M$ is like “Old McDonald”. M$ has a number of cash cows: client OS, office suite, and server OS. Until this year, the whole empire rested on the client OS but that is drying up. What to do? M$ has tried diversifying into mobile OS but that seems doomed to fail. To allow the office suite cash-cow to survive and to thrive, M$ will release a version for Android “real soon now”. This could be vapourware in M$’s traditional way of freezing threats but it’s more likely a move to unhook the office suite from the desktop client. If the client OS sinks, there is a possibility that the office suite could live on.
“In addition to Windows, Office will be also available on other operating systems, Windows Phone, Windows RT, Mac OS, Android, iOS and Symbian”
via MS Office 2013 Is Coming To Android – Muktware.
I doubt it will work. The world has awakened to FLOSS and open standards. LibreOffice is thriving and OpenOffice.org has been around a long time. They too can compete in the mobile space and M$’s cash-cows cannot handle competition, you know, competing on price/performance. While the office suite may live on it will not dominate the space except possibly for business but even business likes web applications and such. By the time M$ gets a product to market, FLOSS will be there and Google may well take a big share of business with Google Docs. I bet small business will be happy with that.
No. The cash cows may survive a while but they will not thrive as they did in the past excluding all competition. The world can make its own software and has moved on.
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Re: M$ Office for Android, that’s a WIN-LOSE situation.
I wonder if this means that M$ will be releasing Office for Linux?
Nahhh..
If it isnt shipping in production, it does not exist.
dougman wrote, “I wonder if this means that M$ will be releasing Office for Linux?
Nahhh..
If it isnt shipping in production, it does not exist.”
I think GNU/Linux can run an Android layer and so this office suite should run on GNU/Linux. Android is a virtual machine so M$’s office suite may have no way of knowing… They could block GNU/Linux at the point of download and restrict that with the EULA, not that I think there’s any reason to run M$’s office suite on any PC.
I think GNU/Linux can run an Android layer and so this office suite should run on GNU/Linux.
For once Robert Pogson you have raised an intriguing possibility. UNfortunately becasue the Android “compatibility layer” will most likely remain a geek toy, it is highly unlikely that its presence will amount to much to those who do not share your anti microsoft vendetta.
They could block GNU/Linux at the point of download and restrict that with the EULA, not that I think there’s any reason to run M$’s office suite on any PC.
What you think Mr. bigot is irrelebant, it is what the marker will think at he time that such a product arrives.
If it isnt shipping in production, it does not exist.
Absolutely correct, and that is a sentiment that you would do well to keep in mind sir.
Oldman your logic is faulty and most likely the other remaining faculties as well. Obviously you have a stake in Windows, why else would you bother to troll this blog. Obviously, you have too much free time on your hands.
Windows 8 has yet to ship, so by your reasoning it does not exist. PERIOD. You can attempt to explain it all you want, but your statement is just downright silly.
Oldman your logic is faulty and most likely the other remaining faculties as well. Obviously you have a stake in Windows, why else would you bother to troll this blog. Obviously, you have too much free time on your hands.
Frankly I would rather have reduced facilities than have to deal with being an apparently unprincipled and unscrupulous who thinks that it is OK to take advantage of peoples ignorance.
I post on this blog because robert pogson puts out FUD that I feel needs commentary.
as far as time on my hands is concerned, I’m on my lunch hour after having completed a very productive morning are work.
What have you accomplished today?
Ripped of any windows users?
Windows 8 has yet to ship, so by your reasoning it does not exist. PERIOD. You can attempt to explain it all you want, but your statement is just downright silly.
I was agreeing with you Mr. D. In my job by definition no software exists until it is shipping code. Although I have been using windows 8 since June and have it VHD booting on my systems. We will not be even starting the process of supporting windows 8 until after 10/29 when it officially ships.
But there is a big difference between your touting of something that is not going to exist for a while (Openoffice for Android) and the Release Candidate of windows 8.
PERIOD.
oldman wrote:
“I post on this blog because robert pogson puts out FUD that I feel needs commentary.”
I see this a lot now with the Cult of Microsoft. It’s the apparent use of the acronym “FUD” to mean “stuff that isn’t true”. It doesn’t mean that. It means Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt. Robert Pogson does not sow Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt about Microsoft and their friends. He just reports on the news about them and offers his opinions. But he is not attempting to sow fear. Microsoft is losing market share. Should you be afraid of that? Sounds more like business as usual. Cities are switching to FLOSS. Where’s the Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt in that? Sounds like good times to me.
dougman wrote, “I wonder if this means that M$ will be releasing Office for Linux?
How to install Microsoft Office 2010 on Linux with Wine
I installed MS Office Professional 2010 on my Ubuntu computers and it’s working fluently.
(…)
http://wine-review.blogspot.com.br/2012/02/how-to-install-microsoft-office-2010-on.html
EUG, no need of M$ products here. I can create documents, spreadsheets, presentations, etc. all with LibreOffice. For small businesses, the licensing fee’s add up quickly why spend money for IT, when it is not necessary?
WINE is not entirely useful to be honest, yes it may work in some instances but the labor involved is impractical.
I am fairly certain Outlook does not work under WINE truth be told.
eug I work with the wine project. Wine has enough bugs to kill the cat.
Chroot install android will be more dependable.
oldman thing that you are forgetting is ubuntu and a few other distributions support installing android and there distribution side by side allowing user home directory to be shared with android and android applications to be on the desktop. This is today.
Robert Pogson
–I think GNU/Linux can run an Android layer and so this office suite should run on GNU/Linux.–
Really both can run as layers to each other and solutions exist doing both.
http://www.ubuntu.com/devices/android this is example of duel mode. Note this duel mode all android applications work perfectly along with all native GNU/Linux applications on the same desktop.
So if MS Office 2013 is full feature on android. It will not be long before its on Linux Standard. Unlike the wine solution that has been buggy it will run as perfect as it would have run on a android only device.
2013 release time frame should line up with the death of framebuffer in Linux. This see android moved to DRI and able to run as a window on the Linux desktop from default libraries without needing any special hacks.
The big question that is not answered is if Android MS Office 2013 will support Android x86 or will be Arm only. Even so qemu to convert arm to x86 is stable.
Next big question is how complete will it be.