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Microsoft Office 2013 Not Compatible With Windows XP, Vista
hypnosec writes "The newly unveiled productivity suite from Microsoft, Office 2013, won't be running on older operating systems like Windows XP and Vista it has been revealed. Office 2013 is said to be only compatible with PCs, laptops or tablets that are running on the latest version of Windows i.e. either Windows 7 or not yet released Windows 8. According to a systems requirements page for Microsoft for Office 2013 customer preview, the Office 2010 successor is only compatible with Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Server 2008 R2 or Windows Server 2012. This was confirmed by a Microsoft spokesperson. Further the minimum requirements states that systems need to be equipped with at least a 1 GHz processor and should have 1 GB of RAM for 32-bit systems or 2 GB for 64-bit hardware. The minimum storage space that should be available is 3 GB along with a DirectX 10-compatible graphics card for users wanting hardware acceleration."
Good. XP needs to be wiped out.
2 gig of RAM to type a letter
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beware he who would deny you access to information, for in his mind he dreams himself your master
No, that is incorrect. They are perfectly capable.
They have no business reason to support people who do not purchase the new operating system.
ipv6 is my vpn
Seems most corporates skip every alternate version and I'd suggest for the most part this is will be bypassed as well
Mainly cosmestic upgrades although a few things like better PDF handling and better BI integration are nice even if not must haves - they just ease the input not the actual operations.
Smartest thing Microsft could do is open up the file formats a little more and throw some improved compression algorithms at the file format - currently it is a fairly poor (speed oriented) ZIP implementation ... Smaller, easier to distribute files would at least be a compelling reason to upgrade for me (and other I presume) and a new file format will force upgrades.
My 2 cents worth ...
From all indications, Office 2013 is just more metro UI devolution insanity from Microsoft.
Corporate IT will not have a problem skipping this upgrade cycle, and will be richer for it. No upgraded licenses to pay for to Microsoft, no new training required for users, and everybody is happier (except for the Microsoft people, of course).
Precisely why would Microsoft Office need DirectX? a 3D spreadsheet maybe? Maybe a really awesome animated book report?
Fine, have neither XP nor Vista. No mention of Ubuntu 12.04... meaning that's compatible probably?
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
Vista not being compatible is suprising to me, but XP support being dropped is acceptable. Who still running XP would actually be paying for Office 2013?
I can see why they'd drop support for XP, being that it's 11 years old now and that it's been succeeded by 3 versions now? But Vista? Really? Vista and 7 are very, very similar. They even back ported some of the 7 stuff to Vista around the time 7 was released with the "platform update". This is a marketing reason, not a technical reason
I am a little bit surprised that Vista will not be supported. I expect Vista just never had the market penetration to be worth the aggravation.
But really, who cares? Open Office (actually I prefer Libre Office since 3.5 came out) does everything I need, and everything everyone else I know needs. The only reason for Microsoft Office is cross compatibility with other MS Office users but it has been a few years since Open Office failed me in that regard. And even then, the sender did not actually need anything that Open Office didn't do. They used MS Office "just because."
Nobody complains that the new Chevy Volt isn't compatible with their set of tools they bought just last year to work on cars.
Nobody complains that the HE dishwasher they bought wont except regular dishwashing crystals.
Nobody complains that the new bike they bought can't use all the old tires they have from the last bike.
Nobody complains that the HD TV they bought doesn't have RCA cable inputs.
Why is that? Face it people, progress happens and sometimes you've got to let go of the old and invest in the new.
Luckily there is eBay and Craigslist where you can sell your old stuff to someone who can't afford the new shiny yet. Give them a break and sell it to them.
A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
I'd suggest that people run a more modern operating system than Win XP, but LibreOffice will even run on Windows 2000!
LibreOffice system requirements:
coding is life
Exactly what progress have they made in the office application field that justifies this argument?
But but but TEH RIBBON!
