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Time:
09:19 EST/14:19 GMT | News Source:
ZDNet |
Posted By: Robert Stein |
Office 2010 is out in the market, on Microsoft’s volume license price lists and installed (at least in Office Starter form) on many new PCs out there. But there are still a couple of complementary technologies that aren’t available yet.
I’m not talking about Office Web Apps, the free version of which is still missing some promised functionality, as Microsoft itself has acknowledged. I’m talking about other related technologies of interest to both consumers and smaller business users.
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#1 By
2960 (72.205.26.164)
at
7/2/2010 1:33:06 PM
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I don't know what's missing, but Outlook 2010 has a huge problem with the pasting of text in an email body.
Through 2007 when I pasted the same information in, it pasted instantly.
With 2010 outlook sits and hangs and it takes a good 30 seconds for the text to appear.
This was an issue early on which I reported a few times, but never received a response and obviously it was never fixed.
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#2 By
143 (96.28.66.92)
at
7/3/2010 5:12:05 AM
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What's still missing? Affordability.
The "Blue Edition" will again be the popular download on torrent sites.
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#3 By
89249 (72.213.159.5)
at
7/3/2010 10:03:44 PM
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Home and Student - Word/Excel/OneNote/Powerpoint
Retail: MSRP-$149 NewEgg-$124 - three machines in your house
OEM: MSRP-$119 NewEgg-$109 - tied to the metal
Home and Business - Word/Excel/Outlook/OneNote/Powerpoint
Retail: MSRP-$279 NewEgg-$219 - two of your machines
OEM: MSRP-199 NewEgg-$169 - tied to the metal
Professional - Word/Excel/Outlook/OneNote/PowerPoint/Publisher/Access
Retail: MSRP-$499 NewEgg-$459 - two of your machines
OEM: MSRP-$349 NewEgg-$319 - tied to the metal
Average Usefulness of a license is 3 years (I've used mine for 6 usually). These prices are insanely cheap for what you get and this is buying at the retail level. Prices discounted on pre-built machines are even cheaper.
IMO they're basically giving away a premier package to anyone. I already bought the retail home and business for myself at home... I'll use it for at least 4 years... that's $55/y or $0.15/d. I'm spending one tenth the amount on my Office than I do on my morning cups of coffee.
Yep, it's missing affordability. /facepalm
This post was edited by MrHumpty on Saturday, July 03, 2010 at 22:08.
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#4 By
143 (96.28.66.92)
at
7/4/2010 1:54:03 AM
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Professional Plus or "Blue Edition" - $0
That's money well spent. LOL
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#5 By
15406 (216.191.227.68)
at
7/5/2010 11:15:42 AM
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#3: Do all you Microbots go to the same Parkkker School of Logical Fallacies? You cannot seriously rebut someone saying Office is expensive by pointing out the cost being lower if you amortize it over some period of time. Ever notice infomercials that try to manipulate you into thinking something ins't expensive by saying it's 'only pennies per day'? Everything can be measured in pennies per day, including the entire US military budget (only about a billion pennies per day!). You're overlooking that pennies per day add up, and there is still the large initial cost.
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#6 By
23275 (68.117.163.128)
at
7/5/2010 2:23:32 PM
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#5, Only if you are willing to admit that investments translate into greater wealth - investments in "thought tools" stand as examples that have translated into innumerable great works, all being derived from the information essential to their creation. The magnitude of the hypocrisy sustained by those on the left is incomprehensible and suggests that some malignant form of lunacy infests its collective being. The disastrous effects of which may be seen among the countless examples of its twisted manifestations rotting on the pyres of man’s short history.
Indeed, FOSS/OSS variants (less capable alternatives to the MS Office System) stand as examples of communist ideology that rob man of his just rewards and render all works valueless, removing any incentive to pursue excellence, or attain greatness.
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#7 By
15406 (216.191.227.68)
at
7/5/2010 3:04:33 PM
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#6: WTF? I think you've lost the plot... again.
Your last statement beggars belief. The very fact that Office is one of MS' two big cash cows puts the lie to your claims about FOSS. And what does FOSS have to do with this thread anyway? We were talking about Office being relatively expensive until you moseyed in and started frothing about Communists. You really need to shake off that Cold War mentality and join the rest of us in the present century.
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#8 By
143 (96.28.66.92)
at
7/5/2010 9:08:40 PM
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The code is copied so your paying for front office salaries not programming costs... and Ballmer still can't afford rogaine?
