What is Digg?206 Comments
- Khanvalescent, on 07/03/2008, -5/+138Goodbye Office, Hello OpenOffice.
- MarkusX, on 07/02/2008, -7/+94Hate it! Hate it! Hate it!
This is the worst idea I've heard in a long time.
They wanna do what the Anti-Virus programs do for years now?
I understand that they want a "recurring money stream" from me (which business wouldn't), but it's not like Microsoft is recurringly providing new features (that every user necessarily NEEDS) for Office - unlike anti-virus signatures and updates in the Anti-Virus programs, which are really NEEDED by every user.
This feels much like legal blackmailing of their user base. So many people, like me, sumply like Microsoft Office so much, that Microsoft feels they can take advantage of their user's impression that there's nothing else out there that compares - and these people will agree to a subscription, because Microsoft Office is all they know. ...and change is hard (for many). - Brew, on 07/02/2008, -4/+70$69.99 a year? I guess this is Their answer for people who do not buy into their pointless upgrades. What did making another new file format seem too transparent of a money making scheme?
Good thing MS Office is not the end all for productivity software anymore. iWorks, OpenOffice, and GoogleDocs does what most people need anyway. Sure, MS Office is by far the most robust, but if I can get the same basic thing for a fraction of the price why would I pay MS exorbitant amounts of money. Leave it to Microsoft to alienate their install base. - seltaeb4, on 07/02/2008, -7/+64Yes, the Microsoft Office Subscription service...
For those amongst us who prefer to be screwed monthly, instead of at indefinite multi-year intervals... - WriterSD, on 07/02/2008, -2/+59Ugh. No thanks.
- dgaspard, on 07/03/2008, -2/+52It is this business model that will push open source.
- Rolcol, on 07/03/2008, -7/+52And the downfall of Microsoft has begun...
- Renian, on 07/03/2008, -4/+47DO NOT WANT
- palewook, on 07/03/2008, -2/+42NO, see openoffice.org. Byebye MS~
- Haecceity, on 07/03/2008, -1/+39And I would want this why?
- inactive, on 07/03/2008, -4/+40Oh Microsoft, you just won't be happy until every man woman and child in the world is paying you 29.95 a month for being so terrific.
- TheInformer, on 07/03/2008, -1/+35This will end up hurting Microsoft Office more than helping it. People will look towards free alternatives and to pirated versions as well.
- forcedfx, on 07/03/2008, -2/+34I'm happy with Office 2003 and seeing as I rarely use it, I'll keep it as long as possible then switch to Open Office if this comes true.
- jeffs3rd, on 07/03/2008, -1/+31If you buy office once every 3 intervals or so (2000, 2003, 2007 for example) you would be paying ~$120 every 3 or so years for MS Home and Student ($115 at amazon.com). If you subscribe to this "service, you would pay $70.00/year.
$210 every 3 years > $120 every 3 years.
Yeah, I think I will stick with what I have. Open office. - agisten, on 07/03/2008, -4/+32It's a trap
- Namco, on 07/03/2008, -3/+30Open Office for the win, Alex.
- darkfus, on 07/03/2008, -0/+25No, no and no. Renting software? No again.
I like open source and I will buy software that is fairly priced. I will never subscribe to software. Never. If Windows 7 is really going to be a subscription basis I will replace my remaining Windows PCs with Macs. - YodaJones, on 07/03/2008, -1/+26This will be the end of Microsoft Office. Who is going to pay month after month when you can get a better office suite (Open Office) for free? Actually using Microsoft Office today anyway is a huge waste of money.
- puter, on 07/03/2008, -2/+27Good move MS, nice of them to help make open office mainstream.
- omnichronic, on 07/03/2008, -1/+23Isn't $69.99 a year less than $9.99 a month?
- devophl, on 07/03/2008, -0/+21I pretty much do everything in OpenOffice now. I just can't justify spending $599 to license the version of office on my home PC. Good grief, the PC only cost $575.
Now I do everything in OO and convert it to office format if needed. Many of my office mates are now starting to look at OO as well.
One other thing is that we've gotten into a Visio mode recently. There goes another $599 if I want it at home. So I go to OO draw and it gives me almost everything I needed out of Visio.
For me, I just can't justify spending more money on a single software package than I paid for the computer in the first place... subcription or not! - Dojjah, on 07/03/2008, -0/+20www.openoffice.org
open source is the future, not greedy wannabe monopolies. - monkeysaurus, on 07/03/2008, -0/+19Personally, I prefer paying nought noughty-nought per month for Open Office.
- kinglenster, on 07/03/2008, -0/+17I hate MS Office these days. It is getting worse with every version. Everyone else is slimming down their software and Microsoft are making it bigger and slower.
- frozenpxl, on 07/03/2008, -4/+20A Microsoft subscription that is actually worth my time does not exist.
- n0odles, on 07/03/2008, -0/+16Nail in the coffin.
- Calibur, on 07/03/2008, -0/+14Its almost too easy for opensource products to keep gaining market space while M$ keeps doing stupid ***** like this.