To offset political mods, replace Flamebait with Insightful.
I saw a Windows tablet at Staples the other day when I was picking up my Nexus 7. It's about twice as thick as any other tablet on display. I wonder why that is.
My guess: thermal insulation... you see, it's bad when the components overheat because of the strain Office 2013 put on them, but is worse when the customers suffer burns because of it.
Questions raise, answers kill. Raise questions to stay alive.
I, on the other hand, will be using only spotted owl feather quills and writing with ink made from the blood of baby pandas. It is more expensive, but the medium is, as you know, the message.
Maybe my vim-fu is weak but remind me how I can check my email and schedule a meeting with vim? Other then writing a shell script to wipe the drive and install windows/office of course.
-1 overrated isn't the same thing as "I disagree".
They have no business reason to support people who do not purchase the new operating system.
Actually, they do. Microsoft might wish to avoid being prosecuted for a Clayton Act Violation. (Tying.)
When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
I can explain it to you, but I think you already know.
They will not support OS versions prior to Win 7 for two real reasons (one of which is a major one):
> They don't want to deal with a new set of bugs / support (however this is a very minor reason given immediate gains)
> Vendor lock-in. You do everything in Office, you want the latest Office, but oh-lookey-here, first you'll need to buy this, this 'n this before you can use the newest Office. More money in their pockets and more lock-in for the future.
They need the extra thickness for the patent licenses.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
How so? I'm using the latest iWork on both Snow Leopard and Lion based machines. I expect it to still work when Mountain Lion is released too.
> Most OS X programs ....
This.
Ballmer seems to have decided that Microsoft needs to slavishly imitate Apple. Apple's way is the one and only way to prosperity, seems to be the reasoning.
This is truly bizarre. MS and Apple don't have the same markets or channels, the same supply chain, the same products or the same motivations. But Microsoft thinks it can succeed by ignoring backward compatibility, alienating hardware vendors, alienating its resellers, alienating its direct customers (IT departments), and alienating _their_ customers (office workers) with a third UI change in three versions.
The Steve Jobs Reality Distortion Field (released by the death of its owner, I guess) seems to have coalesced around Ballmer. I was particularly impressed by his comment that the impending launch of Windows 8 "feels like 1995". Wow. Just ... wow.
I'm seriously wondering these days whether Microsoft will make it through 2022 as an independent company.
Gosh darn it all, I purchased a USB device but my 486 DX2 66 doesn't have a USB port, so I purchased a USB card so I could use my USB device and wouldn't you know it the USB card is PCI and I only have ISA slots. Then I puchased one of these new fangled LCD displays but my Trident video card couldn't push 1440x900 so I purchased a NVidia graphics card and wouldn't you know it the graphics card is PCIe and I don't even have an AGP slot! Then I purchased the new Office 2013 and put in my CD-ROM and wouldn't you know that Office 2013 is on a DVD! Sumabitch.
So ... "Nice operating system. Shame if something happened to it, like, it couldn't run the latest productivity suite. Guess you'll have to upgrade."
A few large orgs will get on the Win 7/8 bandwagon. Then everyone who works with them will need to upgrade, so they can read their client's email attachements.
Before you know it, running XP will feel like running Linux back in the 00s, when you would bitch to everyone about "propitiatory document formats", and act like some kind of oppressed minority group (a bit like the Apple users, but with an overgrown soul patch).
Many,
Pivot Tables to name one. One click charting. HUGE spreadsheets.
I am not even an MS apologist, but even I can see that.
Slashdot, where armchair scientists get shouted down and armchair theologians get modded up.
I'd still happily bitch to anyone about proprietary document formats - not because I used Linux in the 00's though, but because its illogical to support them.
It is stupid to relate just what the program needs. That doesn't tell an average user anything. If a program said "Requires 10MB of RAM, 50MB optimal," people would be confused, and might try it on ultra low spec systems. It should spec in terms of what the whole system, with OS and all, should have to run well.
