Microsoft's Office Web Will Do iPhone, Linux, Mac 202
CWmike writes "Gregg Keizer reports Microsoft has clarified that its upcoming Office Web service will be available to users running Mac OS X and Linux, as well as from Apple's iPhone. The key to this cross platform-friendliness: Office Web will run in Firefox and Safari browsers, in addition to IE. Introduced last month, Office Web is a lightweight version of its Office suite that runs as an online service. I think it's time for Google to embrace OpenOffice.org to take on Microsoft head-on, as CW blogger Preston Gralla has argued for and described how to go about it."
In the darkness bind them (Score:5, Interesting)
At least with Google's one i can download the docs in OpenOffice/Word/RTF/HTML format, thats the other "compatibility" that MS Web Office should provide too.
Let me just say (Score:2, Interesting)
Before the bashing continues. That this is great news! On inital inspection Microsoft is doing what the market is asking for. If this changes in the future... well we shall see. But personally based on all of the uphevals that have been occuring I am going to trust Microsoft again and see how this pans out. Like it or not Office is a great office suite and since it moved to the ribbon bar is even better.
BTW No I am not a Microsoft fanboy, I use whatever tool is appropiate and frankly MSWord and Excel are brilliant pieces of software.
Re:The real key is AJAX (Score:2, Interesting)
My guess is it will be mostly Silverlight with some light ajax to make it functional where SL is not available. MS will have a major hook in it one way or another.
Re:In the darkness bind them (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:make light weight software all the time! (Score:3, Interesting)
Competition := good (Score:3, Interesting)
This is a classic example of why we should have competition. It only takes a bit of competition thrown in and suddenly our Linux platform is supported. Consumer lock-in is great for business but bad for consumers.
I wonder just how long this platform embracing will last though?
what the hell? (Score:1, Interesting)
what the hell is wrong with MS? oh wait thats kind of a stupid question on slashdot..
but seriously, they killed hotmail so it no longer works with web standard compliant browsers like Opera, and now they're touting "linux compatibility" just because a stupid web based suite of software works with firefox?!
what a pile of crap.. way to be king turd of crap mountain again MS
Cloud computing.... only if I get my own cloud!! (Score:5, Interesting)
Ok,I'm a pretty big geek.
Being able to access my stuff wherever I go has been my goal for a long time. When I was in college (before cheap USB sticks) I used to have a business card CD for my wallet with a java based ssh client (putty wasn't around yet) and a vncviewer executable. This way I could reach my stuff from the lab computers or anywhere else without installing anything. Realizing that wallet CDs suck I moved on to a web based solution. (try finding a wallet they actually fit in and then try to carry it everywhere without breaking it!) I had a javascript ssh client (mindterm) and a javascript vnc client on a webpage hosted from my machine. This worked... ok.... for the time.
My point is I get it... I get what is so convenient about cloud computing. but... is it really a good idea for allowing the placing of ones documents on someone else's machine (Mickeysoft, Google, etc...) become so commonplace? I realize 90% of what most people's data is going to be uninteresting and not worth getting concerned about. But... if what happens to the 10% of data that truly is sensative when erveryone's in the mindset of just use Google or just use Microsoft? IT guys/gals, do you really think the business suites in your company are going to even understand the differenct between working on a document hosted at some other company vs. running an office suite localy? Most will only know that this is what is easy, this is what they know, this is what their peers are using... For that matter, even people who do understand the difference, once they have been using the cloud for the unimportant data, are they even going to think about it or will it be second nature?
So... inaviteable as cloud computing seems to be, maybe it's time for an OSS web based Office Suite. Something that a company can install on it's own ssl encrypted web server, something that more adventurous home users can install in their own homes and use along with dynamic dns.
Now somebody else go write it :-)
let's see it first (Score:3, Interesting)
Before anyone tells Google that the sky is falling, let's see MS new vaporware in a real-life test first, shall we?
It wouldn't be the first time that they promise revolution, and deliver either nothing at all or a weak me-too product. So let's wait what it's really like. Complex applications are difficult to move to the web, and a "light" version often lacks the exact features that a good fraction of the users care about.
Re:Depends.... (Score:3, Interesting)
But this is how we got Lambourghini 8)
Lambourghini goes back to Enzo Ferrari with a complaint about his crappy car, and Enzo tells him to "Go back to your Tractor Factory!"
So now we have the Countach, Diablo, etc. 8) Excellent alternatives to the dominant fast Fiats Ferrari make 8)
They won't change (Score:1, Interesting)
They block Linux from Hotmail - they'll block Linux from this too - but only after you get involved enough to like it - then they'll announce you have to use IE6 or Windows 7 or something that will bring them back into force.
I don't plan to use it. Zoho.com has it all already and it is a complete system including mail and presentations.
Re:The real key is AJAX (Score:1, Interesting)
"Office still writes to undocumented system calls & interrupts"
This is a lie. I am an Office developer.
Yeah, right. Enjoy destroying your Exchange prefs (Score:2, Interesting)
In yet another breathtaking installment of Krang's Happy BS Hour, Frankestein and co. seek to convince a weary world that they will make their lives easier. Except, of course, they have to contend with their greatest and most fiendishly unbeatable arch-enemy, their own track record.
I've now had to delete my Exchange profile in Entourage and rebuild the MS database a dozen times. In the interim, I've "sent" updates to meetings that were never touched, lost meetings I haven't even so much as hovered over since accepted and had enough formatting errors in Word:Mac show up in the MS Word version to literally crash both apps, even after performing "compatibility checks" each time. This rapidly becomes very, very uncool when, say, meeting with a CTO.
As happy as the idea of a cross-platform (especially to iPhone) MS Office install would make me, all I can say is: "Don't you believe it." Whether through spite, confused market strategy or sheer, blinding ignorance, Microsoft has for decades utterly failed to even be compatible with itself. I will believe it when I see it - on someone else's hardware.
Talk is cheap. Ballmer is Krang. Krang smash.