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Microsoft Office and Virtual PC

Ok, can I try now

Alright, listen. As far as I can tell you're looking at it sideways. Think different.

The rumor is stating that VPC would basically be another piece of the puzzle on the OfficeVx.3(?) Box. That is all. VPC would be like Access is for windows. Part of a larger suite. (Actually it will be just bundled, but I'm pushing a point)

The Office software that will be shipping will still be Office for X software at least for one more major revision. They are just including VPC in the suite.

Microsoft is also planning on bundling Virtual PC with Mac Microsoft Office to create a new Professional Office package.
Click to expand...

-Hertz
 
Originally posted by arn
I'm not sure why this is hard to grasp for people. Was my article that poorly written? This makes no implication regarding future software development of Office X.
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Maybe Microsoft wants to develop VirtualMAC to run OS-X and MAC apps on Windows... :D !!!
 
So VPC for $100 more? Is Microsoft gonna bundle an OS or expect you to buy it on your own (or pirate from your Windows friend). Given their fight against Linux and piracy, it seems odd.
 
Well I for one think this is great at least in the short to intermediate term. VPC is going to continue to be made and updated. Office for OSX is going to have at least one more revision. Not only that the standard version of OfficeX is going to have a lower price. Right now if go to cdw (without any special discounts) these are the prices you can get for the various Office offerings:

Office XP Standard $369.64
(includes Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint)
The Student/Teacher version is about 70%, so retails around $149.

Office XP Professional $459.47
(basically Office XP Standard with Access added)

OfficeX $459.77
(Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Entourage).
The academic version on CDW is $188.19 (though you can get better deals if going through your school's CDW store).

Basically we Mac users are right now paying Professional Office prices while getting the Standard version. Microsoft is creating now a Professional Version (bundling VPC with Office) for a price of $499.00. Though I would say VPC adds more overall functionality to your computer than Access. Lowering the Standard Version to $399.00. Which is still more than the XP version but to be expected given the smaller market. The OfficeX individual academic price would come in line with its XP counterpart at $149.00.

Would MS make more money if they forced everyone to buy VPC in order to run Office? Probably not. Why because most Mac users don't want to run Windows, hence they use Macs. MS is about making money. MacOffice makes them loads of money. It also keeps OpenOffice from opening a beach-head in its fight against MS Office. Forcing VPC would probably cause them to make less money. OS X is a big enough market for them to make money, but small enough that it is not really a threat to Windows at this point and in the near future. Plus always nice to show to State AG that MS can play with others.

Sidenote about Safari, Apple developed it because well MS stopped improving IE on the Mac. IE development is stopped for Windows and the Mac because some form of Explorer is being intergrated into Windows like Apple has done with Safari.
 
Office v.X Professional Edition will ship with the traditional suite of OS X applications — Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Entourage — as well as Virtual PC, which Microsoft acquired from Connectix Corporation in February. The company told dealers that the Professional Edition will ship with Version 6.1 of Virtual PC with Windows XP Professional. The new version will be priced at $499 with a $329 upgrade.
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Originally posted by robotrenegade
WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO RUN XP. THATS WHY YOU GOT A MAC!!!! WHO CARES.
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I'd like to run Windows because
  1. I need Internet Exploder on Windows to access my bank's online banking site.
  2. because I need MS-Word on Windows to create a Hebrew document. The one word processor for OSX that supports Hebrew cannot read and write Word files.
    [/list=1]
 
With a $149 pricetag and the right to load on up to 3 machines, MS Office X Student & Teacher edition seems like a pretty good deal to me. The S & T edition will be available to my household because my son is a 2nd grader. The current Academic version is not available to my household because my wife is no longer teaching and we have no college student living here.

MSFT would have none of my money if they stuck with their current pricing scheme. But now I will buy MS Office X S & T edition, and MSFT will have a hundred bucks from me they wouldn't have had otherwise.

At that price, stuff like Keynote ($99) is pricey by comparison. Appleworks seems a bit expensive at $79 when Office is available for $149.

MSFT is getting grief from Wall Street this week about not being a growth company anymore. This is one area they can grow.
 
Originally posted by synp
...
because I need MS-Word on Windows to create a Hebrew document. The one word processor for OSX that supports Hebrew cannot read and write Word files.
...
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Supposedly, the version of TextEdit included in Panther will address this.

It's really too bad the MacBU hasn't been able to implement better Unicode support in Office Mac.
 
wtf

what is the deal with the people jumping up and down screaming bloody murder? in my eyes, m$ is making Office as a suite much more worth the money they charge for it. also, m$ are going out of their way to indicate that they are going to continue to support and develop VPC. releasing an Office suite means supporting it for at LEAST a year. there are many many good things to this news.

just because it is microsoft doesn't mean its automatically the freaking mac holocaust or something.
 
