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Microsoft Brings Office Online To Chrome OS; Ars Reviews Windows Phone 8.1

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the worst-frenemies dept.

SmartAboutThings (1951032) writes "While we are still waiting for the official Windows 8.1 touch-enabled apps to get launched on the Windows Store, Microsoft went and decided that it's time to finally bring the Office online apps to the Chrome Web Store, instead. Thus, Microsoft is making the Web versions of its Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote apps available to users through the Chrome Web Store and also improving all of them with new features, along with several bug fixes and performance improvements." More on the Microsoft front: an anonymous reader wrote in with a link to Ars Technica's review of the upcoming Windows Phone 8.1 release: "It is a major platform update even if it is just a .1 release. Updates include the debut of Cortana, using the same kernel as Windows 8.1 and the Xbox One, a notebook reminder app, inner circle friend management, IE 11, Nokia's camera app by default, lock screen and background customizations, a much improved email client with calendar support, more general Windows 8.1 API inclusion for better portability, and a notification center. Ars rated it more of a Windows Phone 9 release than .1 update."

43 of 69 comments (clear)

  1. All I can say to that is... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    who?

    1. Re:All I can say to that is... by MightyMartian · · Score: 5, Funny

      Apparently some company in Redmond, WA is putting out a mobile clone of OpenOffice.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    2. Re:All I can say to that is... by MightyMartian · · Score: 1

      I support more mod points for the irony challenged!

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    3. Re:All I can say to that is... by LordLimecat · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It might have been funny, if I hadnt gotten complaints from every single person Ive recommended oOO to over the years, and had every single one end up buying office.

      And its not even like its just that theyre familiar with Office; oOO lacks serious polish and is sometimes maddening to work with.

    4. Re:All I can say to that is... by riis138 · · Score: 1

      Libre office is solid, I have used it on a few machines I built for customers that did not want to pay for an office license and I have heard few complaints. It does lack much of the polish we have grown accustomed to in Redmond's offering.

      --
      Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known. -Carl Sagan
    5. Re:All I can say to that is... by BasilBrush · · Score: 2

      Too right. MS Office is bad. Open Office is worse.
      Similarly, Photoshop is bad, and Gimp is worse.

      Why is the open source community incapable of outdoing commercial de-facto standard apps with poor UIs?

      Is it that they make the mistake of thinking it's about feature lists?

    6. Re:All I can say to that is... by fermion · · Score: 2
      When I converted a family member from MS Office to Pages years ago it was a struggle. The expectation was that there was only one way for a such an application to work, and that was defined by MS Office. Everything that was different was wrong, everything that missing was a glare. I get that. Most people in the US at least were trained on MS Office and they don't know anything different. OTOH, I got through the struggles, and Pages did the job as well as anything.

      I have seen a similar situations with open textbooks. I have seen lately several that have clearly used MS Word. The layout and formulas are awful. I do technical work in LaTex. Obviously, because these authors have never used anything else but MS Office, and when all one has it a hammer everything is a nail, they just assumed that MS Word is the best thing to in which to write a book.

      As an aside, I did write a short, 60 pagish, book back in the late 90's. I specifically chose OO.org because it had some features at the time that made putting together such a thing very easy. Also, 10 years ago, OO.org was much better at open old MS Word files than MS Word. Ms Word is still the absolute best way to right a Memo. MS Excel is still the best spreadsheet, but it is no longer so good that it is the only choice for many projects. MS Powerpoint is the worst presentation creator that I have used. OO.org, Libreoffice is better, and Keynote used to be way better before Apple shoehorned it into the iPad and made that the official version.

      MS Ofiice is the defacto format for file transfer though, and because MS is horrible at managing such a thing is becoming increasingly difficult to see such files with an MS tool.

      --
      "She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
    7. Re:All I can say to that is... by jones_supa · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Why is the open source community incapable of outdoing commercial de-facto standard apps with poor UIs?

      Software is hard, and the complexity and manpower needed for projects is continuously increasing.

