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  • #2204606

    Will free Microsoft Office kill OpenOffice?

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    by hason_hu ·

    Microsoft is going to offer free ad-supported Office 14 next year. Microsoft claims it is for fighting pirate copy. However I read this blog today.

    Is Microsoft late?

    The point is Microsoft use free ad-supported product to kill open source software like OpenOffice. Is that possible?

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    • #2952617

      It’s not free

      by boxfiddler ·

      In reply to Will free Microsoft Office kill OpenOffice?

      if it’s ad supported.

      Advertising drives me up a wall. I’ll part with money long before I part with sanity.

      • #2951191

        And bandwidth.

        by seanferd ·

        In reply to It’s not free

        I’d suppose they would try to use little bandwidth, but I’ll bet it will turn into a problem at some point.

    • #2952614

      And what other cr@p would be built in

      by the scummy one ·

      In reply to Will free Microsoft Office kill OpenOffice?

      and how much space will it take from the app?

      I think it is a pitiful attempt, but still better than what has come out of MS in a while.
      No, I dont think it would kill Open Office, however, who knows what Oracle will do to it ?:|

    • #2951198

      Is MS Office better ?

      by j-mart ·

      In reply to Will free Microsoft Office kill OpenOffice?

      From my experience using MS Office at work, and Open Office at home I find little difference when it comes to getting the job done. At work use MS office for manuals for equipment the company I work for manufactures, sometimes when I need to meet a deadline I will, rather than stay at work, take a manual home and work on it on my Linux machine with Open Office. If anything, I find Open Office better for this type of work.

      I’m just an average user of office type software, my main usage being manuals and a collection of spread sheets used to calculate details for design of products I work with and have yet to find any limitations in using Open office over MS Office.

      Can anyone give me answers as to in what features MS office has that makes it a more productive choice for a task, justifying the expense of purchasing MS office over the free Open Office.

      • #2951489

        OO is better is a few ways that aren’t used every day

        by deadly ernest ·

        In reply to Is MS Office better ?

        I do a lot of writing of fiction books now and one requirement is to have a print ready PDF file to lodge with the publisher. In OO I’ve cute little icon on the tool bar where I click on that and it does an automatic Save As PDF – can’t do that in a default MS Office, you need to add extras.

        I don’t know about Office 2007, but in Office XP and Office 2003 I was NOT able to open and read my old Word 2 documents, anything created in a MS product released prior to Office 97 came out jumbled as the new versions of Office couldn’t read them. yes I could get, after much searching, patches from MS to download and add to the Office 2003 and Office XP to do this; but the OO did it as a default capability.

        MS try not to let you work with non MS products so getting them to work with anything else is a major issue, while OO do it all routinely and with no trouble.

        I also have troubles formatting for the books the few times I tried using Office for the stories, it took a lot longer to get the page set ups and mirror imaging etc. set right, about three times as long as it took with OO, and even then the MS Office would sometimes lose the headers and footers settings.

        I’ve not found a USEFUL feature in MS Office that OO doesn’t have and do better. Also, the price difference is great.

        • #2951900

          Open Office verses MS Office

          by j-mart ·

          In reply to OO is better is a few ways that aren’t used every day

          Many seem to have the opinion as to MS office being the “superior product”, but none can list a set of features to back this opinion up. I myself have a preference for Open Office as out of the box reads more file formats and I find it easier to set out pages in a document. But as I am no “expert” this is only my opinion. It would be great if those that are certain Open Office is not quite up to MS office could list a few reasons to go with their argument.

      • #2951451

        It’s prettier and, hate to say this, bloatware or not, Office 2007’s ribbon

        by hypnotoad72 ·

        In reply to Is MS Office better ?

        is pretty darn nice.

        Still, MS could have cleaned up the underlying code — they removed some scanner menu functions and yet the “WordBasic” code still exists! When looking up WHY that direct scanning menu option was removed was the first time I heard about the antiquated “WordBasic”. And the function is still there; the menu option was just removed. Slop slop, where’s the trough folks?

