continue to have income from them, I believe they need to evaluate whether their goal is to be "best available" or "best possible". They're having problems with the former and their biggest fear is they can no longer produce the latter.
  • Reply 24 of 80
    shookstershookster Posts: 113member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by solipsism View Post


    Personally, I am all for Silverlight as anything that forces Adobe to fight on more fronts to defend Flash is good for the future of the web.



    Microsoft needs Silverlight to be multi-platform otherwise it will never take off. But if it does become successful, watch them pull the plug on Mac users like they have with so many other products. I refuse to install Silverlight on principle for this reason.
  • Reply 25 of 80
    docno42docno42 Posts: 3,755member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by anantksundaram View Post


    Is that much different from iTunes and Quicktime?



    Sure it is. Quicktime at least makes sense as there aren't standards in the media space as there are in the web space (until HTML5, and that's still under dispute). And even Quicktime uses standard codecs, and the QuickTime format itself is used as the basis for MPEG4.



    This is Microsoft just going their own proprietary way. It would be like Adobe writing an Office replacement in Flash.
  • Reply 26 of 80
    First, I thought it was more vapors, but seeing how they've been fiddling with this for a long time, I think it's the smell of burnt toast.



    MS has no advantage in this unless they cram their own "standard" down on everyone again. Not happening.



    And cloudware will defeat boxed software soon, especially if it's open, as with Google.
  • Reply 27 of 80
    docno42docno42 Posts: 3,755member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by anantksundaram View Post


    I was just making the point about the two being bundled, that's all.



    Ok, but why is that relevant? iTunes doesn't run in a browser, it's a binary application.
  • Reply 28 of 80
    cubertcubert Posts: 728member
    I typical Micro$oft fashion, the Mac version of Office 2010 will be released in 2012 - right on the heels of the release of Office 2012 for Winblows.
  • Reply 29 of 80
    wigginwiggin Posts: 2,265member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Shookster View Post


    Microsoft needs Silverlight to be multi-platform otherwise it will never take off. But if it does become successful, watch them pull the plug on Mac users like they have with so many other products. I refuse to install Silverlight on principle for this reason.



    +1



    MS will use whatever avenue they have available to force people into installing Silverlight. This is just one way of accomplishing that, combined with exclusive deals with content providers to user their proprietary plugin to deliver content. They are simply trying to replace web dominance via IE with web dominance via Silverlight. If they acheive that, don't expect them to behave any better than they did before.
  • Reply 30 of 80
    In my opinion, this is a good thing for Mac/Google users.



    I know many users that are VERY frustrated with Office. They HATE the new interface... they hate the docx issues (granted, it's MS trying to be more open), they are simply frustrated. Oh, and they are tired of shelling out money for upgrades that really don't offer any new features.



    Google Docs will continue to gain an audience because:

    - It is free

    - It is easy to use

    - It is available today



    That said, with a few upgrades, I think I could go Google Docs 100% of the time.
  • Reply 31 of 80
    the cool gutthe cool gut Posts: 1,714member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ascii View Post


    No one can compete with Microsoft in the office apps space. It's one thing to defeat IE as it is a crap product and not too hard to learn a new browser, but Office is a whole 'nother matter.



    But this is not the "Office Apps" space - this is a web services space - an area which Microsoft has had nothing but failure - not sure how you figure it will be different this time around?
  • Reply 32 of 80
    adamiigsadamiigs Posts: 355member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Outsider View Post


    Maybe he's referring to the stranglehold MS has on the office suite and how they want to translate that same stranglehold to the online documents segment of the market.



    What are you saying that microsoft would try to push someone out of a market using their market share and the sheep that use their product thinking it's the only possible solution to their needs, then tying that solution to Explorer 8 forcing people that want to use that online solution to upgrade browsers, while deleting past browser versions so they don't have to support them, oh and charging a monthly fee for using said online suite of apps, most likely in some "home / business / pro" price structure?... NAH!!!!!!



    Edit: While disabling features that make any alternative solution seems sluggish and buggy.
  • Reply 33 of 80
    quinneyquinney Posts: 2,528member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Roc Ingersol View Post


    That would be Google striking with its strengths directly at Microsoft's exposed underbelly* with a product and strategy that Microsoft is increasingly legitimizing with moves like Online Office.



