Microsoft 365: Wherein Windows takes a back seat

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If you want to stick with Windows, here’s an important primer on where it’s heading. Mary Jo Foley on ZDNet.
[See the full post at: Microsoft 365: Wherein Windows takes a back seat]

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Elly

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We should have seen this coming. I can imagine the conversation at Microsoft went something like this:

“The Windows as a service project has been going very well. Since we are now more focused on features rather than stability and security we can merge Windows with MS Office so that all the amazing new features we are producing for Office 365 can easily have complete access to the OS kernel in order to streamline and provide the best experience possible for the consumer.  Along with this our amazing team handling the release of all the Microsoft Updates can then focus on one big patch for everything instead of the antiquated way of doing things previously where small updates for specific issues were released. We see this as the future going forward as cloud technology grows and we are excited to be spearheading the future of technology overall.”

Red Ruffnsore

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HiFlyer

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I think Office 365 is a winner for a business, if they get the Business Premium version. Last night I installed it in my Windows 8.1 VM, and it ran fast. It is installed locally on my computer, so I don’t have to run it online. And I don’t have to do any email administration; all of that is done for me in either Outlook or Outlook Web App.

Office 365 Business Premium is an excellent choice for a small business, because everything is basically plug-and-play.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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What happens if one has a legally binding non disclosure agreement and, at the same time, Office documents with data and other kinds of information covered by the agreement created and or saved “in the Cloud”? Is there some kind of conflict between both, or is there a way to avoid that from happening while using 365?

Or, please, excuse my ignorance, this is not how Office 365 works?

 

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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Office 365 Business Premium installs the Office software on your hard drive, or you could use the online versions of the software. You can store your documents locally on your hard drive or in your cloud storage. So you could avoid the conflict you have described simply by keeping all sensitive documents local on your hard drive, and making sure that the local folder you store them in isn’t linked to your cloud storage.

I can’t guarantee that this is the case, but this is what I’m guessing is the case.

Of course, documents which aren’t sensitive could be kept in your cloud storage, so that they are accessible everywhere.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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WildBill

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I don’t use it anymore, had a personal version and it wasn’t very good. Got a years worth with a HP Stream notebook. Wife uses it at her school (educational version). They for the most part love it and chose it over Google’s suite. No doubt Microsoft is pushing to not only combine Windows and 365 into one system. But I have no doubt this will be how Microsoft makes money going forward and the early thoughts of Windows 10 being a subscription service was probably more about a Win/365 marriage then just Windows.

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A significant number of home users are PC gamers. They aren’t interested in MS Office, the cloud or regular broken updates with dull new features. The only reason they use Windows at all is due to the fact that most of their favorite games wont play on other OS’s and purchasing additional consoles should be unnecessary.

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Elly

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My strong suspicion is that Marie Antoin-della’s attitude towards gamers is, “Let them eat Xboxes.”

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Bill C., Cybertooth

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Anonymous wrote:
A significant number of home users are PC gamers. They aren’t interested in MS Office, the cloud or regular broken updates with dull new features. The only reason they use Windows at all is due to the fact that most of their favorite games wont play on other OS’s…

+1

Oh, so I guess you’ve met my nephew? ’cause you just described him…

Yes, he’s a PC gamer, and runs Win10/DirectX12 on his PC because that’s what gives him the best support for–and performance of–the high-end AAA+ games he wants to play.

He’s not interested in _microsoft office_ or _microsoft’s cloud_. For browsing and schoolwork he’s a google guy (chrome, docs, sheets, slides… prbly youtube most of all 🙂 ). And he’s a huge fan of steam and the cloud! How else would he play his AAA MMOGs with his far-flung fellow online gamers?!?

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Elly

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According to Mary Jo Foley in the article, there is no Microsoft 365 for consumers planned… Yet. I suspect they will eventually as their goal is to have as many people migrate from Windows 7 & 8.1 to Windows 10 whatever. With less than 2 years support left for Win7, & less than 5 left for Win8.1, consumers will continue to migrate to Macs, Chromebooks & Linux as long as dependability & stability are ignored by Microsoft software & hardware.

Bought a refurbished Windows 10 64-bit, currently updated to 22H2. Have broke the AC adapter cord going to the 8.1 machine, but before that, coaxed it into charging. Need to buy new adapter if wish to continue using it.
Wild Bill Rides Again...

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Bill C., Elly

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The big problem for consumers is 365 requires a monthly subscription for an awful lot of stuff they really do not need. Most consumers are price sensitive and are wary of subscriptions. So give me a box with one upfront cost including the OS and let me pick and chose which applications I am willing to subscribe too (not many and not 365).

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Bill C., Elly, SueW

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I’d love to see the pricing on each package.  In fact, without some knowledge of the pricing we can’t really understand what they’re up to.

But this is what it smells like: I have worked in an oligopolistic industry that attempts, with mixed success, to extract from each customer or type of customer what the producer believes is the full value of the product to that customer.  It works best when competition is nonexistent or limited, and hardly at all otherwise.

Competitors have little respect for such schemes, which they rightly understand as an opportunity to take business at a fat profit.  Enough competition drives the price down toward production cost, which in the software industry (like so many other capital intensive industries today, e.g. pharma) is next to nothing.

Enjoy it while it lasts, M$.

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lurks about, Bill C., Elly, flackcatcher

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The conundrum for the software industry is too many of the major product families are very mature products that do not really wear out. This creates a problem to generate demand when almost all product categories suffer from severe ‘featuritis’. Most of the features of Office or Photoshop could probably be eliminated and very few would even know they were eliminated. To some extent the same is true with OSes, how many ‘features’ in any OS are truly needed and if eliminated would even be noticed. So the move is to subscriptions by the software houses because repeat sales will be dismal in the future when a user can use an old version without any problems for theoretically decades.

The problem with subscriptions is their only value is companies, who already often pay a subscription like fee anyway, or to independent professionals. For anyone else they are hard to justify even for an OS.

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wdburt1, Cybertooth

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The alternative is to invent new software that actually creates value for customers.

 

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columbia2011

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Main problem with Office is that MS is ramping up patching. Weekly updates are nothing new. Fun fact: on a Mac, all software runs fine and gets updated without problems. Except Office 465, that regularly causes irrational long update times and large downloads. Not very professional imo.

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I learned that Microsoft has already offered us licensing for this. For $40.00 a month PER USER you’re pretty much licensed for any product. That was a bit too hefty a price for us however.

Red Ruffnsore

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