        Spaghetti for virtual dinner, anyone? It’s a mess.

    • #2951185

      It is hard to say

      by donbaker ·

      In reply to Will free Microsoft Office kill OpenOffice?

      Currently, MS Office has >90% user base, OpenOffice has <9% user base(mainly used by IT professionals).

      Sun's model is freeware(OpenSource) + shareware(StarOffice $34.99) + donate. This model works not very well because number 1 user base is not big enough, number 2 most existing users only uses freeware instead of pay a penny. Unless more than 50% OpenOffice fans donate or pay, otherwise it is hard to grow.

      I worked in Sun before. Internally Sun considered ad-supported model two years ago, when Microsoft leaked this idea in 2007. Because of license and other concerns, SUN dropped this idea eventually.

      Think about how much money MS earned from office. But SUN did not make enough. It proves freeware + shareware model doesn't work well. Not sure if Oracle will consider to use ad-supported model to fight back. Larry is a smart and strong guy. He may.

      • #2951492

        The only reason a lot of people use MS office

        by deadly ernest ·

        In reply to It is hard to say

        is it comes pre bundled on their Dell and HP crap systems. Even then a lot are loading OO and ignoring the MS Office package. I’d love to know where those stats on market share come from.

        I know a lot of web pages now won’t let you access unless your browser says you use MSIE, so many people use a little setting in FF that has it tell the world it’s MSIE to view such pages. Thus they mess up the stats badly.

    • #2951175

      This is Adware not Freeware

      by jackofalltech ·

      In reply to Will free Microsoft Office kill OpenOffice?

      Most people who use OO are are supporters of the FSF and despise adware. I’m one of them.

      • #2951162

        Don’t limit your statement to FLOSS supporters.

        by charliespencer ·

        In reply to This is Adware not Freeware

        Most of what I use is proprietary, but that doesn’t keep me from avoiding adware. I look for an alternative product; if there’s a free one, all the better, but I’ll pay for one if that’s all that’s available.

      • #2951032

        Be fair to Adware

        by leealvin2 ·

        In reply to This is Adware not Freeware

        Yahoo Messenger is Adware. How many of you refuse using it? Not all adware are bad. Ad is just an exchange for free service.

        http://www.wenpoint.com/securityinfo/quicktips/qt090130.php

        Not all freeware are 100% free. It usually has feature limitation and force you to buy shareware for full feature support.

        • #2951030

          :^0 :^0 :^0

          by boxfiddler ·

          In reply to Be fair to Adware

          [i]Be fair to Adware.[/i]

          Amazing.

        • #2951028

          Adware should play fair

          by jacemg ·

          In reply to Be fair to Adware

          Adware employs abusive behaviour nearly as much as people pirate.

        • #2951017

          “How many of you refuse using it?”

          by charliespencer ·

          In reply to Be fair to Adware

          Me, for one. But then, I don’t use anyone’s messaging software, ad supported or not.

          “Ad is just an exchange for free service.”

          That’s like saying, “Money is just an exchange for free service.” After all, money is just paper and coins people agree represent a defined value in a monetary exchange. Ads cost me time, screen space, and bandwidth, and I pay money for two of those three.

          “Not all freeware are 100% free. It usually has feature limitation and force you to buy shareware for full feature support.”

          All freeware IS free; you’re describing ‘trialware’ with a limited feature set, not ‘freeware’. There’s nothing wrong with adware, trialware, shareware, etc.; there’s something wrong with them falsely advertising themselves as ‘freeware’ when they’re not.

          You’re new here with an uncompleted personal profile. You don’t by chance develop on-line applications for distribution in exchange for advertising revenue, do you?

        • #2951015

          Agreed, but MS always tries to bend the truth

          by slayer_ ·

          In reply to “How many of you refuse using it?”

          Playing the idiot user that will buy into this. I wouldn’t be supprised if it turns out to be a combination of adware and shareware. Your allowed to write a document and save it, but not print it!

