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For the First Time, Microsoft Got More Revenue From Office 365 Subscriptions Than From Traditional Office Software Licensing (axios.com)
Ina Fried, reporting for Axios: Shares of Microsoft hit record territory in after-hours trading on Thursday, topping $75 a share, after the software giant's better-than-expected financial results. As has been the case for the last several quarters, strength in Microsoft's cloud business, including Office 365 and Windows Azure, was the key to the company's growth. Of note, Microsoft CFO Amy Hood told analysts that, for the first time, Microsoft got more revenue from Office 365 subscriptions than from traditional Office software licensing. Why it matters: Microsoft has shown an ability to grow its business even as the PC market has stalled, reflecting moves the company made in the cloud both since Satya Nadella took over as CEO as well as some that were in place before he took over the top spot.
98% of the people who use office simply type letters and notes, maybe make a simple spreadsheet or two. Openoffice is entirely up to the task.
The issue is that 98% of people who use office exchange documents with the other 2%.
The other issue is that office 365 includes outlook, which open office does NOT match in any capacity. And the subscription includes a decent mailbox, with alll the bells and whistles - webmail/calendar/contact
mobile sync, windows active directory integration, etc... its a hell of a lot more than 'renting a word processor'.
98% of the people who use office simply type letters and notes, maybe make a simple spreadsheet or two. Openoffice is entirely up to the task.
I really have to give Microsoft credit, figuring out a way to make people pay rent on something as simple as a word processor.
Openoffice is unfortunately a pretty dead project and should probably not be touched or recommended to anyone who do not know what they are doing.
Instead, go with LibreOffice (a fork of Openoffice) that is maintained and have a good amount of developers behind it.
Sorry, I have (been forced to) used Office and recently Office 365 - they are no prize whatsoever. 3+ years ago I worked at a shop that used Google's office suite, it works better, faster and more reliably. I haven't used "local" POP3 mail clients for over a decade, but when I did, Thunderbird and Eudora ran flaming rings around Office.
The only reason I see to prefer Office to any other mail and calendaring solutions is because it's integrated into the company directory, and if the company would divorce its personnel directory from office, that advantage would disappear too.