    (*namely: their dizzying array of profitable, but overlapping and poorly integrating server technologies that are increasingly driven by web front-ends. They don't particularly benefit from Microsoft's monopoly and can be replaced piece-meal, without a massive retraining/testing project)



    I'm glad you explained that. My immediate reaction was that you were

    making a Ballmer reference.
  • Reply 34 of 80
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Outsider View Post


    I'm curious; will it work with Safari and Firefox the same as Internet Explorer? I can't see them making use of ActiveX since they are moving away from that technology.



    Why wouldn't it use ActiveX? It would be the easiest way for MS to implement this, as they could use their existing code base instead of having to reimplement it using something else. I'm sure anybody who suggested doing it using internet standards was fired on the spot.



    And if it were only supported on IE, that would help keep their install base from switching to better browsers.
  • Reply 35 of 80
    str1f3str1f3 Posts: 573member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by whatisgoingon View Post


    Why wouldn't it use ActiveX? It would be the easiest way for MS to implement this, as they could use their existing code base instead of having to reimplement it using something else. I'm sure anybody who suggested doing it using internet standards was fired on the spot.



    And if it were only supported on IE, that would help keep their install base from switching to better browsers.





    From TechCrunch:



    Microsoft says that its browser versions have been tested on all major browsers aside from internet Explorer, including Firefox and Safari. Office 2010 is still being tested and reworked to function on Chrome.
  • Reply 36 of 80
    virgil-tb2virgil-tb2 Posts: 1,416member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ascii View Post


    If Microsoft is making an online version of Office, Google might as well pack their bags and go home. They can forget their netbook with Google Office dreams.



    What a ridiculous statement. Office is horrible software and is being replaced by other options (iWork, Google docs, OpenOffice, etc.), more than ever before. Since it's likely that all these suites will soon have online components (iWork is halfway there already), the playing field is going to be exactly the same as it is today.



    People don't necessarily just use Google docs because word hasn't got an online component yet, and people don't just use iWork because there isn't Office on the Mac (there is of course). I and many others have switched away from MS Office because it's crap, not because I can't access docs on my phone. In any case, there have been (for years), and are today several ways to read and edit word documents on a phone.
  • Reply 37 of 80
    virgil-tb2virgil-tb2 Posts: 1,416member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by TenoBell View Post


    This is a big misconception that iTunes is a Trajan horse for Quicktime. iTunes is useless without Quicktime, as most of the media provided thru iTunes works on the QT media framework. iTunes does not use Windows Media framework.



    This statement makes no sense at all. The second sentence completely contradicts the first.
  • Reply 38 of 80
    anantksundaramanantksundaram Posts: 20,403member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Virgil-TB2 View Post


    This statement makes no sense at all. The second sentence completely contradicts the first.



    I (kind of) thought the same thing, but I was too polite to say anything, since (s)he sounded so authoritative........
  • Reply 39 of 80
    str1f3str1f3 Posts: 573member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Virgil-TB2 View Post


    What a ridiculous statement. Office is horrible software and is being replaced by other options (iWork, Google docs, OpenOffice, etc.), more than ever before. Since it's likely that all these suites will soon have online components (iWork is halfway there already), the playing field is going to be exactly the same as it is today.



    People don't necessarily just use Google docs because word hasn't got an online component yet, and people don't just use iWork because there isn't Office on the Mac (there is of course). I and many others have switched away from MS Office because it's crap, not because I can't access docs on my phone. In any case, there have been (for years), and are today several ways to read and edit word documents on a phone.



    Office is horrible software and the UI is worse with each release but the reason people still use it is for compatibility. I really like iWork and use it whenever possible but it is not fully compatible with Office. I also wonder why Apple did not support open file formats with iWork. While there is a move away from Office products, they revolve around the Office format. Also a very, very small percentage has made that move. Office is even more dominant than Windows. For the last 20 years it has been the most purchased software for the Mac.



    I think it will be a relatively successful product. Students will use it in a second if it's free and you can also use OneNote. Google Docs, while nice, is way too basic. For me, it will allow me to use iWork a little more and for anything that I need for collaboration on I can use Office online.
  • Reply 40 of 80
    hezekiahbhezekiahb Posts: 448member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Cubert View Post


    I typical Micro$oft fashion, the Mac version of Office 2010 will be released in 2012 - right on the heels of the release of Office 2012 for Winblows.



    We already have office 2012, it's called iWork 09.



    In all seriousness, if Apple can get it's act together on a more advance spreadsheet application then iWork would take the cake. Working in Pages & Keynote makes Word & PowerPoint seem archaic.
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