Posted on 03/27/2014 1:08:52 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
The big news from Microsoft today was that it has finally launched Office for iPad, which will give users full access to the popular productivity suite if they sign up for the Office 365 subscription service. But under the surface of the announcement, we got our first look at CEO Satya Nadella's broader vision for Microsoft's future. Nadella has only been CEO for 52 days, but we're already getting a sense of how he plans to expand the company's offerings beyond its core products like Windows.
In short, Nadella sees Microsoft powering all sorts of devices through services and apps like Office. It doesn't matter if the device runs Windows or a competing platform like Android or iOS. Microsoft wants to be powering what you do on every gizmo.
"We think about users both as individuals and organizations spanning across all devices," Nadella said during today's launch event.
He went on to mention the growing trends at big companies. Many people prefer to use their personal devices for work, and a lot of those aren't powered by Windows.
It's a slight shift from the narrative Microsoft has been pushing since 2012, when the company decided to transition to one that makes devices and software, not just software. But a lot of that software was focused on Windows. Now we're going to see Microsoft branch out, even if that means running its software on devices and operating systems built by its biggest competitors like Apple and Google.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Well, as a Microsoft Developer, what are we going to see?
Are we going to see .NET for, Linux, UNIX, iOS and Android?
SQL Server for LINUX and UNIX?
they got tired of trying to get people to buy a new version every few years and so they decided to make you pay for the one you have yearly.
I don’t know ANY company that is on the latest version
I used to sell VCR’s in the 70’s. Beta was hands down better than VHS, but Sony refused to play with everyone and got shut out.
I think this is a really good move by these guys.
they got tired of trying to get people to buy a new version every few years and so they decided to make you pay for the one you have yearly.
But there is no way I’d pay an annual fee (which is what they want me to do) to own it. I’d use openoffice before I’d do that.
“My computer has a slightly simplified version of microsoft office that is free.” What are you speaking of ?
I got a $499 desktop from costco a year or so ago and it came with an “upgradeable” version of Microsoft Office. It takes the upgrade to get the full features, but for my purposes it does everything I need Word and Excel to do (the only parts I use). I even do fomulas and use Word for flyers, business cards, etc.
I just google searched it. It’s called “starter”. Here it is:
http://www.infoworld.com/d/applications/microsoft-put-stripped-down-office-new-pcs-200
Get rid of that stinking 8 or 8.1, to start. It’s NOT cross-platform and it’s hellacious. I’m self-employed and I have to work at a desktop. It was beginning to fail so I finally had to get a new one...with Win 8 installed. I upgraded to 8.1 and downloaded the thing that is supposed to make it look like 7 and it still stinks.
They’ve also screwed up all the old reliable programs and Outlook will not even accept mail from ISP accounts (I have both web and ISP accounts).
I have several Apple devices and am a big touch-screen app user and purchaser...which I gather was the group that Microsoft thought it would impress.
But I’ve gone back to using my old rackety PC running Win 7. At least I can do my job on it and it actually communicates with all my other devices and accounts.
I have told everybody I know not to buy a new PC until Microsoft has remedied this, and not to “upgrade” to Win 8.1 if they’re already running 7.
Humm, where have we seen his look before?
In the 1980’s Microsoft had products that were affordable; usually $25-$95 for just about anything.
Today, Microsoft forgot about those days of growth and charges outrageous prices: $300-$12,000.
One primary reason Microsoft grew so fast was all the support they offered developers: Dev Days, TechEd, libraries, MSJ, etc. Today, most of that is gone and the content of what is left is nearly useless junk and some of it charged at useless pricing models.
BTW, IE is still dead road kill.
I continually get e-mails from these ass-klowns asking me if I would like to be a Microsoft Beta-Tester. I always reply: "WTF am I now. Since you guys never get anything working 100% or even close, I am always one of your Beta-Testers."
Perhaps we should start a user's group and offer these nerds money to leave stuff that's working tf alone? Go. Get new stuff. Make money. Leave us alone.
I’m just your average non-tech-savvy American running a small office.
All I can say is - since I stopped running MS-Windows based PC’s, my life has been so much easier. If it isn’t a frequent crash of Windows, then it is some hardware issue. I’m only guessing here, but with the multitude of PC makers who are simply boxes to run Windows, I believe they are forced to cut quality to make any margin.
Apple software and hardware work absolutely fine for our basic needs.
It might actually do them some good if there was something like mono that actually worked well.
Or here’s a crazy idea: why not just build “Windows” on top of Linux, as an alternative to KDE or Gnome? You get an OS for free, but if you want it to have all the (alleged) ease-of-use features of Windows, M$ support, etc, you have to buy Windows too. I dunno, but the biggest gripe I hear from users who try Linux is “it’s too hard to use”, so the opportunity exists to fix that.
Going after embedded apps in devices sounds like a hard way to make the kind of money M$ has been accustomed to making.
I can’t stand Apple because it’s way too proprietary, while MS apps were great at being cross-platform and enabling you to do your job in any environment.
What happened was that MS adopted the Apple model with Win 8 and suddenly it’s impossible to communicate or connect with anybody anywhere.
A computer industry friend described this as the “spite” model. That is, you may not do something well yourself, but instead of listening to the consumer or analyzing what it is that they like about the competitor, either (a) destroy the competitor or (b) create a lame version of what they do well.
I hate ‘em, have hated them for years, but their new Office pricing is the absolute worst. I think big corporations should just switch wholesale to Libre Office.
i have word 2003 on my ‘puters with xp and they are fine for what i need including 3D graphics. have open source on the 2 laptops so i acn open .docx files.
Yeah, I use open source when I can. Have one client that I regularly have to submit stuff to in Powerpoint, so I’m still somewhat stuck with ‘em.
Here’s the operating system for all kinds of devices—stable kernel, security and no spyware.
Yeah, I have, thanks. Doesn’t work well enough.
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