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Microsoft Is Bringing Office to the Windows Store (venturebeat.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from VentureBeat: At its Microsoft EDU event in New York City today, the company announced it is bringing Microsoft Office to the Windows Store. We're talking about the full Win32 version of Office -- this is not a mobile version, Universal Windows Platform (UWP) app, or an otherwise dumbed-down release. Terry Myerson, executive vice president for Microsoft's Windows and Devices Group, confirmed onstage that Word, Excel, PowerPoint, "and more" were coming. He did not give a date for the launch (Update: Microsoft confirmed after the event that the target is June). Office is not the first set of Win32 apps in the Windows Store. This is part of a broader effort called Project Centennial, which lets desktop developers package and publish their existing .NET and Win32-based Windows applications to the Windows Store. The app type was first unveiled at Microsoft's Build developer conference in April 2015, but the first apps only started arriving in September 2016.
You couldn't buy word on the windows store? That can't be true, can it?
Sounds like a threat.
Extra! Extra! Read all about it! Microsoft Sells Their Own Software in Their Branded Store!
Come on, slashdot, don't use bots for clickbait, you need some real humans to write your clickbait for this demographic.
Funny how this is announced in step with the announcement of Windows 10 S, which will only run things from the Windows Store. Seems like the timing is related.
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Daddy, what does "Buy once version" mean?
To be honest, it would have otherwise been surprising, because even Microsoft themselves know that their crappy store is a wasteland, but they kind of had to. They probably wouldn't have bothered doing this if it hadn't been for the upcoming release of "Windows 10 S", which stands for "Windows 10, Shit edition".
If Microsoft actually wanted Office in this way for any other reason, I'm sure they would have gone the extra mile and outright made it into a UWP app, but even they don't want to swallow that turd.
You'd think that if UWP was actually worth a shit, Microsoft would port their best selling software to it.
With the (very) recent release of Windows 10 S, and with it only being able to download and install apps from the Windows store. It makes complete sense.
Funny how this is announced in step with the announcement of Windows 10 S, which will only run things from the Windows Store. Seems like the timing is related.
Both are a consequence of Microsoft giving up on mobile, without convergence they don't need UWP so they don't care if it's a "classic" application anymore. They're still trying to salvage their "take a cut from every sale" strategy of copying Apple, but if they don't do anything there's no reason for manufacturers to use the store. So the store-only version of Windows is a poorly hidden attempt to sell crippleware under the guise of being educational while goading manufacturers to make store versions of their software, with Microsoft leading by example.
I think this frog is severely under-cooked, but if they play hardball with their educational licensing maybe they can create a large enough market that "need" store applications to make third party developers fall in line. Microsoft is trying to overcome a catch-22 here, it could severely backfire if those who are persuaded to use it make a big stink about how it doesn't run all the oddball educational apps they need instead. But at the end of the day this is all Microsoft is left with after the last 5 years from Windows 8 being pretty much a total flop where even free upgrades have so far failed to overtake Windows 7.
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I don't actually want to slag off Windows, Microsoft or the people who swear by Microsoft products - but every time I see this kind of news, I'm just so happy I left it behind and moved to Linux. It is strange, and not a little sad, to look back to the time when DOS and Windows were so cool and I thought of Microsoft as pioneers in making computer freedom possible. I used to love programming for Windows 3, as poor ad rickety as it was, but then they started turning the thumbscrews ever harder.
I have no idea whether MS Office gives me any advantages over Open-/LibreOffice, and I don't care. I do know that every time my wife gets into trouble with her MS Office documents, I take them over to Linux and sort them out. And, living in a world of Linux and mathematics, I have discovered LaTeX (not the kind you use for your kinky interests, the kind you use for kinky typesetting), and what a joy that is, especially compared to what is on offer in office programs. I know, you can get that on Windows, but it's just a lot less convenient there.