    8. Re:All I can say to that is... by MightyMartian · · Score: 1

      I once had a Server 2003 install go bananas and completely fuck up an Exchange message store. "Never again!" I cried, and within a few hours was installing from a day old backup.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    9. Re:All I can say to that is... by Johnny+Loves+Linux · · Score: 1

      I've seen postings from others as well that state that OpenOffice is inferior to Microsoft Office. Since Debian switched to LibreOffice a few years ago, I haven't used OpenOffice so I can't comment on the current version of OpenOffice vs. the current version of Microsoft Office.

      However, I did a find web site which does publishes a comparison between LibreOffice and Microsoft Office 2013: https://wiki.documentfoundatio... Based on that comparison, I would have to say that Microsoft Office is actually inferior to LibreOffice. Does anyone know of any other published comparisons between the office suites?

    10. Re:All I can say to that is... by exomondo · · Score: 1

      Why is the open source community incapable of outdoing commercial de-facto standard apps with poor UIs?

      Perhaps it's that with an application this large you really need designers that have a consistent vision for what it needs to be like and every new feature that is introduced that requires a GUI element needs to go through a design process. If you switch designers you're likely to end up with inconsistent design throughout the application. People have their own opinions about how things should be done, if you lose a developer and he/she is replaced then whether he/she refactors the area of code they are responsible for has no visible impact on the user, but if a designer does that then the effect is immediate inconsistency.

      Also maybe UI designers are less inclined to work for free? So you end up with UIs designed by programmers instead, they work the way a programmer thinks they should work which is rarely how an end user thinks they should work. A similar situation occurs with documentation.

      The exception to this is probably Blender, the more recent UI improvements and high quality of documentation show the high level of community (by that I include production studios and independent hobbyists and professionals) interest, support and use of the product not to mention the contributions made to it. In professional circles photographers don't use GIMP, they use Photoshop just as most use MS Office over Libre/Open Office. Blender has some real, genuine advantages over its proprietary competitors, it isn't just a me-too, fast-follower product that copies a proprietary one and that is why it is successful.

    11. Re:All I can say to that is... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Well we cant let an anecdote that calls out a problem with Open Office go without putting in an irrelevant anti-Microsoft anecdote can we? People like you are the reason we cannot get ahead in Open Source, whenever there is a problem people like you make an excuse for it by pointing to some completely different problem in a proprietary product. Even if it were the *exact same problem* in Microsoft Word how would that make it any better? We are copying Microsoft and they have this problem so its ok if we have it too? That is *NOT* helpful!

      The best thing for Open Source software would be to ignore proprietary software, it is a distraction. Better to just go on to develop really good software that people want to use! So stop making excuses, stop deflecting and start admitting *there is a problem now lets fix it!* Proprietary software has problems? Yeah great, that has no impact on us so is not relevant.

    12. Re:All I can say to that is... by LordLimecat · · Score: 1

      That comparison sort of demonstrates the issue that a lot of geeks have: technical superiority is irrelevant. What matters is:
        1) Are the features included the ones that users actually want?
        2) Are the features included easily discoverable?
        3) Do those features work consistently, and fit with the user workflow?
        4) Is the interface polished and well designed?

      Its worth noting that even during the ribbon change, people were preferring Office over LibreOffice. So either the ribbon wasnt that bad, or Libreoffice was that much worse.

      Too many geeks will look at a product and say "but it does this!" while ignoring that its not what the user wants.

    13. Re:All I can say to that is... by LordLimecat · · Score: 1

      I think you are dismissing your relative's complaints as habit too quickly. I got my brother on LO a while back, and he gave it a serious try (would have saved $250!) for several weeks before showing me several features LO lacked, like proper callout notes in word.

      I myself have written term papers in LO, and compared with MS Office some of its footnoting / endnoting / formatting conventions are nightmarish.

    14. Re:All I can say to that is... by LordLimecat · · Score: 1

      Exchange / server 2003 dont tend to just randomly blow up. Usually if you investigate you'll find something the user did, or some bizarre extenuating circumstance.

      My favorite is when people clear out the "log files" to free up disk space, and then wonder why the information store wont mount.

    15. Re:All I can say to that is... by gonnagetya · · Score: 1

      Honestly it depends on what you want to accomplish as well as other factors which might not just be about the software.

