Thursday, June 27, 2013

Microsoft Office 365 Review - Why you should ignore it

So today I was comparing the price differences between MS Office 365 and MS Office 2013. In many cases if you have multiple devices the Office 365 option could be the cheaper office.

I am pretty much at home with the majority of my data being housed in the more trustworthy Google cloud and I thoroughly enjoy the power and versatility of Google Business Apps, but every now and again I get a document (that due to Microsoft's aversion to public standards) that does not format well. So I am basically forced to open that in Microsoft Office. I do not need this ability more than once or twice a month as most documents are formatted correctly but the need does arise.

Since I have multiple devices (a high end laptop, my Galaxy Note tablet and my S4 phone) I decided it might be worth it to purchase a Microsoft subscription.

I go to their website, enter in my credit card details and all excited about playing with new software I get to the section where you install Office 365 onto your devices. Well.... here is the zinger. Not one of my devices is supported.

Yup that's right folks, Microsoft have completely ignored the worlds most popular phone and tablet operating systems and have shut out Linux operated PC`s. There is 0 support for any Linux system. Be it Android or Ubuntu.



My laptop runs Gnome 3 Ubuntu, my tablet runs Android and my S4 phone runs Android. Office 365 does not work with a single one of my devices.

What makes this worse is I know it is completely intentional. Microsoft have gone, "f**k you" to all consumers not running Apple or Microsoft products.

They have ignored the worlds most popular smartphone operating system distribution to try force consumers onto Microsoft or Apples product range.

First thing I did when I saw that was login to Office 365 and cancel my subscription. At the end of the day Office 2010 running on Wine does what I need and while it would have been great to try out Office 365.... the insulting way in which Microsoft treats its clients and its incredibly insidious business practices have turned me off. Again.

Cheers Microsoft. You wont be see any of my money any time soon. I guess Google wants my money more. Google actually give consumers what they want. For instance, I can use Google Business Apps on any smartphone with an Internet connection and PC. Be it Linux, Apple or Microsoft.