Office 2013: Fear, Loathing and Misinformation - Comments Page 1

Your example assumes that users upgrade every 3 years. I doubt most home users upgrade until their computer dies, then they would upgrade or want to even install the old version they have. If you went one year further, you are almost at the break even point. Personally, I want the stand alone version where I don't have to rely on the cloud. What if someone is where they can't get a connection or a good connection. I don't want to have to be dependent on the internet to do a document or spreadsheet. In our work environment, we have lost our internet for a period of time. If we used Office 365, we wouldn't be able to do anything because we can't get at the programs to run our apps.

Why not ditch Microsoft altogether? Linux is free, install Wine and the Open Source alternatives to Redmond's stuff. The money saved on anti-virus alone is worth it.

What are people's opinions about OpenOffice?

My biggest problem with Office 365 is lack of portability. I use my laptop more than anything else. More often than not, I'm no where near wifi. And I really don't want to try connecting with an air card every time I need to work on a paper or spreadsheet. So, OpenOffice has been the great alternative for years.

Bob: Thanks for the information once again.
In reference to the Free Alternative:

Our company recently made the leap to Google Docs and also a migration of our Outlook to a Google Apps Outlook. For some it was no problem, for myself, what a pain. The Google Apps Outlook looked the same, but most of the functions I used where gone, or you had to set up your gmail account to perform the rules & alerts. My contacts never did make the migration. My folders moved, but since I have so many they do not all show on the gmail screen and I never found a way of making them, similar to how Outlook does.
I have reverted back to Outlook, minus the Google Apps.
Regards,

Article states: "Office Web Apps is the replacement for Office Starter Edition. It's a free web-based service... "

Office Web Apps doesn't appear to be free... If one clicks the "Buy Now" button it says $99.99 per year or $9.99 per month... Just sayin'...

EDITOR'S NOTE: Well then don't click it! :-) I don't see a BUY NOW button on my screen. I can assure you Office Web Apps is free. Looks like you got it confused with Office 365?

Is Apache open office no good? My friend began using it this week at home for small jobs at the office where she works and says she is thrilled with it. Probably she will find out later that it won't measure up at crunch time. Pity. Best regards, john.

Or you could change to a mac, and use iWork much simpler, safer and lesson a ripoff .m

I use Open Office when I'm not on my work computer.
If it is it still available, it's really good.

"Most of the updates are applied on Microsoft’s servers. Also, updates are applied continually, not just once a month; Office 365 can respond to changing security vulnerabilities more rapidly."

That sounds like most of Office 365's "guts" are on remote servers and would require that the computer have a high-speed internet connection when it is in use. That would make it non-usable (and therefore a non-starter) for me. I frequently use my computers in places where no affordable, or trustworthy, or in some cases ANY connection exists and need them to be self-contained.

Is it my imagination, or is this whole "cloud computing" thing a conspiracy to make people needlessly reliant on the only part of computing whose cost HASN'T come down drastically in recent decades-- bandwidth?

I have heard great things about Open Office for years. I am not using it yet but I installed it on my new (April, 2012) computer in case I wouldn't be able to use Office 2003 with Win 7. I haven't needed to use it yet, but I'm ready.

I gave up on MS Office several years ago and have been using Open Office and Google Docs. So far I have had no problems. Every now and then I have to send someone a document in a different format but even that is rare.

I love having my Google Docs material ANYWHERE I have access to a computer, mine or someone else's.

I refuse to place anything out there on the "cloud". It's too easy to have a server go bad or just plain shut down. As for Microsoft - the less said the better.
By personal preference I use Open Office in place of Microsoft Works. I've never had a problem with it.

I do a lot of writing and I use different computers to do so. I don't use a spreadsheet or any other program included with MS Office 2007. I like MS Office but I feel that Microsoft has gotten (or have been for a long time) full of themselves. I also use Google Docs, but I prefer MS Office. I am not joined at the hip with Microsoft and will look for opensource or comparable alternatives (Not Mac, they're full of themselves too)... It is now worth it to me to have a word processor that costs me $10 a month (I wish I could earn that off of the stuff I write) when there are alternatives out there...

The link you provided to Office Web Apps takes one to anything but a Free Office Web Apps page. Searching on Google for Free Office Web Apps also lead ultimately to Office 365. Perhaps your machine has a link stored in your cache that takes you elsewhere.Please comment. ThanX

EDITOR'S NOTE: Looks like MS refreshed the page today. It's working for me (no cached links), give another try.

I've been using OpenOffice.org for the last couple of years on both my Mac and PC, and doubt I'll ever return to the paid Microsoft Office programs.

For me, OpenOffice works great!

To Jim:
My computer crashed and Microsoft wanted me to pay to have Office installed again. I downloaded Open Office and it is terrific. I don't see any difference. I use it for general household and spreadsheet for a small paying hobby.

Given Microslop's spotty record of software development, security issues, and bug fixes that don't, I think I will go for one of the alternatives. In addition, I think the whole "Cloud computing" fad will run its course as reliability and security issues become more apparent. Why would anyone hand their sensitive data to a third party and HOPE it won't be hacked or shared?

Could you also address common user concerns about the hideous appearance of Office 2013?

When Microsoft stops selling and supporting Windows XP. They have given up ownership. I suggest a group of programmers demand the source code (if refused, reverse-engineer it) and create a company to maintain the OS under a new name and market the OS ("new-name XP"). I have found this version of windows to be the cleanest, easiest, most intuitive OS from Microsoft. Necer had an opportunity to work with Windows 2000. Each later version Windows 7 and 8 are dismal systems for computing (tabs appearing in illogical order, non-sensible configuration, Win 8 is for tablets NOT computing). The same goes for Office suites such as Office 2000. Again, clean, intuitive, and easily configurable. Office 2013 (or 365) is totally screwed up with its ribbons/banners cluttering up a screen that is already to scarce of real estate on the 9-16 screens on today's computers. The XP and Office 2000 (under new names) should last forever. Any takers?