Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Microsoft Plans New Server Products For Office v12

Posted by timothy on from the fetch-hither-the-license-cost-abacus dept.

cbnet2004 writes "Microsoft Watch is reporting that when the upcoming Office 12 is released (what product reaches 12.0?), Microsoft will have a server version of Excel, Visio, and several other products along with it. So if you thought Microsoft was trying to dominate your desktop, now you'll have to watch out for your severs, too. According to the article, the new servers will fortunately not be for new "thin client" solutions."

37 comments

  1. Interesting to see how they will top that. by damu · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Office has about 100% market share in business. MS is really facing an uphill battle with their new release it has to be better than anything they have released, and it seems that their ace card will be collaboration. Maybe a CVS type Office reposotory where you can access your documents or any documents by your company from anywhere. A way to link your profit excel sheet, with your word memo, with your inventory access database, with email to investors... We shall see.

    --


    Useless sig.
    1. Re:Interesting to see how they will top that. by ConceptJunkie · · Score: 5, Funny

      You mean something like Lotus Notes, but doesn't look and feel like mid-80's software developed by the Soviets?

      --
      You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
    2. Re:Interesting to see how they will top that. by oni · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Office has about 100% market share in business. MS is really facing an uphill battle with their new release it has to be better than anything they have released,

      I'm sorry, but that is not at all how it works.

      MS will stop selling the old version, so when you buy a shiny new computer from Dell, you're going to get the new version of Office. When a business replaces a few of their computers, they will find subtle but noticable differences between the office suites.

      Guess who always gets the newest computers. Management. So after a couple of instances where your boss sends you a powerpoint presentation and it doesn't look quite right, you're going to complain that you need the same version he or she has. voila. Everybody has the new version of office. It doesn't matter if it is any better than the old one. Hell, they could intentionally make it worse. It wouldn't matter. Nobody would notice because nobody uses the advanced features.

      It always cracks me up when I suggest that someone try oppenoffice. "I don't want to learn something new," they say. But openoffice works exactly like MS office and you go to a new version of it every couple of years.

    3. Re:Interesting to see how they will top that. by Curien · · Score: 1

      That's why any half-decent IT department wipes the disk and installs from a generic image. That way, everyone has the same thing.

      --
      It's always a long day... 86400 doesn't fit into a short.
    4. Re:Interesting to see how they will top that. by JohnFluxx · · Score: 1

      So the license you had for the new version is wasted money, _and_ you need a license for the older version?

    5. Re:Interesting to see how they will top that. by oni · · Score: 2, Interesting

      any half-decent IT department wipes the disk and installs from a generic image.

      That's correct - if you have a site license for office. I was once a halfway descent IT person in a company that did not have site licenses. I had a big binder with every license for every individual peice of software we owned (until Microsoft made that difficult by putting the license on a sticker on the side of the computer). Anyway, we got some new computers, and these actually didn't come with any office suite. I was prepared to put the same version of office on them that we had on every other computer. This was way back in '98 and we were still using the version before office 97. MS no longer sold the CDs but they were willing to sell me just licenses. But get this, they were more expensive than the new version. That was another incentive to upgrade. I bought them anyway and a few weeks later I got 1 (one) peice of paper in the mail from microsoft that said, "license for X copies of office." It didn't even have a cool hologram or anything.

      So just to review, I paid hundreds of dollars to Microsoft so they could hit File/Print and stuff it in an envelope. You've got to love a company with a setup like that.

    6. Re:Interesting to see how they will top that. by Deagol · · Score: 1
      You should have gone the extra mile and paid the extra cash for the boxed retail versions of both Office and the OS. That way, you could use them and transfer them to new hardware. MS's Office reader apps usually run on older Windows versions for years, so reading external docs would be easy. Of course, you could always use an OpenOffice box for back-converting to the format you use.

      Or... just use OpenOffice to being with. :)

      Any CPA types out there who can tell me if you can depreciate software over time?

      --
      Method of processing duck feet
    7. Re:Interesting to see how they will top that. by kisielk · · Score: 1

      I don't get it... can someone explain?