- LetsGoHokies, on 07/03/2008, -0/+14They could call this a "monthly fee" or another way of saying it would be "giving Open Office a bigger market share"
- f4nt0m4s, on 07/03/2008, -1/+15Pass.
I'll stick with Office 2003 which is ROCK SOLID, or OpenOffice. It was tough enough to swallow the transition from Office 2003 to 2007, but this is just silly on Microsoft's part. I bet they won't go through with this. - f4nt0m4s, on 07/03/2008, -0/+14Office 2003 is rock solid. All I ever use is Word and Excel. Occasionally I'll throw something together in Power Point. I suspect the majority of the home users feel the same way. The only profit Microsoft will make off of this move will be the business users.
The thing is, Office hasn't made much forward progress in terms of improvements noticeable to the average user. Most home users would probably be just as happy typing up something in Office 97. - JustAFarmBoy23, on 07/03/2008, -1/+14OpenOffice is definitely the way to go. No money, no hassle.
- wonderworm, on 07/03/2008, -1/+14This will be the death of Microsoft's Office and usher in the age of Open Source office. Bad first move Ballmer.
- ZedoMann, on 07/03/2008, -1/+14Don't worry. I'm sure you will get used to not using Microsoft Software.
- kinglenster, on 07/03/2008, -1/+13Office for Mac is not robust. It EATS up resources. No-one should waste any money on it.
- CrazedLeper, on 07/03/2008, -0/+11Really. Hey Mi¢ro$oft! Spell-check this: "www.openoffice.org"
- TheJalu, on 07/03/2008, -0/+11***** This! Lets head over to Zoho or GDocs
Dugged to spread this ***** up story - philhatesyou, on 07/03/2008, -0/+11No it hasn't. If screwing with consumers was a bad idea, MS would have been put under by 95/98/ME. Or by the RROD fiasco in the Xbox360. Instead, these were all wildly successful products. Consumers are too ***** stupid and too busy eating grass and bleating to realize they're getting ***** in the ass. This will work, and if people are too stupid to see they're getting the shaft then, quite frankly, they deserve it.
- postalblowfish7, on 07/03/2008, -0/+11yeah that'll work - because the "business dream model" of software subscription that works with addictive MMOs like World of Warcraft will clearly work with a spreadsheet and word processor that are both easily replaced by readily available, FREE, open source applications!
- YodaJones, on 07/03/2008, -0/+1070 dollars per year or free....gee that's a tough one. I can tell you studied economics.
Think about it: you could buy another video game or a extra controller for your Wii dude.... - PhillyMJS, on 07/03/2008, -0/+9Why don't they just go back to changing their file format with every new version of Office, so if anyone you exchange documents with upgrades to Office n+1, you are pretty much annoyed into upgrading as well? That sure worked pretty well for them in the 90s.
- TheInformer, on 07/03/2008, -0/+9Microsoft won't be happy until you have to pay for each part of Office each time you use it. For example, to check the spelling of your document, you'll have to pay 5 cents. Each 100 words will cost 2 cents to render. Want a table? 10 cents.
Extrapolate what Microsoft is doing and tell me this isn't where they're going. - micklerlop, on 07/03/2008, -1/+9or Google Docs or Acrobat.com
- klco, on 07/03/2008, -0/+8Steve Ballmer??? I didn't know you were on digg!
- RubineBoy, on 07/03/2008, -0/+8No, no ... Not begun... They just found something new to speed up the downfall and fall even deeper.
- caldera, on 07/03/2008, -3/+10Wait, you're still using Microsoft Office? :)
- Sillywombat, on 07/03/2008, -2/+9Pirates Unite!
- Vector36, on 07/03/2008, -3/+10Actually, the new file format was created to be open source. You can literally rename any of the o2k7 documents .zip instead of their default extension and open them with a standard opening zip program.
And they are giving away the plugin that allows for backwards and forward compatibility, and have the white papers on the file format published so anyone can use them to properly read and use the format. (i.e. open office googledocs etc)
That said, there was already an open source standard, but since when does MS follow the standard. - GRTWHT, on 07/03/2008, -0/+7Get ready to have problems.
- sfcaptainrob, on 07/03/2008, -2/+9OpenOffice is nice, but it's no Microsoft Office. Especially when it comes to Calc vs. Excel. However for the average home user, OpenOffice is more than enough.
- crapuccino, on 07/03/2008, -0/+7I wouldn't say that OO.o is better, although I've been using it almost exclusively for a few years (since about v1.3). It's more than good enough for everything that I want to do - business reports, forms, simple flyers, accounting. I run my business using it.
I managed to persuade one of my customers to go with it (guy wanted us to pirate Office and we wouldn't, so gave him the alternative of OO.o). The senior admin lady was sceptical, but anything she thought it couldn't do was just in a different place and it's come through every time. She's happy now and doesn't mention Excel anymore. -
Show 51 - 100 of 207 discussions
The Digg Toolbar for Firefox lets you Digg, submit content, and keep track of Digg even when you're not on the Digg site. Download the official 
© Digg Inc. 2009
— Content created and posted by Digg users is