        • #2950988

          Nah, it will be like “Windows 7 Basic”

          by charliespencer ·

          In reply to Agreed, but MS always tries to bend the truth

          You can only have three documents in storage at a time!

        • #2950987

          Prolly diff file format too

          by slayer_ ·

          In reply to Nah, it will be like “Windows 7 Basic”

          This time its .dok just to insure everyone is completely confused.

        • #2951012

          Got your point

          by leealvin2 ·

          In reply to “How many of you refuse using it?”

          @Palmetto

          Your point is very common. People like free service or free lunch without paying anything. But software developers need money to support living too.

          Can you tell me which freeware you ever made or contributed? I contributed winscp, spring and some java projects. I got experience from those projects. I like that. But I still need money to support myself. To be honest, I plan to make some of my freeware as adware. But they will do properly. I do agree on “Adware should play fair”. My adware will do clean and safe advertising.

        • #2951009

          I don’t think you do

          by boxfiddler ·

          In reply to Got your point

          get the point. Adware is an annoyance that consumes bandwidth that we’d prefer to put to other use.

        • #2951001

          “prefer to put to other use”

          by notsochiguy ·

          In reply to I don’t think you do

          Yeah, like downloading M$FT patches and service packs!!!

          ]:)

          Years back, the future-ex-girlfriend of the time signed up for something called FreePC. You get shipped some Adware infested PC, agree to view X# of hours per month, and get to keep the PC “free” of charge.

          She was surprised that her phone bill (back in the days of 28.8 cruising) was so high due to the PC auto-dialing and connecting to the ad server on a consistent basis.

          Free PC…HA!!!

        • #2950994

          I wonder…

          by slayer_ ·

          In reply to “prefer to put to other use”

          If they would have been able to tell if you simply unplugged the modem.

        • #2950986

          “There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch”

          by charliespencer ·

          In reply to Got your point

          “People like free service or free lunch without paying anything.”

          Economics 101. People who eat free lunches don’t realize that while they may not be paying cash for it themselves out of their pocket, someone somewhere is paying for it. The ‘free’ appetizers at Happy Hour are included in the cost of the drinks. The ‘free’ wireless hot spot at Starbucks is included in the cost of the coffee.

          I have no objections to the concept of adware. I just haven’t found an adware app yet that I couldn’t live without, or couldn’t find a replacement I would gladly pay for to escape the ads.

          “Can you tell me which freeware you ever made or contributed? … I got experience from those projects. … But I still need money to support myself.”

          I haven’t done any programming in 15 years, and then it was COBOL and FORTRAN for in-house apps. The concept of a community developing apps for the common good was still a limited principle when I changed career directions. I agree you need money to support yourself; that’s one thing about the FOSS business model I still don’t understand. I don’t expect you to give your work away, and ethical adware is as good a way as any to profit from your code. But I, for one, won’t be running your apps if there are non-adware alternative, including ones that require payment.

        • #2950980

          Fair enough

          by leealvin2 ·

          In reply to “There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch”

          @Palmetto

          I appreciate you sharing your point here. I think it is fair. I don’t expect everybody loves my adware. I just use the special value to users as an exchange for ads revenue. My app behaves like Yahoo Messenger client, doing clean and safe advertising.

        • #2950976

          as long as it is not like MSN

          by slayer_ ·

          In reply to Fair enough

          Which advertises online dating sites and phone sex sites to minors.

        • #2950901

          I don’t use Yahoo either, nor ANYTHING…

          by jackofalltech ·

          In reply to Be fair to Adware

          that uses a toolbar.

          You’re confused. Freeware is free, period. Anything else is false advertising. Shareware has it’s uses, it let’s you determine whether something is worth paying money for.

        • #2951486

          I avoid all adware and especially yahoo

          by deadly ernest ·

          In reply to Be fair to Adware

          before I left Canberra I had about twenty clients who required six monthly system rebuilds because of all the excess ad crap Yahoo loaded onto their system and slowed it down to much. Since they used Yahoo IM, mail, games, etc – the whole Yahoo nine yards, they got loads of the crap and it only took a few months to overload the system.