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#9 By
23603 (67.68.235.214)
at
7/6/2010 7:43:42 AM
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@Latch
MrHumpty comment truly make sense.
Every year, I purchase a fiscal tax software....which cost 79$....
So 149$ for Office 2010 Home and Student ....is pretty cheap.
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#10 By
15406 (216.191.227.68)
at
7/6/2010 8:08:06 AM
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#9: You're arguing that Office is cheap because it costs twice what your tax software costs? I'm not sure I follow your logic there. I pay $25 for my tax software. Your tax software is expensive, as is Office.
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#11 By
89249 (64.207.240.90)
at
7/6/2010 10:00:22 AM
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Latch, you still have no ability to understand making decent business decisions. The cost of ANYTHING in your office is purchase price / useful time period. Compare that to the increased productivity you can attribute to its usage and you can realize its true value. This is how someone can spending 1 Million Dollars on a piece of equipment. It works on any scale... and frankly OpenOffice still doesn't stand up to true business logic scrutiny which is why it is still, after being "mainstream ready" for nearly a decade, is barely installed in businesses.
If you find that the increased productivity does not justify it's monthly cost then you don't buy it. That's why I would advocate using OpenOffice to someone who "just wants a word processor" though honestly I'll just show them how to type Win+R -> WordPad.
Honestly latch, TCO over time is a normal way of doing business. The decreased maintenance costs of using much of MS products (especially in business) far outweighs the insanely minimal gains you make choosing a "free" alternative in many cases.
Considering you can use office for upwards of 10 years if you wanted to (which i'm nearing with my office 2003 seats) the current frontloaded cost is inconsequential.
Oh, and, for the last time. ITS NOT AMORTIZATION ITS DEPRECIATION! There did I say it loud enough for it to be read?
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#12 By
89249 (64.207.240.90)
at
7/6/2010 10:08:15 AM
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Oh and just for the record, I generally ignore anybody who uses a derivation of "it all adds up" as a logical reasoning.
Any number multiplied by a big number can sound "OMFG BIG." That isn't logic that's emotion.
And to your US Military Comment... please explain to me how you can compare the costs of an office productivity tool and an ongoing military force?
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#13 By
23275 (68.117.163.128)
at
7/6/2010 2:14:15 PM
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Latch, my comments go to the differences (in the results) between investing in qaulity tools (MS Office) vice an ideology (the notion that, because MS Office is not free, that free alternatives are for some reason better). I think that reasoning is entirely bankrupt and therefore free alternatives have a higher cost than MS Office does.
Further, "good enough" IS NOT good enough - it never has been and it never will be and worse, if we begin to think that way, we will lose our instinct as a people to aspire.
MS Office 2010 is not good enough and it is why it must be built upon, leveraged and then these innovations will drive the next version.
We must, in all areas of human activity, assert that nothing is ever good enough and that all things, with effort, can be made better - coupled with an absolute faith that they will be.
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#14 By
15406 (216.191.227.68)
at
7/6/2010 3:21:23 PM
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#11: Who said anything about business decisions, TCO and the office? Not me anyway. While some people think that Windows is exclusively about business, I would say that there are more personal Windows users than office Windows users. Office is expensive for personal use, and that's what I care about. I don't give a rat's ass how much MS soaks businesses for since I don't pay for that. Even the cheaper H&S versions are expensive. I can buy a system these days for under $400. Why does a word processor cost $150+, almost half the price of the system it runs on? I remember when you used to be able to buy Word by itself. Now you get all the crap even though most people only use Word. Home & Student Office should not contain Excel or Access (I don't know if it does include Access and I'm too lazy to look it up) and cost about $50.
#13: I don't believe that free=better. Price has no relation to quality whatsoever. Lots of expensive things are crap and lots of free things are spectacular. However, if free != better, it does not then follow that free = costlier. There just isn't a link between the two so I'm not sure where you're getting that from.
Further, "good enough" IS NOT good enough - it never has been and it never will be and worse, if we begin to think that way, we will lose our instinct as a people to aspire.
A lot of us can't afford the best of everything, so we make do with what we have and can get within our means. Also known as "good enough."
MS Office 2010 is not good enough and it is why it must be built upon, leveraged and then these innovations will drive the next version.
When will it be good enough? When it's got Windows completely encapsulated within it and costs $1,000?