    8. Re:Interesting to see how they will top that. by ConceptJunkie · · Score: 1

      Have you ever used Notes? It's the most hideous Windows application I've ever used. It doesn't follow most Windows UI conventions or standards and just seems to be an inconsistent mish-mash of poorly integrated apps, each of which is itself awful and together are even worse.

      --
      You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
    9. Re:Interesting to see how they will top that. by Blakey+Rat · · Score: 1

      Let me guess, you've never used Lotus Notes.

      Lotus Notes is a combination Email, Calendar, Contact application like Microsoft Outlook/Exchange. Instead of keeping emails and other data in a nice sensible format, Notes puts everything inside of various databases... for example, each user has their own file (blakey_rat.mail) that is a database containing your email and dates.

      The GOOD thing about this is that the database engine is powerful enough that you can do more with Notes/Domino than just email. For instance, where I work we have our set of policies and procedures in a Notes database that all email users can connect to and view.

      The BAD thing about it is that Lotus Notes is the worst piece of shit software I've ever used in my life. It stores everything server side EXCEPT the address book, which will bite you in the ass the first time you move a user from one computer to the other. The GUI doesn't use ANY Windows conventions, MacOS conventions, or Linux conventions, and basically looks and behaves like something an alien would design after spending one week on earth. It's wildly inconsistant. (In some text fields, the mouse scroll wheel will scroll a page at a time; in others, it'll scroll a line at a time; and in others the scrollwheel does nothing at all.)

      Some of the things it does seem designed SPECIFICALLY so that users lose data. (For instance, if you recieve a Word file in an attachment, you can 'open' it from a contextual menu. This lets you edit the file and save it, which is great... what is NOT great is that it doesn't move the file outside of the temp folder when editing, so Notes deletes it when it's done with the email. I've had like twenty users lose data that way. There seems to be no way to disable the 'edit' contextual menu item.)

      And that's not even mentioning how HUGE, SLOW and BLOATED the application is. God forbid you minimize the Notes client and then want to write an email! Be prepared for several *minutes* of disk-thrashing before the GUI is responsive again.

      In short, Notes is a piece of shit. AVOID if possible.

      --
      Comment of the year
    10. Re:Interesting to see how they will top that. by ConceptJunkie · · Score: 1

      And yet people still choose to use it. Compared to Notes, Office is a dream (and I hate Office, but at least it's usable (mostly)).

      The biggest irony was when IBM acquired Lotus because all of IBM's big application software is just as bad as Notes.

      --
      You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
    11. Re:Interesting to see how they will top that. by Blakey+Rat · · Score: 1

      Yeah, well, we use it because... well, we've always used it. So we have some applications that require it, and switching would be very expensive. Besides, Lotus Notes wasn't AS terrible in the 4.x days. Still bad, just more tolerable.

      --
      Comment of the year
    12. Re:Interesting to see how they will top that. by DA-MAN · · Score: 1

      So the license you had for the new version is wasted money, _and_ you need a license for the older version?

      Either that or your transferring licenses, because you had a license for the machine that this one is replacing right?

      Also you don't have to buy a dell with Office. With Windows you are paying twice if you already have a site license, but for Enterprise you usually have a choice to buy without licenses and save a few bucks.

      Doesn't sound like you've worked at an Enterprise IT Support. Not that I have either, but I work with those guys quite a bit as a Sysadmin on the NIX side of things.

      --
      Can I get an eye poke?
      Dog House Forum
    13. Re:Interesting to see how they will top that. by Curien · · Score: 1

      The site license is helpful but not necessary. The important thing to remember to do is always include the costs of all requisite licenses in the quotes you send upstream.

      Remember, we're talking about large corporations here (the context was where there's a communications discontinuity between "management" and "employees"), so I wasn't addressing people who work for companies with so few employees that an extra couple hundred per computer really matters.

