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Microsoft Brings Office To Android Smartphones For Free
Mark Wilson writes: After a few weeks in preview, Microsoft Office is now available for Android smartphones. Despite Microsoft's mobile-first, cloud-first philosophy, it has actually taken some time to bring the world's most popular office suite to Android phones — it joins the tablet version of the suite that was released last year. Just like the tablet editions, the phone versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint won't cost you a penny, allowing for the viewing and editing of a range of files when on the move. There is a cloud focus with support for not only OneDrive, but also Google Drive, Dropbox, and Box, and Microsoft says it has made changes based on the feedback received during the preview period.
104Mb download just for Word on its own.
Wow. Seems like all those years of bloated coding are coming back to bite them.
Install office with very limited use on a mobile, and you lose half a Gig of internal storage on your smartphone and still might have to pay for an Office 365 subscription.
Limited functionality unless you have an Office 365 account you can sign into to unlock all the features.
Free means no charge and there are no ads. You only pay if you want to use advanced features that you need to have an Office 365 subscription to unlock.
"Advanced features" like being able to write in a blank document, or change a character in an existing one.
Basically it's view-only unless you pay.
That's not so bad for smartphone, but absolutely no different to the tablet versions at all (which are effectively useless beyond being a free document viewer, which you can get thousands of).
Considering how poorly files move between different versions of Office for the same platform (and some times even between the same version for the same platform!) I look forward to now being able to trash my files on the go. Thank you Microsoft, I have been wishing for some time that you would find a way to make my files even more fragile yet.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
Or Office for that matter.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Or you could just use Google Docs in your browser. Unsurprisingly also supports Google Drive.
So MS makes a pointless app, and makes it free!
I've installed it to edit my CV. Most features are there, and I could open and edit a new blank doc. You need a Microsoft account to sign on, but an Office 365 subscription isn't needed. Who going to be worried about tracked changes whilst using a tablet?
I do not develop big complicated documents on my phone.
For my phone, a standard text editor is more than enough.
If somebody emails a .docx file, I'll wait until I am on a computer with LibreOffice.
... as that would show the absolutely low quality of their code
What is directly known about Microsoft code doesn't support your argument. For example, after the Windows 2000 code leak several people did their own analysis of the code. For example, kuro5hin concluded:
In short, there is nothing really surprising in this leak. Microsoft does not steal open-source code. Their older code is flaky, their modern code excellent. Their programmers are skilled and enthusiastic. Problems are generally due to a trade-off of current quality against vast hardware, software and backward compatibility.
Note that last sentence: Problems are generally due to a trade-off of current quality against vast hardware, software and backward compatibility.
More recently, static code analysis was done on the legally released Word for Windows 1.1a by PVS-Studio. They concluded:
I have found very few strange fragments. There are two reasons for that. Firstly, I found the code to be skillfully and clearly written. Secondly, the analysis had to be incomplete, while teaching the analyzer the specifics of the old C language wouldn't be of any use.
In short, there may be many reasons not to pay for Microsoft's software. Your perception of the quality of their code is not one.
Not correct.
You might need to learn the difference between "Not correct" and "Pretty much exactly what you said, but I don't like it so I'm going to make a big deal where such is not warranted".
All my liberal friends think I'm a conservative, all my conservative friends think I'm a liberal.
That's odd. I can use Google Drive, create documents and spreadsheets on all the above platforms, download them in multiple formats and edit them on other platforms.
Why would I pay Microsoft money for that which I can already do?
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
I'm surprised Windows 8 hasn't already killed Android on tablets. Guess it takes people a while to realize how bad Android is. I have a Surface 2 RT, and the OS itself is so much better than Android. It's a shame developers didn't latch on to the Windows app store more. It's truly a joy to use this device. Android really is quite crippled. No native support for multiple apps. No native support for Google Drive (developer has to write their own code to support it). No native support for network shares. Doesn't come with a command line.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
Microsoft is just trying to get everybody locked in to their proprietary format.
To quote muirhead:
Most features are there, and I could open and edit a new blank doc.
You are the one who has created the straw man, stretching "most features are there" into "fully-features other than obscure features like version tracking".
You also seem to be assuming that muirhead was talking about the commercial version. He never stated that or indicated it in any way. The average user, by far, would be subject to the consumer edition and not the commercial one, so this is also quite a stretch you made.
It's not about whether I like your post, or whether you provided useful information. It's about you mixing FUD into your response.
All my liberal friends think I'm a conservative, all my conservative friends think I'm a liberal.
Let me translate..."Wahh I don't like the laws as written because it hurts the OS I wave a flag for, so its "exploitation" to use the patents as the law intended"...is that REALLY your position?
If you don't like the laws? Form a PAC, do a ton of E-Begging, then bribe congress critters until you get the law changed.....but don't be surprised when you go to big Linux corps like Google and Red Hat and they tell you to pound sand, because the current system benefits them too by raising the barrier of entry to potential competition....or is it your position that GOOG and RHEL are "exploiters" too?
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.