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Microsoft to make Office 2010 available online
Ooh, Geek wars, we love 'em so much. Following Google's announcement that its Chrome OS would be good to go next year, Microsoft has gone a bit googly itself. The software giant is planning to release a web-based version of Office 2010, a rival to Google Docs, launched three years ago. And it's gonna be free! The apps will be available to anyone with a Live account — and will include Word, PowerPoint, Excel and OneNote.
Although some stock analysts reckon that this could lose the Redmond megacorp anything up to $4 billion, most people are in agreement that the move will win Microsoft a whole bunch of new friends. "It is promising to know that such a traditional software company is responding to the 'threat of the cloud' to its core business by embracing it," commented Ars Technica.
Office 2010 will be rolled out thus: there'll be an early release of web apps to thousands of testers later this year; then, at the end of the year it will be followed by a public beta for the software; the finished version will then be shipped off to PC manufacturers at the beginning of 2010.
Gizmodo Via BBC Online
By Giggity at 10:27 AM ON 07/14/09
Hopefully, this free version of Office (although probably limited in functionality), will result in a lot of people using it and possibly driving down costs of the installed version.
Anyone know where the files will be saved to?
Your pc or at a MS server?
I still cant find that info.
By Mr. Gumsandals at 11:41 AM ON 07/14/09
Until Word can export pdf files, who cares? I use Open Office for all word processing because it does export to pdf. I can upload entire books with pics to Lulu.com or CreateSpace thanks to OO and I still can't understand why Word doesn't.
By Mezafits at 12:26 PM ON 07/14/09
Mr. Gumsandals Word already exports to pdf files. Seems you "Opened Office" and never left.
By Mr. Gumsandals at 12:37 PM ON 07/14/09
That's true. Less BS, more functionality. BTW, my version of Word (2003) doesn't export to PDF and I have no desire to pay for an upgrade when I can get that app for nothing. Call me crazy.
By Al at 2:30 PM ON 07/14/09
This sounds an awful lot like the "Free" internet access that was provided years ago. After a while, the companies that could no longer make a profit went under and the ones left took over the market (aol, msn...) I think the only one left today from that era is netzero. (is that still free?)
If Microsoft can take enough away from google to take back their customers, I'm sure they'll happily release a "new" 2012 super duper version for a monthly fee.
For now, enjoy the freebies. :-)
By Mezafits at 2:55 PM ON 07/15/09
Open Office is fine, but i've used office for almost 10 years now, and never had to pay for it. My company is willing to set me up with a copy nine times out of 10, or I can get a student copy because I never stop taking college classes. If you are using, document processing at home it's only for one of a few reasons. And it's easy to make an excuse that you need a license to work from home. And your right office 2003 is a joke compared to 07. I hated 2007 unitil I had to actually spend a few days using it. After which, I love it. The custom format options make for some very simple but clean documents.
By ambosen at 12:28 PM ON 07/16/09
So, Microsoft is going to try to compete with open office 4 years to late? Good luck. They'll need it.
By kingkong at 2:15 PM ON 07/16/09
Word Perfect and Corel Office is still superior to MS Office, and does export pdfs too. I'll stick with that, thanks.
By Borissgal at 4:09 PM ON 07/16/09
I tried open office, and it was like a tape worm. Everytime I thought I had it gone, there was more. I hated this program and tried very unsuccessfully to remove it, even contacted their "support" hah! What a joke! They told me there was no way to remove it! I ended up reformatting. I'm a pc'er and I'd put my trust in MAC before I'd use open office again.
By hotrao at 10:59 AM ON 07/17/09
We are moving again towards a full webbization of applications, while Internet isn't so fast and so accessible everywhere.
And average users are not so skilled to use everything on line.
By bill at 7:03 AM ON 08/18/09
Microsoft...Free. Anyone else smell a bait and switch. If you recall, Outlook was initially a "free" program. Once people adopted it and it became a standard they started charging for it. They have simply dusted off an old trick and will modify it so they can put their hands in you pockets for the "free" web app of office. Drug dealers do this with crack, meth and heroin.
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