For example a number of modern games recommend 4GB of RAM. Now they are all 32-bit apps and anyone who knows about the Windows memory model knows this means they won't be designed to use more than 2GB of RAM themselves under normal circumstances. So why the recommendation then? Well they are counting on using most of that 2GB, so they want to make sure there's plenty left over for the OS, virus scanner, IM, Steam, and other things people might have running. The program itself may only need 2GB allocated to it to run ideally, but it won't get 2GB of memory unless the system has a good bit more.
So makes sense to me you do things like Office in the same way. Also it makes sense to not be stingy on recommendations. Something I always hated back in the day was games that were under on their recommendations. They'd say something like "386 20MHz 1MB minimum, 486 25MHz 2MB recommended, 486 33MHz 2MB optimal." Now to me "optimal" means "runs really well cranked up" and "minimum" means "minimum to run reasonable." However what they really mean was "minimum to run the program at all, you can't really play at this level," and optimal meant "Runs reasonably well with this but you'll need a good bit more to crank it up. Said game would need like a 486 50MHz and 4MB to really run properly.
Well we shouldn't do that. It should be spec'd in terms of a reasonable usable minimum, and a recommended that is actually good performance. Well, for 64-bit 7 I'd say 2GB is a realistic minimum. With that, you can run the OS and an app or two reasonably well.
It's also not very demanding. 16GB of RAM is all of $90 these days. I have 16GB in my laptop just because why not? It bumped the cost hardly at all over 8GB.
I can see two sides.
On the one hand it does sound marketing based on account of the fact that 7 and Vista are similar so you are right, little technical difference.
On the other hand it still requires support. If you officially support it you have to go and test everything on another two platforms (32-bit and 64-bit). This means regression testing on all the patches and all that jazz with it. It adds a non-trivial cost. Given that Vista never achieved much market penetration and most Vista users went to 7 when it came out, I can see just thinking it isn't worth the money and hassle to support it.
Remember that for MS support can't mean "Will probably run but might have problems or break shit we haven't tested it." Support has to mean full support and testing.
So I can't say what it was and it may have been purely marketing, but I can see a valid reason as well.
What is this compatibility thing all about anyway? Who cares? Most people who use word processors don't upgrade their software or OS to that matter. People don't upgrade, they buy a new PC with a newly installed OS. That's my opinion and observations.
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Nobody complains that the new Chevy Volt isn't compatible with their set of tools they bought just last year to work on cars.
Actually they would complain bitterly and use plenty of expletives. I haven't heard of any incompatibilities.
Nobody complains that the HE dishwasher they bought wont except regular dishwashing crystals.
Probably because HS detergents cost the same as regular and it's an expendable resource. If it cost them a few hundred extra dollars, they'd complain loudly.
Nobody complains that the new bike they bought can't use all the old tires they have from the last bike.
Probably because the new bike came with tires. Of course, they usually CAN use the same ones if it's the same type of bike. Nobody wants to use 10 speed racing tires off road.
Nobody complains that the HD TV they bought doesn't have RCA cable inputs.
Mine has RCA inputs. It added HDMI and VGA. What's to complain about?
Luckily there is eBay and Craigslist where you can sell your old stuff to someone who can't afford the new shiny yet. Give them a break and sell it to them.
MS claims that Windows is non-transferable. You guessed it, people have complained.
Let me get this straight. Microsoft, with 93 thousand employees can't manage to make their main software product compatible with previous versions of its operating system, while the Document Foundation with, um, zero employees can? Did I get that straight?
It's not about "can", it's about not wanting to.
Similarly, I don't see many apps that are written against Gtk 1.2 in Linux land these days. Why is that? I mean, surely it ain't all that hard, and if you do it, it'll run on ten year old Linux distros!
