I think I don't get the point. Real-time collaboration is something we have already (google docs, hackpad, ...). And besides, if it's true that it works only for IE, what's the point?
EDIT: A guy in this thread told it works only for IE, then this statement was fixed in "also works on Chrome". Since I'm a GNU/Linux user I could not verify myself.
Google Docs is a far cry from Office. I use Gdocs, because it's good enough for me, but Office works much better, offers better compatibility with its own file format (not surprising), etc.etc... There is a reason why big companies are moving back to Office after a short encounter with GDocs. I am not a shill, I can completely understand why GDocs is enough for people on HN, but there is more out there. :)
>EDIT: A guy in this thread told it works only for IE, then this statement was fixed in "also works on Chrome". Since I'm a GNU/Linux user I could not verify myself.
I'm pretty sure there's a version of Chrome for Linux.
Apple did just release online versions of the iWork apps with collaboration (I don't know how well it works in real-time, but then I don't know that for Office either). They also made fun of the MS equivalent in their keynote.
Because large parts of the target audience for this feature only uses IE? I work with many companies that will take use of this feature, and none of them use any other browsers than IE. Wether or not IE is any good is irrelevant.
It is free? MS released their main product for free? Unbelievable. Their must be some catch here or I am missing something, either functional restrictions or buying a skydrive account. Well, looking forward to trying this out. Potential to be big in academic environments, especially with formatting fidelity.
The online Office suite has much less functionality compared to desktop versions.
The most loyal Office users are not the people who write 2 page long documents. For example think of a bank who has completely customized Excel so it displays real-time market data. Now that's where you _need_ the full suite.
Recent features it got were 'the ability to edit footnotes'. Its tablet functionality, when last checked, tried to download an .exe file onto Silverlight.
Office 365 does not compete at all against Google docs.
Your right, and don't get me started on Google staring a search engine 4 years after Lycos and Go.com. I mean what's the point.
What am I missing?
Even though I think your trolling I'll bite and give you an honest answer.
There are a few reasons:
1) Google Docs isn't that good.
2) clients want a desktop office suite with the option for a web based office suite to do light work when not at their main machine.
3) people who use the online apps are a click away from downloading and buying the desktop version of office
4) its training non paying customers to use office for when they need a more powerful office suite.
This feature has been essential for so many years that I've stopped using Office entirely. Most of my docs are shared and edited among a few collaborators.
I'll reconsider office 1.) when it is free 2.) when it works seamlessly on a Mac.
What I'm saying is that the online version of Office is both free and will run in a browser on your Mac. In my opinion at least, the web-based Office 2013 apps make Google Docs look like a toy - especially if you need to interop with native Office documents.
You really have something against Microsoft don't you? It's kind of weird that from the dozens of posts that appear on HN on a daily basis, most(more than 80%) of your comments are on posts about Microsoft or nokia. (and even when the post isn't about them, your comment is).
Oh and you actually do submit stuff about Microsoft, but they are all Anti-Microsoft posts. (do elaborate how THAT equates to startup-relevant)
As much as we hate shills who just blatantly support brands for no good reason, we also hate people who blatantly hate companies for no good reasons. HN is a place for reasonable debate. If you think Some big player did something right, you praise them. If you think they made a mistake, you point it out and discuss why it is a bad move on their part. But why the pure hatred?
I believe the fact that you can collaborate on documents online with a suite that offers you quite high level of compatibility with legacy documents is relevant. Also, a big player in the software industry implemented something significant.
It's probably much more relevant to hackers that how important role India plays in controlling AIDS (or, for that matter, the daily BTC/Tesla/etc. posts).
Are you honestly saying that you cannot see how smart people with excellent computing could possibly do anything to help with significant problems such as HIV/AIDS or world hunger or food insecurity?
Are you really only interested in news about the latest cat-photo startup?
(I'm not dismissing those web sites. People have fun, and winning a start-up lottery gives that person money to spend on good science.)
All I'm saying is that I follow a subset of news that's related to tech and startup. Which means I don't have an informed opinion on:
> how smart people with excellent computing could possibly do anything to help with significant problems such as HIV/AIDS or world hunger or food insecurity
The fact that the most used office suite has added one of the most relevant features which may make it interesting as an alternative to google docs may be somewhat relevant to startups (they may be interested in using the 'most used office suite' again...).
But obviously, you are entitled to your own decisions.
> I flagged this submission, I hope the usual complainers understand why.
Perhaps you could explain why you think this is flag-worthy? I could understand that you might find it unimportant, or dull. But you've flagged it, and declared that you flagged it, which suggests you have some strongly negative feeling toward it appearing here.
I'd be interested to see where you'd put this on a scale with all the other stories that get subbed to HN.
> "strongly negative feeling toward it appearing here"
This isn't about feelings, I'm just adding a data point to HN ranking algorithm.
The reason I enjoy being on HN is because of this community's mindset of "let's disrupt the big, established, old players". Seen from that angle, this submission is irrelevant because it's not about disrupting a big player, it's about perpetuating a harmful monopoly.
It is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles; if you do not know your enemies but do know yourself, you will win one and lose one; if you do not know your enemies nor yourself, you will be imperiled in every single battle. -- widely attributed to Sun Tzu
