about Office 365...

[cmdrdredd]

With Office 365 now official, will the standard Office suite be eventually discontinued for the online only model?

I'm not a fan of offloading anything from my personal system.

 

[shortylickens]

If I cant get support for Office 2007 in the coming years I will switch to Open Office. But I'm not gonna be constantly milked. I understand thats the future model for pretty much all software but no way in hell I'm gonna settle for it.

To answer your question I am sure the default option for saved files will always be local. Its going to be a long time before you are forced to save to the cloud.

 

[cmdrdredd]

To further my point..I want the physical media in my possession. I do not want to do a digital distribution method. Do you believe that I will no longer "own" the software and have to log in remotely to have access to Word, Outlook etc?

 

[shortylickens]

To further my point..I want the physical media in my possession. I do not want to do a digital distribution method. Do you believe that I will no longer "own" the software and have to log in remotely to have access to Word, Outlook etc?

Yup.
Its generally considered that will be the future of all software, especially games and office suites.
You will have very little local data, just the core OS info needed to connect you to the web during boot.

You dont actually own software right now, not like you own your house or your car. You are leasing it forever for a fixed price and can only use it a certain way. Thats been held up in court. And in the future you will be renting pretty much all software on a monthly or yearly basis. Or be subject to ads. Avira already does it and you should expect to see more in the future.

 

[cmdrdredd]

I may not own the software but I have the disk which is the important part to me. If I have to pay a recurring fee I will refuse to pay anything. They'll never get my money that way. I was afraid of this...I want and demand full control of my computer. I can't be the only one. I refuse to be at the mercy of the internet and allow someone to get access to my files. I don't believe in any security except my own.

Oh well, guess I won't be using the next version of office if it's like this.

 

[Nothinman]

There will be a locally installable version of Office for at least the next decade, if not longer.

 

[whiteonline]

There will be a locally installable version of Office for at least the next decade, if not longer.

Exactly. The Office 365 program is aimed at SMB, not home users. It can be a cost effective option for deployment (lower required hardware specs, licensing, patching, etc.)

 

[yinan]

There will always need to be an installable version because MS needs to support Office on networks that are disconnected from the Internet.

 

[cmdrdredd]

That's a better answer than "expect too never own any software ever" that i got before lol

 

[KB]

I agree that Microsoft will not be able to discontinue its locally installed office apps anytime soon. So many other apps have hooks into office using technologies like COM/ActiveX. They would essentially break what makes them so popular.

 

[Zargon]

they have no plans to discontinue regular office

some of the office 365 packages INCLUDE local office installs

 

[seepy83]

There will always be a locally installed Office suite. Don't believe all of the "cloud computing" hype, because it's just that - hype. Contrary to all of the media buzz about putting everything in the "cloud", it's not the most logical, practical, or cost effective solution for every piece of software or type of data.

 

[Nothinman]

That's a better answer than "expect too never own any software ever" that i got before lol

But it's true. You own a license, not the software itself, and that license is only valid under MS' usage rules. If you want to truly own software you would have to write it yourself or pay the copyright holder to transfer ownership to you. The closest you can get without convincing someone to do that is OSS software where you get the source with no usage restrictions and minimal distribution restrictions.