      For example - I don't like to pirate software and will use a "lesser" tool if it still does what I want. Also a lot of the alternative software, being free/open-source, supports Linux when the commercial tools won't even acknowledged its existence. I don't use Linux on the desktop as much anymore, but I do prefer to use cross-platform tools as much as possible so that I have the freedom to use any system I like and still have the same software available. Keeps the same skills available.

    16. Re:All I can say to that is... by donaldm · · Score: 1

      Too right. MS Office is bad. Open Office is worse.

      In what way? I have personally found that there is not much difference between the two since they are both Word processors. Of course if you want professional documents you could always go for LaTeX which is surprisingly easy to use since you only need a text editor or you can use a graphical interface as well, however there are commercial type setter software packages as well. It really depends what the user or organisation require (Note: I did not use the word "want", there is a huge difference) to get the job done.

      Similarly, Photoshop is bad, and Gimp is worse.

      Again how are these products bad? They both can do some quite amazing things with images since they are both image manipulation software.

      Why is the open source community incapable of outdoing commercial de-facto standard apps with poor UIs?

      I don't think it is a matter of "free open source software" (or FOSS) outdoing commercial software since it would be difficult for FOSS to match a commercial company in features and they also run the risk (especially in the US) of infringing software patents. However if a FOSS product will do everything that the user or organisation requires then why spend money on the commercial software,

      As for poor UI's you should elaborate on that. If the UI does the job efficiently then what is the problem? What do you expect a "telepathic" or some other "magical" interface? :)

      --
      There ain't no such thing as proprietary standards only proprietary formats. Standards are by definition open.
    17. Re:All I can say to that is... by BasilBrush · · Score: 1

      However, I did a find web site which does publishes a comparison between LibreOffice and Microsoft Office 2013: https://wiki.documentfoundatio... Based on that comparison, I would have to say that Microsoft Office is actually inferior to LibreOffice.

      In my post to which you reply I said "Is it that they make the mistake of thinking it's about feature lists?" And I'm afraid you've just illustrated exactly that mistake.

    18. Re:All I can say to that is... by BasilBrush · · Score: 1

      I have personally found that there is not much difference between the two since they are both Word processors.

      So any two apps that are in the same category are not much different?

      As for poor UI's you should elaborate on that. If the UI does the job efficiently then what is the problem? What do you expect a "telepathic" or some other "magical" interface? :)

      It looks like you don't consider UIs important. Or at least don't appreciate the ways in which one UI is better than another.

      No, I'm not going to do a UI comparison here. It'd take some time to do it. And I think if you don't understand something about what makes one UI better than another I'd be wasting my time anyway.

      Are you equally indiscriminating about two different code-bases that are supposed to do a similar thing. One well designed with proper separation of concerns and consistent approach, and the other a pile of spaghetti.

  2. Yawn. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    What happens to the vast majority of businesses and power users who hate the cloud, hate online apps, and want something that works and stores stuff here rather than having the latency, UI experience, feature set and security of Word 1.0 for Macintosh?

    (OK, I lie, at least that had the security of an air gap separating it from the rest of the world.)

    1. Re:Yawn. by gstoddart · · Score: 2

      What happens to the vast minority of people who always think they are in the vast majority?

      They become politically active, and then continue to loudly claim to represent the vast majority even though they don't.

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    2. Re:Yawn. by MightyMartian · · Score: 5, Funny

      What happens to the vast minority of people who always think they are in the vast majority?

      They join some Libetarian populist movement and demand all government services with the exception of those they partake of to be slashed or eliminated?

      And yes, oh ye mighty moderators, this is trolling.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    3. Re:Yawn. by jellomizer · · Score: 5, Insightful

      They become old and bitter, just like those mainframe guys. Everything comes with a trade-off. When we went from the mainframe to PC's, software for a little while had to take a step back so it will work on systems with less power. The same thing is happening now with mobile devices. Software is taking a step back so they can operate on their mobile devices, where speed was sacrificed for weight and power usage. However, the fact we have smaller lighter carry anywhere technology, allows us to be more connected and less reliant on paper.

      Trade-offs, they happen. Just like the mainframes, the PC will move more towards business only usages, while home stuff will go to mobile devices, as well as those light end business apps.