      --
      It's always a long day... 86400 doesn't fit into a short.
    14. Re:Interesting to see how they will top that. by j-pimp · · Score: 1

      I have worked as "Enterprise IT Support." Auctually the company has only about 100 employees, but we do colocation and manage other companies lans, so we have to support other people large networks. The company was a microsoft silver partner, which I believe meant unlimited workstation licenses for os and office internally. Externally our large clients have similar site licenses. We don't religiously ghost our internal machines, due to constantly changing software versions and a very good backup system. When we buy a department new workstations or management gets a new batch of laptops we setup a ghost for that. However, after that people always come to us saying they need this or that program thats not on our blanket license. For example many people need visio. Combine that with the fact that at any given most people have a development version of one of our inhouse projects running on there machine, and ghosting is no longer an ideal solution. For a larger organization that does not consist mostly of IT staff ghost probally works better.

      --
      --- Justin Dearing http://www.justaprogrammer.net/ We're just programmers.
  2. We won't see it as version 12.0 by rusty0101 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The next version of Office is going to be identified in accordance with whatever "outside" versioning system they decide to use when it is released.

    It would not surprise me if they label it something like OfficeXP2, or even OfficeYQ.

    Remember the version of Office that came out during the Win9x releases was labeled Office9x. Along with Windows2000 came Office2000. Along came WindowsXP, and up pops OfficeXP.

    The Version 12.0 identifier is the internal identifier for Microsoft developers. It will show up in the 'About xxxx' screen, likely in the form 12.xxxx.yyyy, where xxxx and yyyy are design and build numbers.

    -Rusty

    --
    You never know...
    1. Re:We won't see it as version 12.0 by ndixon · · Score: 1
      It would not surprise me if they label it something like OfficeXP2, or even OfficeYQ.
      I'm holding out for Windows XS and OfficeXS...
      --
      Oh, how convenient: a theory about God that doesn't involve looking through a telescope.
    2. Re:We won't see it as version 12.0 by InsaneCreator · · Score: 1

      Along with Windows2000 came Office2000. Along came WindowsXP, and up pops OfficeXP.

      Longhorn Office is probbably next - because your workers are nothing but cattle.

  3. You heard it here first by sethadam1 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It will be OfficeFX and OfficeFX Server.

    Just like Longhorn will be WindowsFX.

    Yeah, Win32 is the basis of many versions of Windows, but it's clear that lettering is the current marketing buzz (Windows XP, Athlon MP, etc).

    1. Re:You heard it here first by JohnFluxx · · Score: 1

      I think althon MP is a bad example, but doesn't MP stand for multi-processor? I.e. that you can have 2 or more chips on the motherboard?

      With a quick google, I can't confirm that MP does actually stand for Multi-processor, make it makes sense if it did.

  4. I can't wait to see this. by nevlow · · Score: 3, Funny

    Great. Now I'm going to have to keep up with even more weird revisions.

    "What OS are you running?"

    "Windows Longhorn 2005 Service Pack 5 Office Server Edition with Service Pack 6.5 for Athlon64."

    "I'm sorry sir, we only provide patches for Windows Longhorn 2005 Service Pack 6 Office Server Edition with Service Pack 7 for Athlon64s."

    "Damn!"

    1. Re:I can't wait to see this. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Get with it. I'm on Athlon65

  5. what product reaches 12.0? by Kardamon · · Score: 3, Informative

    As the submitter asked this :-)

    Cisco IOS Release 12.0
    Sybase Adaptive Server Enterprise 12.0 (Sybase ASE jumped from version 4 to version 10, leaving 5,6,7,8,9 to MS SQL Server)
    Hardware Compatibility Test (HCT) 12.0
    CorelDraw Graphics Suite 12.0
    Corel WordPerfect Office 12.0
    Domus.Cad 12.0
    Palm Tipsheet 12.0
    ALS Beamline 12.0
    OmniPage Pro 12.0
    SPSS for Windows 12.0
    Laplink Gold 12.0
    Etcetera...

    --
    -- Qu'est-ce que la propriété intellectuelle? It is thought control.
    1. Re:what product reaches 12.0? by byolinux · · Score: 3, Informative

      Emacs is on 21!

      --
      Join the Free Software Foundation
    2. Re:what product reaches 12.0? by Mr.+Shiny+And+New · · Score: 1

      Isn't Emacs over version 20? Did it have a version called 12.0?

