Microsoft May Announce Web-Based Office Monday

I hope, when all is said and done, there's still a native application that I can use to edit and store documents on MY OWN MACHINE.

lhed

@atm153: Google Docs is the proven product? I think that Microsoft established its bona fides with Office already, and they've proven they can write web applications (Live Mail, Bing). Google Docs, on the other hand, has always felt like the redheaded stepchild of the Google family.

That would be great! I hope that it would come in a package with the actual software because I might not always have internet access in some places.

What do you think the chances are that this will work with Chrome? I find the App mode indispensable, but Hotmail was blocking it from working properly for a long time.

telepheedian

Fantastic! I can't wait to unload MS-Office, MS-Windows and use my Linux desktop to access our internal MS-Office server.
Doh.
I forget that since MS is providing this, it will be limited to IE, use both ActiveX and Silverlight plugins and mandate an MS-Live/Passport ID to login.

TheFu

This is problematic for two reasons (A,B) and great for one(C):
A. Microsoft designs this to support IE. As was mentionned, prolly silverlight above HTML5 and all the great upcoming things... Holds back webapps development.
B. Most people that can use office applications in the cloud dont make documents that REQUIRE them using Office Live per se. Wherease if you NEED to use Office, you prolly still need the desktop version anyways (complicated documents, lots of styles, etc, etc.)
C. Does somewhat add competition to the cloud computing field...
In conclusion, I still think there should be seemless integration between your office desktop apps and your skydrive or whatever. And uber-easy collaboration features (no sharepoint setup).
These are the killer features I want to see!

holyspidoo

Huh. So Google is slowly becoming Microsoft while MS is slowly becoming Google. I think the Republicans and Democrats did that a few times in America's past. Now we just have two equally large and slow-to-change political gorillas.

I still have hopes for Google, though. May they become what MS should have been!

On a separate note, Zoho is a far better web office offering than either, but I'm far too invested in Google products to take advantage.

(Editing feature works. Line breaks in Flock don't...)

This would be very good, however, I do wonder how it will compete with the newly out of beta Google Docs. Other than brand recognition, what could Web Office offer that Docs doesn't have? Outlook sync, I guess, but that seems like a trivial feature when Docs has been around (as Writely) since 2005. I'd rather stick with the proven product in this case.

atm153

@Itspeat!: Absolutely. It will be very interesting to see how this affects our favorite companies.

Personaly, I hate web-based stuff, so I hope that the entire market doesn't go that way. I like my apps.

@Webran61: I bet that it will be written and executed in Silverlight. It's not the HTML 5/Ajax combination that keeps most Lifehacker readers salivating, but it does run in multiple browsers and it keeps MS developers happy.

I just hope they go with a "freemium" business model.

ossavir

What is up with all these random lines round boxes and formatting in the comments? I didn't miss a post about these did I?

And on topic.

Free and Paid, Windows and Mac, All major browsers.

I think they'll offer both free and paid, free perhaps with adverts and not as many features, paid just like proper Office (But minus a few features which would just be impossible inside a browser).

Windows and Mac, oh and that other one called Linux, I think it'll work on these, MS would rather have someone use their software, than say Open Office (Though I hate Open Office, its the only good (pah good) option for Linux)

And that also means all major browsers, Firefox, Opera, IE, Safari and Chrome. Though it might not work the best in some of those - and IE it would work best in - but that is just MS, chances are they'll give it other browser support just to get more people using their product.

tylerf

I doubt its gunna be IE only, they'd lose a big piece of market share, and MS are changing quite a bit recently. But they also don't only have Office on Windows do they? So they would also most likely let Mac users also use it - which would mean Linux can also easily squeeze in.

For free, it could be, but perhaps not a fully featured one (Perhaps like Office is to Works, could be Online Office for paid, and Works as a cheap (free) version which is of s**t quality.)

tylerf

@mohan37: Have you tried using MS web services before? They are the only reason I still have IE on my computer: many MS websites rely on nonstandard controls and activeX stuff that is only in IE.

Does anyone really care? I've loaded the web integration option into Office 2007 and am not impressed. I like what Zoho offers but I already use so much Google stuff I think I'm going to stick with that (what little there really is). I don't think that there is much that is really going on here, especially since Microsoft requires the purchase of Office to use the online version.

crichton007

Ad-supported to what extent? I can just imagine uploading my resume and an advertisement shows up on it...

I have been a beta tester for couple of months now...and it's pretty good...but there's no One note..somehow, MS thinks oneNote is more important than anything else...

shallnot

Didn't they have this apart of their live stuff already? I evened signed up for it.

apollo89

@AveSharia:

1) You're going to be OK there
2) Good luck on that one

burnblue

@Webran61: I do believe Ballmer hinted at free ad-supported versions alongside subscriber-based versions

burnblue

there's no way it would be locked to IE. that's just lame cynicism.

mohan37

1. Please God have OneNote.
2. Please God work on iPhone.

I might cry out of happiness.

AveSharia

Well, they have to announce SOMETHING. What, with Google announcing their own OS yesterday and all.

penguiniator

@Webran61: actually, that guy said that it would not be ie exclusive

@grimdeath9740: thei websites havent been locked to IE for a very long time now. pretty much all of them are supported on ff, safari (mac), and ie - and will actually work on most of the others

natenovs

@grimdeath9740:

Even if they do lock it down for IE, there are plenty of ways to trick a site into thinking you're using a different browser.

But I do hope it would at least offer basic use for free.

Amarus

Na i think they would have to have some kind of web based freeware in order to compete with what Google is doing to the internet and documents and all that good stuff.

@Webran61: Theres no chance it will be free. Microsoft has been wanting to make a subscriber model out of their office line for years.

@Webran61: of course, and it will only work in IE in Windows...because god forbid an web based tool work on something besides a MS product!

Sorry did that come across as snide? :P Seriously I would expect them to do it this way and it just makes me wonder what the point of being online is if your still tied down.

grimdeath9740

A logical next step for Office. Will you have to pay to use it though?

Webran61

@TheFu: You know it.