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Microsoft Unveils Browser-Based Office Apps

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the what-took-you-so-long dept.

snydeq writes "Microsoft followed up its Windows Azure unveiling by announcing that it will deliver lightweight versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote through the browser, a la Google Apps. Surprisingly, Office Web applications will run in Firefox and Safari, not just Internet Explorer. Far less shocking: You won't get Office Web apps free and clear as you do Google apps. The apps are meant to be an extension to locally installed instances of the next version of Microsoft Office, the same way Outlook Web Access provides access to mail without the fat Outlook client."

5 of 126 comments (clear)

  1. Re:MS Gets it right? by sakonofie · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Microsoft knows cloud computing will be a joke.

    And on the off chance cloud computing just happens to be popular, Microsoft wants to make sure people keep sending me .doc/docx files.

  2. Re:Runs on FF/Safair? by muuh-gnu · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I kinda doubt Linux will be supported.

    > The apps are meant to be an extension to locally installed
    > instances of the next version of Microsoft Office,

    How its then supposed to run on Linux at all?

  3. Licensing will Doom Them by mpapet · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Sure, it may look pretty, but what's the EULA going to be on this hit of the Microsoft crack pipe? The gradual tightening of their EULA's is another reason the company I work for won't entertain budget spent for new Microsoft licenses.

    Have you read the silverlight EULA? Since it's job-related I did, and let me tell you it's not pretty.

    We're a small business that has purchased Microsoft site licenses over the years. I gotta wonder how long Microsoft can alienate customers like us before it starts affecting their top and bottom lines.

    --
    http://www.maxineudall.com/2010/02/should-economists-be-sued-for-malpractice.html
  4. Re:Runs on FF/Safair? by nine-times · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Are we accepting Silverlight as a valid system requirement now?

    I don't mean that as an anti-Microsoft question, but I don't want to have to install every company's obscure little proprietary plugins to run my apps and access my data. Flash is bad enough, but I draw the line directly behind Flash and won't go any further. In fact, I'm still hoping to boot Flash to the other side of that line, especially since it crashes my browser on a regular basis, but I still seem to be stuck with it.

    But regardless of who's developing it, I'm loath to install another proprietary incompatible Flash clone.

  5. Ah, yes... more maneuvering toward subscriptions by macraig · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Here we go again: another attempt to maneuver people toward software subscriptions and changing the perception of software as a tool to an image of software as content... for which people are already accustomed - habituated, in traditional Pavlovian fashion - to forking over cash every month without really analyzing the big picture. (This is one tactic used by manipulative people to concentrate massive amounts of material wealth... toward themselves and away from everyone else. It's totally Darwinian but not very ethical.)