Say GoodBye to free Office on Chromebooks and PCs...

[AlTech]

Microsoft has officially decided to force all users of Office apps on a screen size of 10.1 inches or large to pay for an Office 365 Subscription.

 

This effectively removes the purpose of using the Google Play versions of Office apps on Chrome OS which is what I think Microsoft was targeting.

 

 

Quote

Users of Chromebooks and tablets with screens larger than 10.1" will soon be unable to run full Microsoft Office Mobile apps free.

Larger devices will support a free version of Office that works as a document viewer, but will be unable to print, edit or create documents without an Office 365 subscription.

 

This is what Microsoft had to say:

Quote

On devices larger than 10.1 inches, an Office 365 subscription is required to unlock the ability to create, edit, or print documents. Based on our research, we are classifying anything with a screen size of 10.1" or less as a true mobile device. You’re probably using it on the go, when it’s not practical to use a larger computing device such as a PC or a Mac.

 

So yeah, I was sure this was gonna happen eventually but damn this is real quick. I'm not too bothered by this.

 

The only thing that has ever pissed me off about MS Office is the lack of Linux support and the fact that it's proprietary.

 

http://www.techradar.com/news/microsoft-ends-support-for-free-office-apps-on-larger-chromebooks

[Misanthrope]

That's....rather stupid. Profoundly stupid. Specially cause they're going by screen size.

 

A sad day when Microsoft cannot even properly execute their Embrace, Extend, Extinguish strategy like they used to.

[theninja35]

I have an Office 365 school account so I receive all of the products for free. Will this affect that?

[AlTech]

3 minutes ago, Misanthrope said:

 Profoundly stupid.

Why?

 

If you don't have the (what's the trending Apple hate word? Oh... Courage!) Courage to not pay for professional software then they really don't care.

 

/s /jk

 

But seriously, why should they keep it free for Chrome OS users?

Also, if you *really* want Office for free, you can use Office Online. It's not 100% perfect but it's free.

[ThinkWithPortals]

So will the Android Office apps be affected?

[AlTech]

1 minute ago, theninja35 said:

I have an Office 365 school account so I receive all of the products for free. Will this affect that?

Nope. No difference for you. When the article says free, it means when nobody paid for Office.....

 

Just now, ThinkWithPortals said:

So will the Android Office apps be affected?

Unless people use Android Office apps for ChromeBooks, the answer should be no.

[AlTech]

8 minutes ago, Misanthrope said:

That's....rather stupid. Profoundly stupid. Specially cause they're going by screen size.

 

A sad day when Microsoft cannot even properly execute their Embrace, Extend, Extinguish strategy properly like they used to.

Also, I just realized that this screws over people who use iPad Pro 12.9" version (OG iPad Pro) . The point of this is to force people who use PCs, Windows Tablets,  Macs or Chromebooks to pay for Office.

[Misanthrope]

3 minutes ago, AluminiumTech said:

Why?

 

If you don't have the (what's the trending Apple hate word? Oh... Courage!) Courage to not pay for professional software then they really don't care.

 

/s /jk

 

But seriously, why should they keep it free for Chrome OS users?

Also, if you *really* want Office for free, you can use Office Online. It's not 100% perfect but it's free.

Cause this are people outside of your ecosystem and it would bring them into your ecosystem: presumably some of this guys would eventually need to use a full fledged laptop or desktop for work and would buy an Office licence anyway cause they were introduced to it for free on the cheapo chromebook.

 

I know a rather tiny portion of office workers don't actually use office but it's still worth it for them to try to push them into their ecosystem instead of saying "Yeah, let Google snatch all those users through Google Apps instead"

[suicidalfranco]

just move to this, you'll thank me later 

https://www.wps.com

[imPixelTV]

another reason to stay on windows 7 and office 2010

[Misanthrope]

2 minutes ago, suicidalfranco said:

just move to this, you'll thank me later 

https://www.wps.com

To be fair, most of the free stuff is good for word processing and doing presentations at best, but there's nothing that even remotely approaches Excel in feature set.

[Syntaxvgm]

Quote

screen size of 10.1 inches or large to pay for an Office 365 Subscription

this is so dumb hey should almost work for the ATF

[AlTech]

Just now, imPixelTV said:

another reason to stay on windows 7 and office 2010

Desktop users are not affected by these changes.....

[suicidalfranco]

2 minutes ago, AluminiumTech said:

how about no and stop advertising on LTT.

says the resident LTT M$ marketer 

[suicidalfranco]

2 minutes ago, Misanthrope said:

To be fair, most of the free stuff is good for word processing and doing presentations at best, but there's nothing that even remotely approaches Excel in feature set.

yeah, but for chromebooks user, it's good enough imo and does get the job done, also much better than Google's own suite 

[AlTech]

3 minutes ago, suicidalfranco said:

says the resident LTT M$ marketer 

I don't do marketing for anybody. I present factual information, provide my own opinion at no benefit to myself nor any third party company.

[suicidalfranco]

Just now, AluminiumTech said:

I don't do marketing for anybody. I present factual information, provide my own opinion at no benefit to myself nor any third party.

sure you do 

[Misanthrope]

Just now, suicidalfranco said:

yeah, but for chromebooks user, it's good enough imo and does get the job done, also much better than Google's own suite 

Agreed, hence my "profoundly stupid" initial qualifier.

[PlayStation 2]

It's times like these where I'm glad my school email is connected to Office.

[AlTech]

1 minute ago, Dan Castellaneta said:

It's times like these where I'm glad my school email is connected to Office.

 

2 minutes ago, suicidalfranco said:

sure you do 

I'll be completely open and say this: If I didn't use Office 365 for school work and I didn't use OneDrive, I'd use Libre Office.

[AresKrieger]

It is no longer free, what will people do

 

Oh I know

[AlTech]

Just now, AresKrieger said:

I is no longer free, what will people do

 

Oh I know

Oh ffs. Let's be real, most people would use Google Drive instead of pirating it.

[AresKrieger]

4 minutes ago, AluminiumTech said:

Oh ffs. Let's be real, most people would use Google Drive instead of pirating it.

You'd be surprised just how little people care about copyright, and I assume you mean google docs

 

Though office 365 isn't the best version of office

[Misanthrope]

4 minutes ago, AresKrieger said:

You'd be surprised just how little people care about copyright, and I assume you mean google docs

 

Though office 365 isn't the best version of office

Actually there's increasing pressure from companies to get though on piracy, with the TPP we will..

 

WRONG!

 

...Oh right...that's dead. Well pirate away I guess.

[unsubscribed]

First of all nothing shocking here. If you really want to avoid paying just  reinstall your PC every 2 months or so 'refreshing' the trial.