Microsoft Office Online to Go Free

[btarunr]

Faced with a future competitor in general productivity applications, Google, which recently announced concrete plans with a web-friendly operating system, Microsoft expressed plans to make Office Online - a web-based version of Office - free. Microsoft's upcoming Office 2010 productivity suite will be available both as a paid software that you can purchase and use, and an web-based application that can be run from within a web-browser. According to the company, the upcoming Office Online is designed to work seamlessly with popular web-browsers such as Mozilla Firefox and Apple Safari, apart from its own Internet Explorer. Currently Microsoft has a highly profitable business of selling the Office productivity suite, which amounts for $20 billion of the company's revenue. The company is working on pre-release community versions of Office 2010.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[btarunr]

Many Thanks to TheMailMan78 for sending this in.

 

[phanbuey]

Wow, bold move - I wonder if they are going to have something like google docs w/ simultaneous document editing. That would - no more having to reformat documents to import them into word.

 

[Kitkat]

yeah finaly something bold. office 2007 was the first office i wanted vs needed for some reason. Id still buy the next one based upon what ive seen so far. I think thats prety cool.

 

[Bundy]

I wonder how much the EU will sue them for this?

 

[freaksavior]

office 2010 looks very nice. i did not like 2003, and 07 is harder to use. im hoping they make it easy like 03, but looks like 07 oh shit, thats 10

 

[mtosev]

Oh my god. something free from Microsoft. incredible.

 

[[I.R.A]_FBi]

my favorite office was office 97 and publisher 98

 

[CDdude55]

Finally!, i can use Microsoft Word/PowerPoint.

 

[TheMailMan78]

Many Thanks to TheMailMan78 for sending this in.

You're 100% welcome

 

[Triprift]

So competition does work must be if ms is offering something for free nice.

 

[Steevo]

I will still trust, and purchase business software for local use. Plus you can buy multipacks for cheap.

 

[jocksteeluk]

Three cheers for the Google effect.

 

[qubit]

What we now need is proper competition for Windows, so that Microsoft are forced to provide friendlier licensing (eg 3 PCs or all in one household) and get rid of the WGA/product activation crap.

Maybe Google's Chrome OS will be enough? Time will tell.

 

[twicksisted]

I wonder how much the EU will sue them for this?

 

[Ahhzz]

So competition does work must be if ms is offering something for free nice.

Exactly. M$ gets scared when someone serious looks to be threatening (Remember Netscape?), so they start giving away their product to beat out the competition.

 

[Triprift]

It bit to late she cried but good to see anyways.

 

[TheMailMan78]

This is capitalism working. However I would hate to see MS lose to an inferior product just because its "free". People love to get stuff for free but forget the golden rule. Nothing in life worth a damn is free. You really do get what you pay for.

With that being said I wonder how many of you would cheer to see MS go the way of the dinosaur only to beg for them a year later. This trend of free stuff has me worried not only about the quality but the state of the economy and where we are going.

I'd rather be dead than red.

 

[Triprift]

I woudnt like to see ms go ever for one thing the os that would be left "shudder".

 

[TheMailMan78]

I woudnt like to see ms go ever for one thing the os that would be left "shudder".

Make no mistake there are a lot of people who hate the perceived #1. Its why Intel is hated. Its why there is so much distaste for the U.S. ect. Microsoft is among these perceived #1's and what people do not understand is the alternative sucks far worse than they could have ever imagined. Ever heard the term "The grass is greener on the other side of the hill."? Free does not equal better.

 

[WhiteLotus]

Dunno about that MailMan. Open Office is damn good... and free. Linux is good... and free. The Fudge shop in Totnes gives out free samples... and well that's damn good and free.

When something becomes a so called #1, sometimes it takes a lesser product (apply free) to point out all it's weak spots.

 

[TheMailMan78]

Dunno about that MailMan. Open Office is damn good... and free. Linux is good... and free. The Fudge shop in Totnes gives out free samples... and well that's damn good and free.

When something becomes a so called #1, sometimes it takes a lesser product (apply free) to point out all it's weak spots.

Free and point out some minor weaknesses is one thing. Being a superior product is another. Costing money is not a weakness.

 

[qubit]

Make no mistake there are a lot of people who hate the perceived #1. Its why Intel is hated. Its why there is so much distaste for the U.S. ect. Microsoft is among these perceived #1's and what people do not understand is the alternative sucks far worse than they could have ever imagined. Ever heard the term "The grass is greener on the other side of the hill."? Free does not equal better.

+1 & +1 again. So damn true my friend.

As I said in my previous post here, I just want the competition to make them offer their products at better prices, better licensing (one for all PCs in a household for example) and to get rid of the WGA/product activation crap.

 

[WhiteLotus]

Free and point out some minor weaknesses is one thing. Being a superior product is another. Costing money is not a weakness.

But it took that "inferior" product to make the other one realise it wasn't so superior in the first place.

Anyway, this is good news all round. Will force the open-source guys to up their game!

 

[WarEagleAU]

Office 2007 is so damn easy to use and really worth the purchase. I cannot wait for 2010 and I agree with Openoffice.org. That is one awesome sweet that us 97% compatible with office standard forms (doc, xls, ppt, etc).