I think including VPC as a part of the Mac Office package for professionals just makes sense. Many people's workplace situations do force them to run that one PC app, so for them, it's a good thing. It isn't as if Microsoft is only letting you run Office through VPC....all of it still runs on Mac.

They don't mention pricing, though, and that's where things may get sticky. Given Microsoft's habit of selling the components of Office at such inflated prices that you're better off getting the whole suite, I can see them using that kind of a strategy to make sure that if you want VPC, you might as well buy Office. So many people want both, that the combination might lock out third-party solutions for either.

Now there's some classic Microsoft paranoia for you. ;)
 
Originally posted by Freg3000
I am so confused right now. :confused:

So is this good or bad? I know it isn't black and white, but, I mean, overall. I see this largely as a positive, because it basically confirms Microsoft still developing software for the Mac with VPC. But also it is bad because they might not make office for OS X anymore? Is that the gist of this?

[ Admin Edit: No. This is 100% wrong. See below. ]
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This is a rumors site. Why is the admin editing people's messages? Does the admin know all? Stop editing, we can sort out fact from fiction.
 
Originally posted by Rower_CPU
Supposedly, the version of TextEdit included in Panther will address this.

It's really too bad the MacBU hasn't been able to implement better Unicode support in Office Mac.
Click to expand...

The problem is carbon. Mac v.X is carbon-based. Carbon uses ATSUI for Unicode. ATSUI has a reputation for being agonizingly slow, one that comes from the OS 8.6 days. Noone seems to want to implement Unicode support in Carbon apps. Nearly all the apps with decent Unicode support on the Mac are Cocoa apps (the obvious exception is Mozilla; I'm not sure whether one would consider Safari a Cocoa or a Carbon app ...).
 
It's OpenOffice Time!

So, they're working on their pricing. I'm sure that OpenOffice has helped to encourage that!

Still, all considered, I'd rather use OpenOffice for free than pay hundreds of dollars for MS Office. As OpenOffice continues to improve at breakneck pace, I'm certain that more and more Mac users will feel the same way.

www.openoffice.org
 
I wonder when the Mac VPC gets rebranded for Microsoft-eg. copyrights,support info are changed, the windows version of vpc would also be rebranded unbder the microdoft nsme.
 
Re: It's OpenOffice Time!

Originally posted by zamyatin
So, they're working on their pricing. I'm sure that OpenOffice has helped to encourage that!

Still, all considered, I'd rather use OpenOffice for free than pay hundreds of dollars for MS Office. As OpenOffice continues to improve at breakneck pace, I'm certain that more and more Mac users will feel the same way.

www.openoffice.org
Click to expand...

While I also feel as much pride being an open-source advocate as well as a mac user, openoffice for osX still has a ways to go. I think once the installation is simplified (think lowest common denominator) and aqua is applied, it will be quite a formidable app
 
Originally posted by cgc
This is a rumors site. Why is the admin editing people's messages? Does the admin know all? Stop editing, we can sort out fact from fiction.
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When 5 people walk out of here with a misinterpretation, things need to be done. People will read these incorrect rumour interpretations made by other members of this board, and mention the misinformation to others. Obviously, these people are simply reading Arn's article wrong, so he is editing to prevent people from getting the wrong idea from the misinterpretations made by people in this thread.

So personally, I think it was necessary. Whether this is just a rumour or not, nobody should incorrectly pick up a rumour from this thread. I think Arn's article was clear, but obviously it's not for some people.

PS: And how is OpenOffice? Is it good? Sorry, I"ve never tried it. I have always stuck with Word. It does everything I want, but I want to know if OpenOffice is worth looking at. Or even Star Office or other programs.

Arn, Arn, we love you. Don't go. Please love us back!! PLEASE LOVE ME BACK!!!
 
Originally posted by Nebrie
So VPC for $100 more? Is Microsoft gonna bundle an OS or expect you to buy it on your own (or pirate from your Windows friend). Given their fight against Linux and piracy, it seems odd.
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As pointed out a couple of posts below yours, it comes with XP Pro. From the article:

"The company told dealers that the Professional Edition will ship with Version 6.1 of Virtual PC with Windows XP Professional. The new version will be priced at $499 with a $329 upgrade."
 
What can we say...

Sometimes Mac Users can be a bit 'reactionary'. We're all needing to take a few steps back and read & maybe absorb before we pounce to comment on things.

