Netherlands Looks to Move to OpenDocument Format for Goverment
-
I think we're in the last generation of "We NEED MS Office because of its features" and are moving into the age of "We CAN'T use Office because it sucks to work with online and/or it costs way too much" unless Microsoft catches up in a big way soon. Google's successful Chromebook push in the education sector means that there's going to be a significant portion of adults in the next 10-15 years who grew up with effortless online collaboration being standard. Heck, my alma mater switched over to Google Apps for Education about 3 years ago... I joined the IT help desk shortly afterwards, and everyone that mentioned the switch to me was incredibly happy about it.
In comparison, I've tried to get people to use Office Online but all of the apps are just different enough to provide a sort of Uncanny Valley of features and UI that seems to make people anxious to use it. I have to provide training for anyone who needs to use the online version, showing them where things are because it's all almost - but not quite - in the same place as the desktop application. And then there are the small Microsoftisms throughout that bog people down, like the fact that you have to click "edit document" to actually do anything to the document besides look at it. That tiny User Experience glitch in particular has been a pain point for every single person I've trained... and I feel a bit evil telling people to use Office Online instead of Google Docs, which they already know how to use.
I am hoping the bulk of Office 2016's new features focus on improving online collaboration. Based on Windows 10 it appears MS is taking big steps on integrating internet services into the desktop experience, and based on this article that's what they plan to do with Office 2016 as well... but given their current implementation, I'm going to have to see it myself before recommending it to anyone.
-
I'll agree that simply sharing a name often allows people to have completely invalid assumption, and through those assumptions have expectations and ultimately frustrations. If for example, MS didn't call Word online Word - people would just look for things like they had to when they learned to use Google Apps.
Of course this probably wouldn't work for MS, the whole point is that people are migrating to something familiar.
-
It's going to be interesting to see how Office continues to march forward. MS has given it away for most if not all mobile platforms. I wonder if they will have to eventually give up on it being a paid service.
-
@Dashrender said:
MS has given it away for most if not all mobile platforms.
Not exactly. Its use is tied to having an Office 365 subscription.
-
@JaredBusch said:
@Dashrender said:
MS has given it away for most if not all mobile platforms.
Not exactly. Its use is tied to having an Office 365 subscription.
It must be the readers that are all free then.
-
@Dashrender said:
@JaredBusch said:
@Dashrender said:
MS has given it away for most if not all mobile platforms.
Not exactly. Its use is tied to having an Office 365 subscription.
It must be the readers that are all free then.
The readers have always been free, even on the PC.
-
@scottalanmiller I have seen office 365 and Office 2013.
The suite are interchangeable between each other. Which is my point, a cloud solution to be viable, must be fully fleshed out.
If it's lacking the features or tool-set required when compared to the installed application then it might as well be "the free edition"
-
@DustinB3403 said:
@scottalanmiller I have seen office 365 and Office 2013.
The suite are interchangeable between each other. Which is my point, a cloud solution to be viable, must be fully fleshed out.
If it's lacking the features or tool-set required when compared to the installed application then it might as well be "the free edition"
The suites are the same product, they are licensing models not products. But Office 365 is the only path to the hosted products and they are nothing like the MS Office 2013 suite. Completely different interfaces and everything.
It's not the free edition, it's actually the most expensive part.
-
@JaredBusch said:
@Dashrender said:
MS has given it away for most if not all mobile platforms.
Not exactly. Its use is tied to having an Office 365 subscription.
Online and mobile is free for non-commercial use, no O365 subscription required.
-
@scottalanmiller said:
The "other packages" all being LibreOffice, I assume? What other serious competitor is there?
OpenOffice, iWork, Google Apps, Lotus Smartsuite
-
@scottalanmiller said:
What benefits do you find are compelling with it? The big ones that I see most often are users already familiar with it (this seems to be becoming less common rather than more common as people stop using PCs at home) and integration with other products (also becoming less and less common from what I see.)
