Microsoft Office Coming To Linux In 2014


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Microsoft is a software company, it's in their best interest to have their software available to as many users as possible, and that includes non-Windows users.

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just look at the Mac version of Office

I do every day. The current version has received loads of updates, and a leaked roadmap has a new version of Office: Mac coming early 2014. How does that classify as "barely gets touched"?

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I do every day. The current version has received loads of updates, and a leaked roadmap has a new version of Office: Mac coming early 2014. How does that classify as "barely gets touched"?

I think what he means is that Microsoft first develops new versions of Office for Windows, then takes the complete (or near-complete) code and begins to try to make as much as possible work properly on OS X. That's why the OS X version of Office is released months after the equivalent version for Windows. I think Dot Matrix meant that Office: Mac "barely gets touched" in that it is not a high priority for Microsoft - at least not compared to Office for Windows. Unfortunately if Office ever gets released for Linux it will probably get the same treatment. It's not ideal, but it is realistic.

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Well lets see:

Many of those switched back as I recall...

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Pffft LibreOffice, just as good and free and it's been on Linux for years.

just as good?...only if you hate yourself. :p

Most of that list is biased leaving out half the truth, outdated or plain erroneous. Some of it doesn't even make sense to be in such a list, what does embedded voting units running Linux have to do with such a list.

True that. IIRC City of Munich was the most publicized and they have switched back wasting millions on the Linux side.

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just as good?...only if you hate yourself. :p

I use LibreOffice on a regular basis and really like it. It may not have all of the features of Microsoft Office, but it has everything that I need. I have yet to run into a feature I wanted to use that Microsoft Office has and LibreOffice does not. The biggest "problem" with LibreOffice is its poor support of Microsoft Office's file formats, which is only relevant because so many people use Microsoft Office exclusively. If the tables were reversed and LibreOffice had much larger marketshare than Microsoft Office, then Microsoft Office would have the same "problem". Its ODF support is horrendous, despite that fact that anyone can get the official specifications. It's not that LibreOffice is drastically worse, it's merely a compatibility problem. However, I acknowledge reality; that's why I use Microsoft Office when necessary for compatibility.

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But for people who work in offices with office apps day in and day out. while Libre may do the job. MS OFfice allows them to do the job far more effective. more effective means oney saved and more happy employees.

I can get to work on a moped. but it'd take me nearly an hour instead of 15-20 minutes. and I wouldn't be very happy in -30C in winter...

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I du no, I'm seeing more governments moving back to windows from windows after trying Linux the last couple of years.

this. initially folks confused open source with free. then whey they realized they had to spend a lot of money to get it to work as they wanted it.. they moved back to MS products, mostly because it was easier and cheaper to find devs for development and Ops.

Linux works for web but on the client side nothing beats windows.

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True that. IIRC City of Munich was the most publicized and they have switched back wasting millions on the Linux side.

Some people use that as an example of a failed migration to Linux, which is weird because the migration has actually been quite a success. I guess some didn't really read anything beyond the news about the initial difficulties back in 2006.

Not only they didn't switch back but they saved over ?11 million so far.

http://www.computerworlduk.com/news/open-source/3421844/microsoft-refuses-to-release-study-challenging-munich-linux-success/

http://www.zdnet.com/no-microsoft-open-source-software-really-is-cheaper-insists-munich-7000010918/

http://www.itworld.com/operating-systems/321474/switching-linux-saves-munich-over-11-million

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Given that this would make it easier for those of us that are unhappy with the direction Windows is taking to switch I'd be surprised if it goes anywhere.

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LOL

And GIMP is just as good as Photoshop, right? :laugh:

Actually, it is. Just like you had to learn photoshop, you have to learn Gimp. Same for MS Office and Liber/OpenOffice

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Some people use that as an example of a failed migration to Linux, which is weird because the migration has actually been quite a success. I guess some didn't really read anything beyond the news about the initial difficulties back in 2006.

Not only they didn't switch back but they saved over ?11 million so far.

http://www.computerw...-linux-success/

http://www.zdnet.com...ich-7000010918/

http://www.itworld.c...over-11-million

So I wonder, if all those emplpyees would have been able to work more effectively with MS Office and thus be able to put in one more week of effective work each year per employee, how much money that would have added up to over the same period. of course we'll never know since they never bothered to measure the effectiveness and happiness of their employees on the different systems. The date they switched means they've never even tried 2007 or 2010, much less 2013.