      The Mainframe isn't dead yet, neither will the PC go away any time soon. However they will get more specialized for particular work.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    4. Re:Yawn. by jfdavis668 · · Score: 1

      I want a mainframe terminal emulator for iPad

  3. Windows AppStore by jfdavis668 · · Score: 1

    So, when is office coming to the Windows app store so I can use it on my Windows 8 tablet?

    1. Re:Windows AppStore by jones_supa · · Score: 1

      I thought Office 2013 RT shipped with all Windows RT devices.

    2. Re:Windows AppStore by jfdavis668 · · Score: 1

      It is not the new touch version that Microsoft made for iPad and other touch devices. It is a modified version of the desktop version. Considerable difference in usability on a touch device.

  4. WIndows 8.1 preview install instructions by Billly+Gates · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Instructions are available here?

    Keep in mind it is a one way ticket. No way to downgrade back to 8.0 and reset wont work. If you are not an American you lose your metric standards too and have miles and temperatures in F. Cortana is optimized too for American accents in this release.

    SO it is caution if you own a Windows Phone. I own one and I will not be upgrading as I use the conferencing feature on my phone anyday and do not want to take risks.

    --
    http://saveie6.com/
  5. Re:all this time, it was MS marketing that was bro by riis138 · · Score: 2

    Agreed! It's quite refreshing to hear positive news about Office for a change.

    --
    Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known. -Carl Sagan
  6. Re:Windows Phone 8.1 by HerculesMO · · Score: 2

    I originally bought my 920 for just the camera; I have kids so I wanted to have a good camera at all times.

    It wound up being better then the iPhone in a lot of ways, and now with the update (yes, I went to the developer preview mode) it's actually far better than iPhone or Android. And I have a Galaxy S4 I use for work, so it's not for lack of trying everything.

    The only quip I have right now is the way that associations for things are handles (open with), but I think there has been some work done here, apps just have to take advantage of it.

    --
    The price is always right if someone else is paying.
  7. Re:Windows Phone 8.1 by LordThyGod · · Score: 1

    I originally bought my 920 for just the camera; I have kids so I wanted to have a good camera at all times.

    It wound up being better then the iPhone in a lot of ways, and now with the update (yes, I went to the developer preview mode) it's actually far better than iPhone or Android. And I have a Galaxy S4 I use for work, so it's not for lack of trying everything.

    The only quip I have right now is the way that associations for things are handles (open with), but I think there has been some work done here, apps just have to take advantage of it.

    Yea, maybe its got it all covered, but why are they always last to the party? Why does it take years? It looks like they wait for other people to have an idea, then imitate that. Give me somebody who is looking ahead and not back, please. Tiles? Please, not enough people care that it makes a difference.

  8. Scroogled by almitydave · · Score: 2

    But but but... I thought Chromebooks weren't "real" laptops and were useless because they didn't have Windows or Office!

    --
    my, your, his/her/its, our, your, their
    I'm, you're, he's/she's/it's, we're, you're, they're
    1. Re:Scroogled by TheP4st · · Score: 1

      That only applied while they were busy working out the details for the embrace, extend and extinguish strategy they will use towards competing mobile operating systems

      --
      "I have downloaded hundreds and hundreds of records, why would I care if somebody downloads ours?" Robin Pecknold
    2. Re:Scroogled by almitydave · · Score: 1

      I see... So we can expect a Microsoft Chromebook with Microsoft-only enhancements that get users trapped into the MS ecosystem? Cunning.

      --
      my, your, his/her/its, our, your, their
      I'm, you're, he's/she's/it's, we're, you're, they're
    3. Re:Scroogled by exomondo · · Score: 1

      That only applied while they were busy working out the details for the embrace, extend and extinguish strategy they will use towards competing mobile operating systems

      And how exactly would that work? Or is this just a case of "Microsoft is doing something therefore it must be Embrace Extend Extinguish"?

  9. Just a hyperlink? by Rich0 · · Score: 1

    Is this actually an application, or is it just a hyperlink (which 80% of the apps in the chrome store are, including the regular Gmail app but not the offline gmail app)?