    3. Re: what product reaches 12.0? by BeatdownGeek · · Score: 2, Funny
      (what product reaches 12.0?)

      Ummm... Emacs, for one.

      But I guess *nix users would argue that is their Office.

    4. Re:what product reaches 12.0? by Baikala · · Score: 1

      Autocad is on 17th versión. it's called autocad 2005

      --
      16,777,216 comments ought to be enough for any forum!
    5. Re:what product reaches 12.0? by bairy · · Score: 1

      Office hasn't had 12 versions anyway has it, didn't Word jump from 2 to 6, excel from 3 to 6 then they finally merged it into office 6 onwards?

      --


      Get paid to search..It's geniune and
    6. Re: what product reaches 12.0? by addaon · · Score: 1

      (what product reaches 12.0?)
      Ummm... Emacs, for one.

      Yeah, but less has more!

      $ less --version
      less 378

      --

      I've had this sig for three days.
    7. Re:what product reaches 12.0? by Kardamon · · Score: 1

      Right, I did not think about Emacs - perhaps because vi is my office application...

      --
      -- Qu'est-ce que la propriété intellectuelle? It is thought control.
  6. So, it's a licencing engine? by Spoing · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I'm confused. If this isn't for thin clients, what technical/practical benifits do the 'server versions' of these apps provide?

    --
    A firewall can not protect you from yourself. Turn off what you do not need. Do not use the firewall to do your work.
    1. Re:So, it's a licencing engine? by hoggoth · · Score: 3, Insightful

      > what technical/practical benifits do the 'server versions' of these apps provide?

      It's about time! How many servers out there are running a desktop Excel that is being COM controlled by a web application? Excel is NOT made to handle multiple simultaneous requests, and hangs, crashes, corrupts and does other nasty things when it is asked to.
      I don't know how many times I've had to kludge together a solution to manipulating Excel spreadsheets or Powerpoint presentations in a web server application. None of the solutions are perfect. Controlling Excel and Powerpoint with COM leads to an unstable solution. Emulating Excel or Powerpoint data leads to buggy data (since Microsoft actively tries to F* up anybody trying to emulate their data formats).

      A server-capable Office engine would enable me to manipulate Excel, Powerpoint, and Word documents in a web application.

      --
      - For the complete works of Shakespeare: cat /dev/random (may take some time)
    2. Re:So, it's a licencing engine? by irc.goatse.cx+troll · · Score: 1

      Serverside scripting? Webapps that can accept excel or word documents as input, etc.

      --
      Pain lasts, kid. Its how you know you're alive. Sometimes I think this growing up thing is just pain management-TheMaxx
  7. Actually by sethadam1 · · Score: 1

    I'm pretty sure it DOESN'T stand for multiprocessor.

    I seems to recall it being marketed as "mobile processor." But XP, as in Athlon XP, and Windows XP, and FX, as in WinFX and AthlonFX, and Coke c2, etc demonstrate that that type of marketing appears to be effective - or at least, ad execs think so.

    1. Re:Actually by Fweeky · · Score: 1
      Er, the Athlon MP's claim to fame was it was for SMP systems; nothing to do with "mobile processor":
      "The AMD Athlon MP processor is a seventh-generation x86 processor designed for high-performance multiprocessing servers and workstations.

      A key advantage of AMDs multiprocessing platform is Smart MP technology, which greatly enhances overall platform performance by increasing data movement between the two CPUs, chipset and memory system."
  8. What product gets to version 12.0? by kcorporation · · Score: 0, Redundant

    The poster has surely never heard of EMACS, currently at stable version 21.3 (and still going strong!).

  9. Office / Windows OZ home edition. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Longhorn is a code name, it will not be the official name.

    More likely to be Windows 2005, or Windows OZ, or Office OZ.

    In the fact that Win 9x looks like Win XP backwards, I suggest they might go with Windows OZ as OZ looks like 05 backwards in a different way.

    Of course, there would have to be an easter egg showing Bill Gates as Wizard of OZ.