Honestly, although I have access to newer versions of Office, I don't see the point. Not a single thing I want from a newer version of Office, and the bloating hardware requirements makes it that much easier to just say NO...
most folks still sending out .DOC files as well, only those with no clue are saving Word files as .DOCX.
Ah, you want emacs then.
Those who can't do, teach. Those who can't teach either, do tech support.
If its like the one I saw they are using some lame ass CPUs in them which means they need extra room to get the heat out through pipes and fans. why hasn't anybody put one of the AMD C or E series chips into a tablet? Those are nice chips, full 1080P video through HDMI thanks to the Radeon GPU and pretty low on battery suckage. I have one of the E350 netbooks and I get around 6 hours playing 720P and more if I'm just surfing and don't need bluetooth. It seems like it'd be perfect for a tablet and would let you run all your X86 programs, add a transformer style keyboard with extra battery and you'd have a tablet that turns into an all day laptop with full X86 compatibility, sounds sweet to me.
As for TFA...damn, can Ballmer and Sinofsky torpedo this company a little more? Why don't they just send a page to the XP and Vista users offering Libre Office or Google docs while they are at it? Between fracturing IE all to hell, followed by keeping many games on DX9 because they refused to backport to XP, to making sure all those Vista users (Yeah i know the number is dropping but there is still millions of them and they ARE supported until 2017 as far as EOL goes) won't buy their Office suite I swear MSFT couldn't be run any worse if the team leads were picked by Cook over at Apple. Its like watching the PHB at Dilbert just bumble a company straight into the ground.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
Who would have thought that word processing needs 1GB of RAM?
Especially from the "640k ought to be enough for anybody" company !
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
That and authors and solicitors and technical documentation writers, patent writers, translators .etc. also use the word processor as their primary tool. Since he/she mentions spreadsheets as well he could also be involved in "small-data" data-modeling, office administration or similar.
Just because you lack the imagination to see otherwise doesn't mean he/she is stuck in a low level job. Although even if he/she was there would be no need to be an offensive ass about it. Typists and secretaries play a necessary role in society.
Complain about lost profits.
Life was hell, then I discovered Linux...
Nonsense. iWork runs on 10.4 on a PPC machine.
He never said 'primary tool.' Though that would be a good description for you.
MS is using their monopoly to force the whole world to upgrade again. If you run a business and a partner sends you a document in the latest fscking MS Office format, then you have little choice about the matter.
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
Aside from a few niche areas, support contracts generally aren't as valuable as you seem to think...
The vast majority of organisations i've been to pay ridiculous sums for the software and still don't get any support... Those that do pay extra for support never seem to use it, or if they do they still don't get a satisfactory response.. In most cases the "support" seems to be no better than what your own IT department provides and just allows them to slack off instead of doing what they're supposed to.
And if you're talking about business requirements, what ever happened to second sourcing and business continuity? Buying a product and associated support which is only available from a single supplier is not good business sense, what if the product is discontinued or the supplier goes under?
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And ... a DirectX 10 graphics card. I think that's even more implausible than the 1GB RAM. Did they port Office to WPF or something?
Yeahyeah I know, Direct 2D, fancy hardware accelerated text, etc. It's still kind of funny needing a GPU for documents.
Everything Microsoft produce this days are bloatwares which are bloated to the max
With bloatware like these how the hell they can survive in the tablet / smartphone platforms, where the CPU/GPU/RAM specs are much MUCH lower than that of the desktop ?
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
The funniest thing is "DirectX 10-compatible graphics card for users wanting hardware acceleration." Say what?
You need hardware acceleration to write a memo? Or enter numbers into a spreadsheet?
Is that for Clippy?
I don't know if we can really complain. I mean, with Gnome/Ubuntu requiring 3D for the basic desktop environment anymore.
But still.
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because all the office heavy lifting will be done on dinky litter devices w/o keyboards.
Word processor pages are rendered similar to a web browser. We now use graphics card acceleration for browsers. Why not for publishing software?