I didn't read the article completely but gathered what Arn was saying right away...and besides, its common sense.. M$ wants to sell their software--they don't want to shelve it... M$ Office makes money and there's abviously a market for VPC..

Christopher


Originally posted by arn
I'm not sure why this is hard to grasp for people. Was my article that poorly written? This makes no implication regarding future software development of Office X.

Go to the store. Right now you can buy:

1) Virtual PC
2) Office X

Rumors state that when you go to the store in the the future, you might be able to buy

1) Virtual PC
2) Office X
3) Office X bundled with Virtual PC
4) Office X Student and Teacher

That is all.

arn
Click to expand...
 
Originally posted by Abstract

PS: And how is OpenOffice? Is it good? Sorry, I"ve never tried it. I have always stuck with Word. It does everything I want, but I want to know if OpenOffice is worth looking at. Or even Star Office or other programs.
Click to expand...

It is a completly viable alternative to MS. I haven't ever had any outstanding issues with it (it reads and writes my Word files perfectly), but I haven't messed around with all of the apps to their fullest. The best I can say is give it a try, but be prepared to look at an ugly interface (no aqua)
 
Originally posted by Abstract
PS: And how is OpenOffice? Is it good? Sorry, I"ve never tried it. I have always stuck with Word. It does everything I want, but I want to know if OpenOffice is worth looking at. Or even Star Office or other programs.
Click to expand...

Someone's already answered about OpenOffice, but I'm just adding that StarOffice and OpenOffice are virtually the same program. I'm not sure if StarOffice is available for Mac though.
 
Safari

Did anyone think Safari would lead to IE for Mac being discontinued?

It was the other way around.

Microsoft made it clear some time ago that their intentions were for more integration of their browser into the OS and to move away from the stand alone browser model altogether. Safari was the answer to a problem that Apple saw coming for some time, which was the demise of IE as we know it.
 
Originally posted by Lord Bodak
But look at Microsoft historically. This _does_ make an implication regarding their future development. If you can get the users to run Windows Office under VPC, where is the motivation to spend development dollars maintaining Office X?

Just b/c it doesn't have an affect right now doesn't mean it doesn't have an affect at all. Did anyone think Safari would lead to IE for Mac being discontinued?

At the same time, it doesn't necessarily mean that it will affect Office X. Obviously, more choice is better.

Since it could have either affect, what's the harm in discussing all the possibilities?
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*sigh*

The harm is that bundling VPC and Office.X does *not* imply that Microsoft is going to try to "get the users to run Windows Office under VPC" (your words). And all this discussion about it may lead people to think that it does. The only "implication regarding their future development" is that they will continue to develop both applications.

HTH
WM
 
It's not the wording of the article Arn, it's all about M$.

I too find it funny that when they release new products and lower their prices, everyone starts panicking. Even if M$ is evil incarnate.

As others have stated, Office for Mac makes money. Discontinuing it would be bad for business, and look really bad to the Gov. (not that they would do much about it). IE didn't, and Safari came about because of IE being halted, not the other way around.

I'm sure Apple has something in the works in case M$ stops office development, and even with litigation, somebody will make a VPC like product. Like a Lindows-type product. Though I can see M$ wanting to continue VPC. You would be buying Windows with Apple machines. It would be good for them.

Of course, if it was too fast, as already pointed out many times, nobody would make software for OS X. That would be bad (like OS/2... What's OS 2? Exactly). They wouldn't make it too fast, though. When have they ever made something too fast?

This seems like a good thing for now, but we'll see. I wouldn't put it past them to try to pull something. This is M$ we're talking about.

On a side note, I was playing with VPC XP in the Apple Store, and it kept crashing. And was slow, even on a Dual 1.25 G4. And sucked. I hate Windows. F***in' M$.

-

Typed on a crappy Win2000 machine, soon to be upgraded to a new Mac.
 
I'm just waiting for the company (can't remember if it was a Macrumors story) that is making a software package that will run on ANY chip. It isn't an emulator but actually compiles programs on the fly so in theory you could take office for windoz and run it on a mac at close to full speed. Right now they say they are at 70% of native system performance.
 
I'm half expecting Virtual PC (not 6.1 but maybe 7.0) to be bundled with Windows XP, but not regular XP but a special version that's been compiled for PowerPC. I'm just guessing here, but would it be fair to assume that a lot of the OS just needs a recompile? I understand that some parts won't simply recompile across, but the emulation in VPC should be able to take care of this. So basically we'd end up with a "semi-native" version of XP, with emulation for the bits that don't run natively. Many Windows apps call various APIs in Windows, and provided these APIs are compiled for PPC we should get a great speed increase across the entire PC (OS and apps). This is all just a wild guess though :D
 
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