      • #2950888

        um, you do know that, technically speaking

        by jaqui ·

        In reply to This is Adware not Freeware

        TR is ADWARE!!!

        😀

    • #2951029

      History Repeats itself

      by jacemg ·

      In reply to Will free Microsoft Office kill OpenOffice?

      Word Perfect met the same fate when Microsoft bundled Office with new PCs at no extra charge in the late 90s early 2000s.

    • #2951024

      Am I the only one that thinks

      by slayer_ ·

      In reply to Will free Microsoft Office kill OpenOffice?

      Piracy will continue because many of us still hate office 2007 and probably it’s predecessors. I know I keep my version of Office 2000 probably till it no longer works. Then I might look into new solutions.

      • #2950982

        I’m not following you.

        by charliespencer ·

        In reply to Am I the only one that thinks

        “Piracy will continue because many of us still hate office 2007…”

        Are you saying people pirate old software because they don’t like the new stuff? I wasn’t aware there was much of a market for older apps; most piracy I read about involves trying to get the latest / greatest.

        I assume you own a legal copy of Office 2000. If that’s the case, how would dissatisfaction with Office 07 drive you to piracy? You already have what you want, until OS incompatibility kills it.

        • #2950977

          nah, not ligit

          by slayer_ ·

          In reply to I’m not following you.

          Last one I bought was 1997, I stumbled on a nice 2000 from Kazaa days, it even validates to MS as valid. I am fine with 2003, but yes, pirating old software, I dare say, is 4 times more common than new software. Especially with games.

        • #2950964

          Ahh, so it is

          by the scummy one ·

          In reply to nah, not ligit

          A$$holes like you that drove up my legal copy of Office 03!!!

          either that or MS greed — I am still debating that with myself. Anyway — I gotta be pissed off at someone, so you are the target (for now) :^0

        • #2950918

          Not my fault…

          by slayer_ ·

          In reply to Ahh, so it is

          I figure MS owes me money for stealing XP from me, I just return the favor tenfold. That visual studio enterprise edition that was I think when I searched it, 6k bucks, partially made up for it :).
          I’ve also distributed my cool version of office to a lot of other people that want or need office 2000 for w/e reason.
          If MS would just charge a reasonable price, and hell, actually still sold the older version, we wouldn’t have to pirate them. Office 2000 is basically Abandonware at this point/

        • #2950913

          :^0 — but that still doesnt change the fact

          by the scummy one ·

          In reply to Not my fault…

          that Office for 3 systems cost me $120

        • #2953592
        • #2953564

          student/teacher ed on sale

          by the scummy one ·

          In reply to :^0 — but that still doesnt change the fact

          what, you think I would pay full retail??? Hell, with sales tax at almost 10% — F**k No

        • #2951482

          which shows you should have

          by deadly ernest ·

          In reply to :^0 — but that still doesnt change the fact

          switched to Open Office instead.

        • #2951433

          OpenOffice does not include

          by the scummy one ·

          In reply to :^0 — but that still doesnt change the fact

          Outlook
          I was originally going to get Outlook alone, however, for $10 difference I got Word and Excel as well as Powerpoint

        • #2952120

          No Outlook on OO, gee that really worries me, now let me see

          by deadly ernest ·

          In reply to :^0 — but that still doesnt change the fact

          When was the last time I used Outlook? Hmm, oh, never. The only times I worked in an organisation that wanted a server based application like Outlook they had Lotus Notes. On a personal home issue, I’ve never used Outlook or the like. the closest I get is Thunderbird and Agent.

          This lack doesn’t worry me, and I doubt it worries too many others.

        • #2952108

          :^0 — ‘cept

          by the scummy one ·

          In reply to :^0 — but that still doesnt change the fact

          I use Outlook, and like it better than Thunderbird. Of course, last time I tried Thunderbird was some years ago — about the time I decided I wanted Outlook instead

          So, while it may not bother many people, it did bug me enough to go get what I preferred.

