“Full disclosure: My Office 365 installation came courtesy of Microsoft, a one-year demo license for journalists. It expires next month, so I was already planning my Office exit, so to speak,” Rick Broida writes for CNET. “The alternative: pay Microsoft $70 or $100 annually for tools that are far beyond my needs — and that apparently crash and burn when you try to add a new one.”
“The only reason I’ve continued using Office 2013 at all is Outlook, which is actually pretty nice in this version. Plus, I have a PST file containing years’ worth of email,” Broida writes. “But just the other day it was producing oddball password-error messages for one of my Gmail accounts, even though I had no trouble signing into that account on the Web. (This has happened, sporadically, for years with Outlook.)”
“Just for once I’d like to see Microsoft deliver a truly fair and affordable solution. How about Office 365 Basic: Give me Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook for $20 annually. You keep Access, Publisher, and that incredibly generous 60 minutes of Skype calls (value: about 90 cents). Better yet, let me buy it outright for that price. I have no interest in subscribing to software,” Broida writes. “That’ll never happen, though, and Outlook isn’t nearly enough to make me pay for any iteration of Microsoft Office. So, yeah, my broken Office installation was the straw that broke this cheapskate’s back.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Ludditesoft.
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Apple makes the world’s most advanced operating system freeware – October 23, 2013
Apple’s new free OS X for Mac hurts Microsoft and the Windows PC industry in myriad ways – October 22, 2013
Apple exploits Microsoft’s confused hesitation on Office for iPad – October 22, 2013
Apple’s OS X Mavericks available today free from the Mac App Store – October 22, 2013
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iWork – Free online
iWork – Free with new devices (and then can be installed on old devices)
LibreOffice – Free
Why do MOST people think they need Microsoft Office again?
I prefer iWork, and I’ll prefer it even more when they re-add the features removed during the re-write, but sometimes using Word is easier than dealing with translation issues on documents I receive from other people. But I’m still using Word 2009, so the need to upgrade is obviously not there.
My sense is, people believe “easy to use” software isn’t as powerful as complex, or hard-to-master software.
If it’s too easy, then the user will find themselves in the same group as everyone else and will have to rely on their creativity and communication skills to make a meaningful impression. Barring that, they choose complicated over easy, because of the software’s inherent complexity that provides an excuse for failure.
With complex software, they believe they can unlock the secrets of the universe.
Microsoft Office is the prevailing suite because it in its early days, there was no DRM; everyone could make a copy of the Suite at work.
I remember those days when the copy machines at work were going nonstop making copies of the user manuals for all of the “professional” PC software. dBase, Wordperfect, etc.
G4…
You hit the nail right on the head. You must be an old-timer like me!
Another reason the PCs took off while the Apple II started to falter during that era. PCs at work and home…free software.
Yep I remember well the days when free pirated PC software was the norm and the equivalent on Macs almost non existent. You had to be pretty hard cord to resist the temptation but so glad I did.
Most of my software came via BBS.
Really?
Microsoft Office, at least on the PC side, has an API set that allows integration with other applications. For many enterprise users, this is critical. I don’t know if the next Mac version will include an API but Microsoft’s success is pulling more in the direction of Office anywhere rather than Windows everywhere.
My observation has been many people think using Microsoft Office products will allow easier sharing with the outside world.
This is true to some degree, depending on the complexity of your document. I have had difficulty opening Word files in Pages, particularly with auto-numbering and formatting issues. I’m sure people have problems with advanced Excel spreadsheets when certain functions are not supported in other programs.
I’ve had difficulty opening Word documents in Word! I worked for a newspaper in the 90s and we’d get docs from the public that made our lives a living hell with deadlines.
Some docs would come formatted with horrendous styling. So much so, the editorial department’s policy would insist on Plain text files and the styling was applied in post production.
Again, there may be some benefits to using MS Office, but I suspect the majority of users don’t need it. AT ALL.
Interesting that he says he has password problems with gmail through his outlook. I have identical problems with gmail with my ?Thunderbird software it rejects my password still tines while accepts it when going to gmail on the web. So it seems gins may be a gmail problem. I also note that while gmail now allows you to have multiple accounts under a single sign in procedure whereby it offers you the alternatives it actually refuses to let you choose one of those alternatives even when you sign out and in again. Yet I have heard no complaints of the sort one would get over iCloud glitches, clearly we judge companies differently.
Nobody does much old school WYSIWYG word processing these days and Excel is mainly for retarded anal ists. PowerPoint is an unmitigated failure which leaves outlook as the only viable product in the office stable.
Except I’m not paying 100 bucks a year to rent a bloody email client.
Software subscriptions are for the birds. It still ticks me off Adobe now does this. One size and one model does not fit all.
Excel is the big one for me.
Followed by outlook.
The rest of it I could find alternatives easy enough.
I still use both iWork, and Word. I am back in school at the age of 43, and must submit papers in the Word format. I have had several problems submitting them in a saved word format, from iWork. When you open the paper in Word, it has multiple changes, off set sentences, and paragraphs. If someone can tell me a way to fix this problem, I will drop Word in a minute. Thanks.
Outlook is the worst email client ever. And with the 2013 version and IMAP, it is an unmitigated disaster. There are so many other cheap or free alternatives, it is a wonder that people continued to be tortured with this ridiculous excuse for a productivity suite.