They're the main two, plus the fact that it is so common, so you will receive Office documents from 3rd parties and similarly 3rd parties will be able to receive Office documents from you, without any compatibility issues.
It may be that I only prefer Office because I'm used to it, but my productivity would drop massively if I was forced to move to something else. In the long term my productivity may return, but there would be a massive short term cost. And I'm not a hugely complicated Office user.
I've also never found a serious competitor to Access.
-
@Carnival-Boy said:
I've also never found a serious competitor to Access.
I have. Pen and paper.
j/k -
@nadnerB said:
@Carnival-Boy said:
I've also never found a serious competitor to Access.
I have. Pen and paper.
j/kOnly sort of
-
@DustinB3403 said:
@coliver said:
@DustinB3403 said:
I personally have never found my self without the installed application, and find the Hosted App solution rather useless.
Maybe some time in the future (if I didn't have a working and setup device) would I have to use this feature. But it hasn't happened yet.
I used Google Apps all through college. I prefer the apps hosted. Especially when all the documents get stored in one easily accessible place.
Google Apps aren't included in the conversation, those are solely cloud based solutions. (Unless and correct me if I'm wrong) Google hasn't sold their Cloud App as a direct install-able that is usable without internet.
Yes, they are usable without the Internet. Without that feature they would not be very competitive.
-
@Dashrender said:
@DustinB3403 said:
@coliver said:
@DustinB3403 said:
I personally have never found my self without the installed application, and find the Hosted App solution rather useless.
Maybe some time in the future (if I didn't have a working and setup device) would I have to use this feature. But it hasn't happened yet.
I used Google Apps all through college. I prefer the apps hosted. Especially when all the documents get stored in one easily accessible place.
Google Apps aren't included in the conversation, those are solely cloud based solutions. (Unless and correct me if I'm wrong) Google hasn't sold their Cloud App as a direct install-able that is usable without internet.
That used to be the case with Chromebooks, is it no longer?
That's correct, they work offline.
-
@Carnival-Boy said:
@scottalanmiller said:
The "other packages" all being LibreOffice, I assume? What other serious competitor is there?
OpenOffice, iWork, Google Apps, Lotus Smartsuite
I wouldn't consider any of those except OpenOffice (a copy of LibreOffice or vice versa) to be serious in any way. How long ago did you try OpenOffice? LibreOffice is a bit more up to date.
-
@Carnival-Boy said:
They're the main two, plus the fact that it is so common, so you will receive Office documents from 3rd parties and similarly 3rd parties will be able to receive Office documents from you, without any compatibility issues.
This is the big one, IMHO. But I've seen few issues with documents in the last few years with LibreOffice and I've also seen a huge drop in receiving documents. But maybe that's just me and maybe the rate of document sharing hasn't gone down like that. But it sure seems to. I used to receive Word docs for everything, now I get PDFs or web files.
-
I'd consider Google Apps serious in lots of ways, not least user adoption.
-
@Carnival-Boy said:
I've also never found a serious competitor to Access.
As I never use Access I don't have a good idea of what is or isn't competitive. I don't find it very useful, I honestly find "not using it" more competitive than Access itself, even though we own licenses for it AND licenses for having it hosted on Sharepoint AND licenses for MS SQL Server to make it enterprise ready. Even with all that, I don't see it as having value in general. It just doesn't compete well with PHP or other options.
Have you tried LibreOffice Base? That's the LibreOffice attempt at competition with Access. I have not tried it so I can't speak to any opinion on functionality or quality. I just know that it exists and goes after the Access market.
What about FileMaker? I've seen people chose that over Access?
-
@Carnival-Boy said:
I'd consider Google Apps serious in lots of ways, not least user adoption.
I've been using it for the past year, it's super easy to use but the suite is very limited. Yes, user adoption is getting high. But it is not a suite competing with MS Office or LibreOffice, IMHO, but rather a suite looking for a different, light user market instead.