          When on Linux, I gotta use OWA (browser) for my mail 🙁 , cause last time I tried, Thunderbird didnt play with exchange 🙁

        • #2953547

          $crew M$FT and their damn profit motives.

          by scottaaa21 ·

          In reply to Not my fault…

          Code a clue, a-hole. Programmers stealing dev tools is the moral equivalent of landscapers stealing lawnmowers.

          It is a tool that you use to make a pretty damn good living (I am guessing). And “M$FT” spent a sh1t-ton of money developing it. For some recently graduated punk who didn’t even exist when Bill Gates founded MSFT to claim the MS “owes” you something is the height of arrogance and stupidity.

          You have already admitted that you stole and distributed Office 2000. You were probably 10-12 years old when Office 97 came out (judging by your profile. Sorry if my math was wrong), so I am guessing that you never paid for it either.

          If you are so morally opposed to the concept of people getting paid for their software, then I suggest you quit your job and volunteer full-time developing free Linux apps.

          Short of that, you have no moral high ground to stand on, which makes you little more than a hypocrit and a common theif.

        • #2953534

          Well actually

          by slayer_ ·

          In reply to $crew M$FT and their damn profit motives.

          I do spend lots of my free time making free programs for people.

          And I do pay for everything I can pay for, but as it is impossible to buy Office 2000, theft was the only option.

          I always pay for my music and movies, I always pay for my games and software.

          Infact, the sum total of things I haven’t paid for are:
          Office 2000
          Visual Studio
          Fireworks MX (not my fault entirely, their coding sucks, didn’t even ask me to pay for it after I installed it).
          Metal Fatigue (game, I searched for years but could never find it in a store)
          Darkstone (game, same problem as above)

          If more people were like me the software industry would be thriving and we’d have far higher quality products!

        • #2953530

          :^0 — while I agree Scott,

          by the scummy one ·

          In reply to $crew M$FT and their damn profit motives.

          http://blogs.zdnet.com/storage/?p=442

          I dont think MS is hurting too much over it :^0

          Anyway –kudos — I have been looking for a decent slam post recently.

        • #2953525

          hah don’t be an jerk scummy :p

          by slayer_ ·

          In reply to $crew M$FT and their damn profit motives.

          Find a new profession 🙂

        • #2953519

          A Jerky Scummy :0 :^0 :^0

          by the scummy one ·

          In reply to $crew M$FT and their damn profit motives.

          LOL

        • #2953511

          Scummy Jerky

          by shasca ·

          In reply to $crew M$FT and their damn profit motives.

          Would it have a bitter nasty taste?

        • #2953501

          Refreshingly repugnant either way.

          by santeewelding ·

          In reply to $crew M$FT and their damn profit motives.

          .

        • #2951438

          “Refreshingly repugnant”

          by charliespencer ·

          In reply to $crew M$FT and their damn profit motives.

          Is that a synonym for “nausealicious”, a word my wife coined to describe salt and vinegar potato chips?

        • #2951412

          Good, and good for you.

          by seanferd ·

          In reply to $crew M$FT and their damn profit motives.

          “Refreshingly repugnant” and “Nausealicious” are mmm mmm gross. Fantastic!

          Also good for the corps: While MS makes consumers go through ridiculous contortions in their quest to limit infringement, they also depend on piracy to increase their marketshare. Today’s pirates are tomorrow’s customers, and they d@mn well know it, regardless as to what they tell the public.

      • #2951494

        using older software isn’t piracy

        by deadly ernest ·

        In reply to Am I the only one that thinks

        since you paid for it you can use it. but it’s documents won’t be readable by later versions of Office soon as they keep changing internal format info to make the older versions useless

        • #2951350

          It is in this case.

          by charliespencer ·

          In reply to using older software isn’t piracy

          See SS’s other posts. His copy of Office 2000 isn’t legal.

        • #2952116

          Yeah, that came up AFTER I posted my response

          by deadly ernest ·

          In reply to It is in this case.

