Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Microsoft Office Mobile arrives for iOS

arstechnica.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 66 posts

Re: Microsoft Office Mobile arrives for iOS

#31

Post by bornhuetter »

k-mcgrady wrote: post #29
bornhuetter wrote: post #10

If only Microsoft released Office for Linux and Apple let OSX run (in a VM or otherwise) on non-Apple hardware the world would be a much better place.

If Apple let OS X run on other hardware the OS would suffer with them having to spend time supporting so many different configurations. If they didn't their reputation would suffer. Microsoft building Office for Linux would be a complete waste of time and money. The majority of Linux users would complain that it was expensive, closed source, and continue using the free, open alternatives.

I don't think Apple would have to provide support for running it in a VM. How much damage do you think it would do to their reputation if people were complaining that running it in a VM was unreliable? 95%+ users wouldn't care (they would dismiss it as nerd problems), and the other 5% would be happy if it was good enough to run things like Safari for testing. If they ever want to be taken seriously in a business environment (outside of the creative industries) I think it would be wise of them to consider this. It can't be much worse for their reputation than completely blocking it.

I don't think Microsoft building Office for Linux would be a waste at all. Photoshop, Office and Steam games are the big three I see from Linux users complaining about a lack of software. Not all Linux users are fanatical about free software. The question is - what is more important to Microsoft, Office ubiquity or keeping corporates on Windows?

Re: Microsoft Office Mobile arrives for iOS

#33

Post by bornhuetter »

freyrs3 wrote: post #30
k-mcgrady wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If Apple let OS X run on other hardware the OS would suffer with them having to spend time supporting so many different configurations. If they didn't their reputation would suffer. Microsoft building Office for Linux would be a complete waste of time and money. The majority of Linux users would complain that it was expensive, closed source, and continue using the free, open alternatives.

> The majority of Linux users would complain that it was expensive, closed source, and continue using the free, open alternatives. I don't know what you're user base you're sampling but the vast majority of Linux users are not opposed to closed source ( Steam, VMWare, Humble Bundle ) and are quite willing to pay for quality software.

As much as I'd love to live in a Free Software world, I'm happy to just take steps toward it by using proprietary software on top of a Free operating system. The ability to run the OS on any hardware I want (within reason), swap in and out components like DEs, and run any compatible software I own on it is more important to me personally than the apps being open source.

Re: Microsoft Office Mobile arrives for iOS

#34

Post by bornhuetter »

Terretta wrote: post #25
emehrkay wrote: post #23

Is Apple setting up iWork for iCloud (very Microsoft-y naming here) subscription based or free if you happen to have an iCloud account? I ask because these two applications/SOCs would be direct competitors with MS having the advantage

iWork applications and apps are paid but dirt cheap, cloud sync is free for first 5GB storage. Pages handles MS Word formats well, even full "track changes" interop from iPad, so you can round trip office docs from a train.

> Pages handles MS Word formats well

Does it? The people that I've known to try this have all complained to me about problems. Not sure if this is a compatibility issue or Pages itself (and not sure if it's just my small sample of friends).

Re: Microsoft Office Mobile arrives for iOS

#35

Post by bentcorner »

joelhaasnoot wrote: post #28
smackfu wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It really depends on what the prices are. With your example, it's obviously a bad deal. But in this case, Office 365 is $150 a year ($12.50 per month), while the packaged version of Office Professional is $400. So you get a good 2.5 years of use out of it before the curves cross.

I'm still running Office 2007. Bought it for $50 as a student and it's still fine.

I recall reading somewhere that Office's biggest competitor was its previous version.

Re: Microsoft Office Mobile arrives for iOS

#36

Post by wmeredith »

bentcorner wrote: post #35
joelhaasnoot wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm still running Office 2007. Bought it for $50 as a student and it's still fine.

I recall reading somewhere that Office's biggest competitor was its previous version.

This is most definitely true for Microsoft and Adobe. Hence, they're both switching to subscription models.

Re: Microsoft Office Mobile arrives for iOS

#38

Post by at-fates-hands »

bornhuetter wrote: post #22
outside1234 wrote: post #17

Microsoft is opening up - Linux VMs, SDKs for Android / iOS, Office everywhere. The religion has been cast off (finally) at Microsoft and its going where the developers and users are.

I'd love it if that were true, but I'm not sure how much has really changed. They have always allowed Windows to run in a VM on Linux - it's just the special free VM packages that didn't run on Linux before. They have also always had Office on Mac - it's the best way to make sure no other office suite can get off the ground, and makes Office documents more industry standard. If they were to release Office for Linux,…

Doesn't Libre Office do pretty well in the Linux space?

Re: Microsoft Office Mobile arrives for iOS

#39

Post by parasubvert »

bornhuetter wrote: post #34
Terretta wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

iWork applications and apps are paid but dirt cheap, cloud sync is free for first 5GB storage. Pages handles MS Word formats well, even full "track changes" interop from iPad, so you can round trip office docs from a train.

> Pages handles MS Word formats well Does it? The people that I've known to try this have all complained to me about problems. Not sure if this is a compatibility issue or Pages itself (and not sure if it's just my small sample of friends).

Long time Pages user - It does handle Word reasonably well, just as Numbers handles Excel, and Keynote handles PPT. But as with most import/export functionality it has quirks so that you cannot use it exclusively. It is not useless, but not perfect. Depends on the document.

I'd say KeynotePPT is the best of the bunch, followed by PagesWord. VBA Excel macros are hard to port.

Re: Microsoft Office Mobile arrives for iOS

#40

Post by josefresco »

thurn wrote: post #37
wikwocket wrote: post #32

Now if we could just get Google to play nice and release apps for Windows Phone...

I expect BlackBerry apps would be first, since they still have the larger market share [1]. [1]: http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2482816

The numbers are trending in MS's favor. Q12012 share for BB was 6.8 now only 3. Windows Phone in Q12012 was 1.9, now 2.9

Not rocket growth but the trend clearly points to MS being the weak #3.

Not sure how the existing install base for both effects this conclusion. Sales are only 1 piece of the puzzle.

Post reply on HN