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Microsoft Drops OneNote From Office, Pushes Users To Windows 10 Version (venturebeat.com)

Posted by msmash on from the musical-chair dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Microsoft is making big changes to OneNote for Windows: The desktop app will no longer be included in Microsoft Office. Instead, OneNote for Windows 10, the UWP app, will be the default OneNote experience for both Office 365 and Office 2019. OneNote for Mac, Android, iOS, and the web are unaffected. The move shouldn't be a huge surprise for those paying close attention to OneNote's development. Back in February 2015, Microsoft made OneNote for Windows completely free by removing all feature restrictions. This untethering of OneNote from Office meant users could download OneNote 2013 for Windows 7 and Windows 8 without having to pay for Office 2013.

14 of 72 comments (clear)

  1. Is One Note really useful? by sinij · · Score: 2

    I only really used it on Windows Phone, where it is easy to take a picture of something and create custom note along with it. Like a wine you had at a restaurant.

    1. Re:Is One Note really useful? by DarkRookie · · Score: 2

      I use it a bit.
      I keep recipes and troubleshooting notes I like just in case the site or page is lost for whatever reason.

      --
      The millennial that doesn't like most of the stuff designed for millennials.
    2. Re:Is One Note really useful? by swb · · Score: 2

      We use it a lot at work. I was a reluctant user, but have become kind of addicted to it.

      It has some annoyances, like not being able to sort pages within a section, the linking functionality doesn't work like I think it should (ie, it'd be great to create a link to an object on a different page/section/notebook and have the linked object dynamically update).

      But once you get used to it, it's a surprisingly useful way to keep track of shit. I keep my notebooks in a dropbox folder and despite using the same notebooks across multiple machines, it's proven remarkably resilient. Only rarely do I get a glitch where a section disappears, and restarting OneNote brings it back.

      I wish the iOS app had an option to use Dropbox as a storage option, but it's clear they're steering everyone to sharepoint or OneDrive and I'm just not interested.

    3. Re:Is One Note really useful? by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 4, Funny

      I used OneNote once to write a very, very - very - short song. I'm now using TwoNotes.

      --
      It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
    4. Re: Is One Note really useful? by Hussman32 · · Score: 5, Informative

      Except Evernote launched beta in June, 2008, and One Note first was released in November, 2003.

      --
      "Who are you?" "No one of consequence." "I must know." "Get used to disappointment."
    5. Re:Is One Note really useful? by war4peace · · Score: 2

      I found Google Keep more appealing.

      --
      ...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
  2. So the less useful version. by DarkRookie · · Score: 4, Informative

    I know I havent played with it in a bit, but doesn't the UWP app and site have WAY less features that the desktop version.
    If that is still true, this idea can go fuck itself.

    --
    The millennial that doesn't like most of the stuff designed for millennials.
    1. Re: So the less useful version. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2

      Yup. Cloud-only, for instance.

    2. Re: So the less useful version. by DarkRookie · · Score: 2

      Ouch. Then this is a bad deal then.
      That is my main issue with that app.
      And its a big damn issue.

      --
      The millennial that doesn't like most of the stuff designed for millennials.
  3. Windows 10 is the only defacto supported version. by xack · · Score: 2

    Other than minor security updates and sneaking in telemetry Windows 7 and 8.1 are abandoned by Microsoft. Microsoft will make more of its software Windows 10 only way before 2020/3 and try to get everyone in the Microsoft Store Ecosystem.

  4. Forcing us to use Universal Apps by MobyDisk · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I have both versions of OneNote on my Windows 10 machine at home. Sometimes it brings up the universal version, and I go "What is this? This isn't onenote is it? oh, it's that crappy version." Then I close it and open the real one. Universal Apps f*ing suck. The only way Windows 10 is useful to a power user is if they turn off all the universal apps and replace them with real Windows applications. Microsoft should have given up on this garbage when Windows 8 bombed. They destroyed what was left of their OS, and now it is only useful for running Visual Studio, Office, legacy applications. Oh, and games.

    From the article:

    And still, there are OneNote 2016 features that aren’t in OneNote for Windows 10. Microsoft is asking users to help prioritize what to port over by submitting suggestions in Windows 10’s Feedback Hub.

    Yess!! This same sad story exists for all their UWP apps. Ex: The Windows XP "Picture and fax viewer" has more features than the "Photos" viewer that comes in Windows 10. It's the same with their new .NET stuff. Entity Framework ".NET Core" doesn't have all the features of Entity Framework 6 for .NET. And they have a page for submitting requests for features, which is full of closed issues for things they won't ever do. The Windows Mail app is functionally inferior to the old Outlook Express app that used to come with Windows. Every time they re-invent themselves, they force themselves to rewrite all their own software, ultimately delivering less and less functionality while offering less and less freedom.

    This is why Steambox is exiting: The day most of my games support Linux, a lot of people will be out of reasons to keep using Windows. UWP isn't keeping anybody on the platform.

    1. Re:Forcing us to use Universal Apps by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Microsoft should have given up on this garbage when Windows 8 bombed.

      Not gonna happen. Now they're bent on forcing their Walled Garden down any throat they can get their hands on. They can't stand the thought of users being able to control their own computers anymore (and being cut out of the profit margins Apple gets by essentially, for all intents and purposes, owning the hardware the customer has paid for). Hence things like Windows 10 S being pushed. Expect to see more attempts at this. Rather forceful ones, considering how they tried to ram Windows 10 itself down the throat of anyone unfortunate enough to have their computer set up for automatic updates.

  5. Re:OneNote? What's that? by gtwrek · · Score: 2

    The only thing I know about OneNote is it's some bastard of an Microsoft program that keeps leaving "Open Notebook.onetoc2" turds in every directory, on every network drive.

    A little googling gives me an idea of what these turds are, and some useless ideas on how to stop them. But in a corporate environment, where potentially hundreds, if not thousands of users have access to some network directories, finding the computer / process/ user that's creating these turds is impossible.

    I run a find -exec command occasionally to remove them. Occasionally I replace them with 0-length files. In a spiteful mood, I've replaced them with files of random garbage (hoping to crash whatever's accessing/creating them). They just keep on coming...

  6. Re:Windows 10 is the only defacto supported versio by Billly+Gates · · Score: 2

    Poorly constructed headline.

    Microsoft only dropped it from office 2019. You can continue to use the desktop versions of 2010,2013, and 2016 and OneNote desktop won't ever be uninstalled. But yes office 2019 will not support Windows 7. It is MacOSX Sierra and Windows10+ only. If you use Office 2019 it won't matter anyway as you will be using Windows 10

    --
    http://saveie6.com/