          I still have a whole swag of old MS software, and even still use some, but not on the net. DOS 6, Win 3.11, Word for Windows 2a, Word 6 Excel 4, Excel 5, MSIE 4, Access, Access 2, Powerpoint, Win 95, Win 98, Win 98SE, Win 2000 Pro, Win XP Pro, Win 2000 Server, being the first ones that come to mind. All legal copies I still have.

    • #2953499

      Free MS Office ???

      by ggreenwood4 ·

      In reply to Will free Microsoft Office kill OpenOffice?

      This is typical business practice for Microsoft, trying to kill of all competition!They have done it before and will continue to do it, it’s the MS Business Template. It it worked before it will work again. Now if they would concentrate on the business of making a stable OS that doesn’t commit suicide after a couple of months.

    • #2953497

      Free MS Office ???

      by ggreenwood4 ·

      In reply to Will free Microsoft Office kill OpenOffice?

      This is typical business practice for Microsoft, trying to kill off all competition!They have done it before and will continue to do it, it’s the MS Business Template. It it worked before it will work again. Now if they would concentrate on the business of making a stable OS that doesn’t commit suicide after a couple of months.

    • #2953496

      Free MS Office ???

      by ggreenwood4 ·

      In reply to Will free Microsoft Office kill OpenOffice?

      This is typical business practice for Microsoft, trying to kill off all competition!They have done it before and will continue to do it, it’s the MS Business Template. It worked before it will work again. Now if they would ONLY concentrate on the business of making a stable OS that doesn’t commit suicide after a couple of months.

    • #2951496

      hey, here’s a cute idea for this

      by deadly ernest ·

      In reply to Will free Microsoft Office kill OpenOffice?

      Have Open Office take up a big ad on the new MS product saying they can get Open Office for the same functions without the ads.

      The above is submitted by your local evil genius

      • #2951469

        Was that you?

        by ed woychowsky ·

        In reply to hey, here’s a cute idea for this

        At the evil genius convention talking with Dr Horrible?

        • #2952119

          You couldn’t have seen me at that convention as

          by deadly ernest ·

          In reply to Was that you?

          I was with Mistress Mayhem, she had a hole in her organisation which she wanted me to fill for her.

    • #2951455

      A list of once-“professional” freebies:

      by hypnotoad72 ·

      In reply to Will free Microsoft Office kill OpenOffice?

      * Sharepoint Designer (aka “Expression Web”)
      * truespace (3D rendering/animation)
      * .net Micro (mobile PC development)
      * Visual Studio (windows development)

      And undoubtedly more.

      The number of competitors making QUALITY software might be hurt by this series of justice department-worthy moves by Microsoft.

      Especially with Expression Media needing a year to fix a bug that didn’t display code properly for non-MS browsers, because IE has a bug that hides illegal characters…

      There is a BIG case here. Shouldn’t be hard to win.

      Does their making free of software lower wages as well? (I mean, Bill and Steve have their billions, what should they care – it’s not like they’ve had ethics in the past you know!)

      Microsoft is on record saying they’re rather have China pirate their software, because that way it’s still MS software. It’s about control. Never mind faulty activation mechanisms, bloatware, and other things, I am now really concerned. Or maybe Microsoft is concerned because, like swine flu, people are tired of their porky products sold by, forgive me, pigs. We all know their history and legal tussles, which got resolved so far after the transgressions they got away with a LOT.

    • #2951408

      Free MS Office!

      by seanferd ·

      In reply to Will free Microsoft Office kill OpenOffice?

      He’s innocent!

      • #2951348

        Free the Indianapolis 500!

        by charliespencer ·

        In reply to Free MS Office!

        They didn’t do it!

        • #2951934

          Vegetable rights!

          by seanferd ·

          In reply to Free the Indianapolis 500!

          End the horror!

          re: the Indianapolis 500; that must have been one helluva big courtroom. Trumped-up charges, I understand. Weren’t even in town that night.

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