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#15 By
89249 (72.213.159.5)
at
7/6/2010 8:43:53 PM
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Latch. The same decisions apply to the Home, though entertainment becomes a much larger factor. While you are right their are more personal windows users than office users it by no means degrades my argument. Again, for personal use Wordpad would suffice for the majority of home users. However, picking up a copy of Office Home and Student for $119 on their new machine still provides value. While I agree that buying a system at $400 (most likely a PoS) only to put a $119 Word Processor, Presentation Software, Spread Sheet Software, and an Organization and Note taking program may seem a bit much. But, many choose to pickup Office anyway.
I think your beef is more with the user than MS. Microsoft prices its products at what the market will bare. I do believe OpenOffice has been around for quite a long time and many people know of it and/or know someone who evangelizes it... yet people still buy office.
And I don't get this "only use word" concept. Nearly everyone I know, including my 80+ yr old grandpa and my 55+ yr old mother use excel. Granted they use it more for formatting in general but they all know and use it and are happy. Many use powerpoint as well but I'd doubt as many.
Again, people look at the cost of the software, realize they will use it for the life of the PC (usually 3-4 years) and recognize it gives them the opportunity to be more productive and they go ahead and add it to their config. Hell, now with Starter edition (a response to competition) users get home user feature full Office at the cost of a small amount of their screen resolution.
Your arbitrary $50 would be a nice figure... you'd imagine that the existance of a $0 product would get us that price, unfortunately OpenOffice just doesn't add the value to beat MS Office at $119. Maybe in time it will, but until the consumer (home in your case since you can't give a rodents ass about business) sees OpenOffice as a valuable enough to not add that $119 Office on their new machine MS will continue to dominate the business.
This post was edited by MrHumpty on Tuesday, July 06, 2010 at 20:45.
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#16 By
37 (192.251.125.85)
at
7/7/2010 12:07:37 PM
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ActiveWin: What's still missing?
A site update.
This post was edited by AWBrian on Wednesday, July 07, 2010 at 12:07.
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#17 By
15406 (216.191.227.68)
at
7/8/2010 9:54:30 AM
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#15: I disagree with several of your assertions. Microsoft prices Office as it sees fit because of the monopoly position they have. Yes, the existence of a free product *should* mean that MS will price theirs higher than free but not several hundreds of dollars. It doesn't need to care about that because it recognizes the power of the lock-in related to the Office file formats. My own wife refuses to use OpenOffice. She thinks it's a nice office suite in itself, but it doesn't play perfectly nice with all MS Office file formats so she doesn't trust it to properly maintain fidelity between users. That is a major component of MS's pricing strategy with regards to Office. MS doesn't charge a lot more than free because people thin kit's worth it (well, I'm sure some do). It's because they can, and people will have to pay it to guarantee fidelity with everyone else (also using Office). Why do you think MS fought so hard to create a (haha) "open" document standard that only they could implement? They know the power of proprietary binary file formats.
#16: Using the power of Microsoft's RAD tools, the new AW site redesign is 99.999997466573+1/2% finished. Only a few more years to go and you'll be all set.
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#18 By
89249 (64.207.240.90)
at
7/9/2010 1:21:30 PM
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Again, as I stated. You have a problem with users not MS.
10 years. 10 years. 10 years.
Open Office has been able to open the average MS office document since the beginning. Their Open Standard is Open. It is there to be read and implemented. As with most "open standards" the existence doesn't matter, it's whether or not it's used.
As far as Office's use perpetuating Office's use. That's what happens when a product is successful. Office has been the premiere office productivity suite for 15+ years. Gobbling up other suites who were terrible by comparison.
Open Office tries to emulate Microsoft Office (my most recent use I'd say they're still looking at office 97). And as OpenOffice has made inroads MS resonded with Starter... which again is FREE. Your Wife can now use that if she wants to provide fidelity.
As far as the "power of proprietary binary file formats" I would love to see the alternate timeline that used Standards Committees to design different Office Productivity file formats... god help us. Leave the Open Standards folks emulating proprietary formats. I'm a much bigger fan of that process.
Again, 10 Years. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.
Google Doc's is destroying OpenOffice in growth (and probalby robbing market share). It has absolutely nothing to do with it's FileFormat. It has to do with usability vs cost over time. I actually would argue MS Office Starter is the response to Google Docs and not OpenOffice.
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