Microsoft Office 2013 Customer Preview Released

pparks1 · 27 Jul 2012

jimbo45 said:

Hi there
With cheap storage -- why on EARTH should any home user at all bother with the Cloud.

For ease of sharing with other people. For accessing easily from multiple computers in their home when they don't know the basics of networking. For accessing remotely from devices such as smartphones and tablets. For having the data stored in locations that likely have backups and the end user doesn't have to worry about backing it up themselves. For easily buying a new computer and not really having to move data to the new computer. For having very easy revision history and having previous versions of the documents available to them in case they want to revert back to the way that a document was. For ease of accessing their documents from anywhere they might be.

From a security standpoint, sure, you need to take precautions. Nothing I store in the cloud is "valuable" in any way and if it is, it's stored either in my encrypted KeePass database, or within my boxcryptor encryped folder. And since I use dropbox, I have a copy locally as well as a copy in the cloud. So, no fear that I will lose any of this data for any reason.

My biggest hurdle to using the cloud is my lack of upload speed from home. It's simply not practical yet to store a majority of my stuff in the cloud.

jimbo45 said:

A 3 TB drive can these days be had for relatively peanuts --and is getting cheaper by the month.

The size of the storage and the price is not the issue. It's having the data available to you, from any device, no matter where you might be.

jimbo45 · 28 Jul 2012

Hi there

All this "data sharing" with other people or having data available all the time is also grossly overdone -- I think in many many years of computing how many times have I EVER even THOUGHT of sharing data with anyone much less even actually doing it.

If you want this type of activity then you've got things like You tube or Facebook or even Forums like this one.

As far as Work stuff is concerned --when I'm away from Work the LAST think I want to do is bother with work related stuff etc.

Bandwidth speeds for HOME users to do significant amounts of UPLOADS are just too slow anyway and increasing use of ISP Capping limits will in any case inhibit the value of this type of service for whatever its worth . (Downloads are usually OK).

Data that I really NEED to access all the time can easily be stored on a smart phone's micro sdHC card -- these are available at 32 GB with a 64 GB version available shortly -- and possibly even higher capacities later. Then if someone wants it I can just email the data to the recipient. Totally NO NEED for The Cloud.

The Cloud is only being "pushed" as it pays the insidious way for "Licensing by Seat" and / or licensing by usage. When Office 365 finally hits and is "Cloud only" you will pay via a subscription model -- monthly or annual fees. Windows itself may then follow this model.

This is what this whole mess is about -- how to increase revenue significantly -- in a Mature market with relatively static sales of PC's you can see why the Honchos at Ms are desperate to get this sort of stuff working -- it's 100% REVENUE driven -- nothing to do with "Customer Service", "Customer Value" or any other benefit to the end consumer.

Cheers
jimbo

python134r · 01 Aug 2012

Using it now, seems ok so far.........a bit of time will see.......

pparks1 · 01 Aug 2012

jimbo45 said:

This is what this whole mess is about -- how to increase revenue significantly

Time will tell I guess. Of all of the cloud storage that I have played with and use, I don't pay for any of it today. it's all free. Dropbox, SugarSync, SkyDrive, Google Drive, Amazon cloud, etc. I buy my music now from Amazon MP3 and I store it all in my cloud account, which provides unlimited storage for everything I buy. I've used Gmail for years, which is in the cloud, and I haven't paid a cent for that.

lkgriffith · 01 Aug 2012

pparks1: "I've used Gmail for years, which is in the cloud, and I haven't paid a cent for that."

There is a fundamental law of the universe: there is no such thing as a free lunch. In the long run, all free lunches will be paid for in full and with interest.

Meaning: somewhere there is a hook, that hook is connected to a line, and the person on the other end of the line is planning on YOU for HIS lunch. The bait on that hook is something for nothing. Are you certain that the bait is worth its ultimate price?

Hamnat · 02 Aug 2012

lkgriffith said:

pparks1: "I've used Gmail for years, which is in the cloud, and I haven't paid a cent for that."

There is a fundamental law of the universe: there is no such thing as a free lunch. In the long run, all free lunches will be paid for in full and with interest.

Meaning: somewhere there is a hook, that hook is connected to a line, and the person on the other end of the line is planning on YOU for HIS lunch. The bait on that hook is something for nothing. Are you certain that the bait is worth its ultimate price?

What price? Its e-mail. If they decide they want to charge people can move accounts. I am in the same boat as he is I have skydrive with 25gigs free, dropbox connected to my phone, my home computer my tablet I am not paying for any of it. Amazon as well to my kindle and home computer which i do pay for as far as the files but not the actual storage.

I find the cloud based storage infinitely convienient. Being able to access my work stuff anywhere in the world I travel basically without having to keep track of thumbdrives or hauling around a portable harddrive.

lkgriffith · 02 Aug 2012

Hamnat,

Ahh yes. The bait tastes so sweet. For now.

FuturDreamz · 02 Aug 2012

I installed Office 2013 (though it calls itself Office 365?) into Windows 8 in VirtualBox. Aside from the somewhat hard to use color scheme, it's virtually identical to Office 2010. I do like the Skydrive integration, but for my needs it's easier to just use Live Mesh on my documents folder.

Gornot · 05 Aug 2012

The new SkyDrive for Windows app does the same thing, creates a folder (which you can move wherever you want) to store files and they actomatically sync with SkyDrive, leaving you with the current versions of a file both in the cloud and on your PC.

I use that in combination with SkyDrive sharing from Office 2013 and I never have to worry about losing documents again. in SkyDrive all these are private, too, so they're only for me :)

I can't actually remember the last time I used my USB drive for anything other than the recent install of Win8 from USB. It has been gathering dust before that for a long time.

Phone Man · 05 Aug 2012

FuturDreamz said:

I installed Office 2013 (though it calls itself Office 365?) into Windows 8 in VirtualBox.

Office 365 is a subscription service and Office 2013 is offered through that service. Office 2013 will also be offered as a standalone product.

Jim