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Microsoft Office to Become 'Microsoft 365' in Biggest Brand Overhaul in More Than 30 Years

beanbaguk said:
I feel like I'm suffering from Deja Vu suddenly when I see members on here moaning about subscription models. I literally just wrote a post on this topic on another thread.

Here's the full article, but below is a summary of what I said: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...tures-and-complications.2365350/post-31617006

People have a very narrow-minded view of subscriptions and simply bemoan them without thinking about why companies are taking this approach. Times have changed people.

It was a very different world in software development before subscription models existed. Only Windows and Mac versions existed. Sometimes it was just the one. There were fewer updates. You didn't expect the developers to support a cloud platform. You also had lower support expectations as you didn't expect a reply within the day.

With a sub-model, you are supporting your favourite software. You are supporting the development and future of the product, and you are paying for the ongoing costs.

So before whining about subscription models, how about you look at why the economics of products have changed? You want cloud features. You want constant updates. You want 24/7 support. You want it across all your devices.

A one-time fee simply doesn't provide the necessary income to support this. A subscription model does, plus it allows users always to receive the latest version of the software.

Cloud data needs to be stored somewhere and this has costs yet we want more and more storage. Who pays for this? Who pays for the developers constantly delivering updates? Who pays for their business costs? Who pays for their marketing, research and more? Do you think it's all free?

Finally, many moan about subscription costs yet everyone is completely oblivious to the fact that we all laughed at the iPhones launch price of $600, yet nobody bats an eyelid today spending $1600 on today's 13 Pro Max....(double the cost if you were to value it in today's money).

I'm not saying all software should be subscription based. Small utilities and accessories don't deserve this, but full-fledged packages (even from the likes of Microsoft and Adobe), are well-suited to subscription models.
Click to expand...

Microsoft became the richest company in the world by selling software licenses rather than subscriptions.

Subscriptions are not required. Yes the world changed but people changed it to be this way and not always for good reasons.
 
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Interesting how many of you disliked (even were angry), with my last comment. I challenge you then. How many of you actually purchased a genuine full software license for Microsoft Office? I would hazard a guess, very few of you.

Microsoft Office was one of the most pirated software packages in existence. Why? Because it was so expensive, so few people bought it. Subscriptions makes that price more affordable and will in turn reduce piracy and add more cloud services.

How few of your see this, is amusing.
 
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The day Power BI is brought to the Mac, that might actually change something. There's not a lot of good BI software on the Mac except Tableau and it's truly a lacking area. Even Apple has nothing.

Also please revamp the VBA editor. It looks like Windows on the Mac. Windows 95. It also looks like Windows 95 in Windows 11. Come on...
 
I understand Microsoft. Every few years they release new Office suite which is only marginally better than the previous one. The fact is that users do not upgrade, and even Office 2003 is still excellent tool for the vast majority of people. Microsoft needs stable profits streaming from its Office suite on annual basis. Subscription is the only solution. However, I would have preferred if they release a basic version of Word, Excel and PowerPoint as part of Windows, and only those who really need advanced tools, charge them for subscription during the time they needed it. I'm definitely not happy as a user.
 
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Just sick and tired of companies renaming and rebooting stuff. Just make good quality products and stop trying to play games with customers. And more importantly I'm tired of subscriptions, tired of everything being a cloud based web app that runs janky on a web browser. Like we have 4, 6, 8 core computers with tons of ram, but we got to run our apps in a web browser, absurd. Can I just pay for a piece of software that runs on my computer like the old days?

Normally, Id be a fan of just running older versions till perpetuity, but alas Apple (and other companies) needs to push out a new release of an OS every year ruins that. Because we all need major OS releases every.single.year. We need compatibility breaking OS releases every single year and a company that's supposedly makes "Professional" devices can't even be bothered with publishing clear guidelines for when they'd be dropping security updates for old OS releases.

I don't know about you, but I'm tired of the tech/software industry as a whole.
 
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return2sendai said:
Same. Why do people pay for this? The last Microsoft operating system I used was XP.
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Because there are businesses that run on it. It's easy to say don't use it but I know at my work place we have to use windows machines in high percentages because they run software necessary to do some of the embedded work we do. I have to use a Mac (thankfully) because I dev and build mobile apps for iOS and Android. Otherwise I'd be stuck with a Windows machine too.
 
I have been Office 365 subscriber for the last 10 years so not sure what the news are. I pay $99 a year for the whole 365 suite which includes 60 mins Skype international calls, OneDrive and I can install the whole suite in 5 computers (Mac or Windows) + 5 portable devices and also share my subscription with 5 family members or friends who can also install the suite in 5 computers + 5 portable devices and each one of them also get OneDrive + 60 mins Skype International Calls.
 
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Just a bit off topic but can apple stop preinstallinf their version of word excel etc suite of software on our devices?

Tired of deleting these.
 
MysticCow said:
*continues to chug along in Office 2004, the single best Office ever made for Mac or Windows*
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It was Office 2003 on Windows, but you are correct. 2010 was a close second, maybe better in some ways.

Too bad they are both completely out of support and probably riddled with security issues that will never be fixed.
 
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beanbaguk said:
Interesting how many of you disliked (even were angry), with my last comment. I challenge you then. How many of you actually purchased a genuine full software license for Microsoft Office? I would hazard a guess, very few of you.

Microsoft Office was one of the most pirated software packages in existence. Why? Because it was so expensive, so few people bought it. Subscriptions makes that price more affordable and will in turn reduce piracy and add more cloud services.

How few of your see this, is amusing.
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*raises hand*

Then again I’m old. I take your point that most people haven’t done that in ten years because Microsoft made it increasingly difficult.

Also it wasn’t Office 365 that changed that but free Google Docs. Don’t forget that Google came along and turned over the Microsoft apple cart (no pun intended) and made them change the way they do a lot of things.

And yeah the world has changed but *people* changed it, it didn’t have to be this way and still doesn’t. Facebook, Google, and Apple with in app purchase made this bed for us and it’s full of fleas. Not that Microsoft was exactly the good guy.
 
Kierkegaarden said:
I think Microsoft Office sounds better. What does the “365” pertain to? It makes me think of Whole Foods 365.
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365 = the number of hotmail/outlook.com-originated spam messages I get an hour.

And Whole Foods killed their 365 concept (at least for stores). The name was stupid.
 
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