    An "real" application is self-contained and can potentially operate even without connecting to a server (though usually it implements some kind of front-end to a web-based service). For example, there are calculator apps or ssh apps that do just what you'd expect a calculator/ssh app to do and work just fine without a route to the internet (though obviously an ssh app needs to be able to reach something running sshd). Apps can store data locally via html5 storage.

    Many apps are in the store just for the sake of having an app, but they're really no different from a bookmark. They don't "do" anything but direct the browser to a URL, and they are non-functional if there isn't a network connection.

  10. Re: WIndows 8.1 preview install instructions by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1
    Cortana is only released for the US anyway. To get it to work outside of US you have to set your region to US and set US English as the system language. Not difficult of course, but you still have to make an effort. Everything else, with or without the Cortana hack, can be set to metric. Plus if you have, like 95% of owners, a Nokia you can go back to the last officially supported release (in this case 8.0) using Nokia's desktop restore facility. I've never tried this myself but have read reports of its use from others.

    I updated my 925 and 520 two days ago and it is a big improvement. The notification centre and the 'swype' style keyboard being my favourite changes.

  11. Crippleware -- no local file support by b0s0z0ku · · Score: 1

    Shows how blind Microsoft is. Unlike iOS devices, Android comes with decent support for local file storage out of the box. Apparently, Mobile Office only currently supports opening files on SkyDrive/OneDrive. No support for local storage, so that email attachment that you downloaded with the native Android email client won't be readable unless you upload it to the mothership in Redmond first. Same goes with files created with other Android apps.

    Nor does it have support for Dropbox, Box.net, or other cloud services that people use for business file sharing.

    1. Re:Crippleware -- no local file support by b0s0z0ku · · Score: 1

      To be clear, it does also support Sharepoint, which some larger businesses have, so using the cloud is not mandatory. But not supporting local file storage might be OK on an iOS device where the file system is hidden from the user, but not on Android which has decent support for local and SD card storage.

      Smacks of Microsoft wanting to own all of their users' data. I'll stick with Kingsoft Office or OpenOffice for Android, thanks very much. I really don't want to upload all of my private data to the Great Fluffy Mothership in Redmond, nor do I intend to pay for a license to run a Sharepoint server.

  12. Re: WIndows 8.1 preview install instructions by ljw1004 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Cortana is optimized too for American accents in this release.

    Not much of a problem. I have a strong English accent, and the same technique works with Cortana as speaking abroad... I just speak LOUDLY AND CONDESCENDINGLY. :)

  13. Re:Spoiler Warning by SYSS+Mouse · · Score: 1

    Cortana^WAeris dies.

  14. Re: WIndows 8.1 preview install instructions by cbhacking · · Score: 1

    If you have a Nokia, it's easy enough to flash the stock (8.0) OS back again using Nokia Care Suite. Probably also true for Samsung WP8 phones, which have a Flashing tool and ROMs have been released at least for some of them. Not sure about HTC or Huawei, but the latter has custom ROMs (so it's almost certainly possible to go back) and the former has *historically* had lots of flashing tools and at least stock ROMs available. Not sure for WP8 though.

    --
    There's no place I could be, since I've found Serenity...
  15. More on the top - less underneath by biomech · · Score: 1

    First - props to developers who put in the hard work to bring these features to market; I guess we'll even find some of them useful.

    BUT - IMHO - the 8,000 lb. gorilla remains the crippled Bluetooth stack and especially the HID components that were lost when the transition was made from Mobile OS 6.x; funny how resolving this issue which has over 11,000 votes in some MS blogs never even made the review.

    Presenting this OS as business-oriented as some have done is blatantly half-fast as you'd know if you ever tried doing some real work with Office Mobile without something approaching a real keyboard and mouse. Yah - you can get things done, but at nothing approaching an efficient use of time.

    Imagine my joy 2 years ago when upgrading to my old-by-now HTC Trophy from my Motorola Q9c only to discover I'd been ambushed by this issue which remains the red-headed stepchild all these years later.

    And I'm only one of at least 11,000 still waiting.

    --
    We have met the enemy and he is us - Pogo (Walt Kelly)