Actually, it is. Just like you had to learn photoshop, you have to learn Gimp. Same for MS Office and Liber/OpenOffice

And that STILL doesn't make The GIMP as good as photoshop. just like Blender isn't as good as... well ANY of the big commercial 3D suites.

Mo

st of the GIMP and Blender defenders are diehard FOSS evangelists who will spend 3 times as long to learn the software, and twice as long to make almost the same result just to prove that "it's just as good". This is why no serious graphics business uses GIMP and Blender except for fan evangelist projects like 3D Blender Foundation and their Big Buck Bunny.

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So I wonder, if all those emplpyees would have been able to work more effectively with MS Office and thus be able to put in one more week of effective work each year per employee, how much money that would have added up to over the same period. of course we'll never know since they never bothered to measure the effectiveness and happiness of their employees on the different systems. The date they switched means they've never even tried 2007 or 2010, much less 2013.

According Christian Ude the number of complains to help desk has actually decreased since they switched, so I guess they are doing fine.

The point anyway is that using Munich as an example of a failed Linux deployment (as it's often done) is utterly wrong.

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And that STILL doesn't make The GIMP as good as photoshop. just like Blender isn't as good as... well ANY of the big commercial 3D suites.

Mo

st of the GIMP and Blender defenders are diehard FOSS evangelists who will spend 3 times as long to learn the software, and twice as long to make almost the same result just to prove that "it's just as good". This is why no serious graphics business uses GIMP and Blender except for fan evangelist projects like 3D Blender Foundation and their Big Buck Bunny.

So, it's not perfect. The whole Linux world isn't perfect. It's not a workaround for large corporations, but it is just fine for a novice person.

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For 98% of ordinary people GIMP would fit their needs just as well as Photoshop. Apart from people working in specialised industries, most normal people do not need all of the advanced stuff that Photoshop offers.

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So, it's not perfect. The whole Linux world isn't perfect. It's not a workaround for large corporations, but it is just fine for a novice person.

I thought you just argued that the GIMP was just as good as photoshop....

For 98% of ordinary people GIMP would fit their needs just as well as Photoshop. Apart from people working in specialised industries, most normal people do not need all of the advanced stuff that Photoshop offers.

Most normal people who use Photohop use the LE edition, or the full version illegally and they could just as well use the LE edition. the LE edition is far beyond The GIMP in usability, and thus worth the cost for these people.

According Christian Ude the number of complains to help desk has actually decreased since they switched, so I guess they are doing fine.

The point anyway is that using Munich as an example of a failed Linux deployment (as it's often done) is utterly wrong.

Help desk calls doesn't measure usability and efficiency.

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I thought you just argued that the GIMP was just as good as photoshop....

For "most people", yes, it does exactly what they want Photoshop to do. For the more advanced people, it does not match up to it.

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This is great news!

That's the thing. This isn't news.

It's someone going "MS will LOOK at maybe sort of consider working on Office for Linux".

The whole thing is misleading.

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And that STILL doesn't make The GIMP as good as photoshop. just like Blender isn't as good as... well ANY of the big commercial 3D suites.

Most of the GIMP and Blender defenders are diehard FOSS evangelists who will spend 3 times as long to learn the software, and twice as long to make almost the same result just to prove that "it's just as good". This is why no serious graphics business uses GIMP and Blender except for fan evangelist projects like 3D Blender Foundation and their Big Buck Bunny.

While Blender is not at the same level as other 3D suites it's actually being used by serious graphic business.

http://vimeo.com/44420219

Obviously no big studios (other than for things like quick 3D "storyboards" as they did with Spiderman).

Help desk calls doesn't measure usability and efficiency.

No, but considering we have no other metric it at least means people aren't having (as many) problems with it.

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For "most people", yes, it does exactly what they want Photoshop to do. For the more advanced people, it does not match up to it.

the fallacy is that photoshop is not made for "most" people. it's made for advanced people. and all the most people who use it, pretty much pirate it, when they should be using the more user friendly and far more than they need LE edition.

No, but considering we have no other metric it at least means people aren't having (as many) problems with it.

They probably would have had a similar drop in "problems" with any upgrade. they where running pretty old stuff prior to this.

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