A recent blog post from Sarah Parez tries to answer some "want-to-know" questions on the upcoming Microsoft Office Web Applications. With software as a service becoming more popular, Google has quickly become a competitor of Microsoft's Office Suite with its Google Docs. Microsoft is aggressively fighting back by making its Office software available via the Web browser.
According to Perez's post, Microsoft's Office Web Applications will not only be available in Internet Explorer, but also Safari and Firefox. Office Web will also be compatible on the Linux and Mac platforms. Some of the specific answers Sarah Parez gives in her blog post:
Q: Do the Office Web Applications require Internet Explorer?
A: No! Office Web applications will work across multiple platforms and browsers including Safari and Firefox, too.
Q: Will the Office Web Applications work on the iPhone?
A: Yes, in the Safari web browser.
Q : Is Silverlight required in order to use the Office Web Applications?
A: No! Silverlight is not required. Using Silverlight will enhance the user experience, resulting in sharper images and improved rendering. Also, the Office Live Workspace has integrated Silverlight technology into the multi-file upload function for a better experience there, too.
Q: Will the Microsoft Office Web Applications work on Linux?
A: Yes! It does not matter which operating system is used as long as you're running a supported web browser.
I only hope that what Parez writes does comes true and we don't see Microsoft's Windows "protectionist" people screw things up. I would like to see Microsoft takes this one step further in their enterprise licenses. It would be a win-win situation if both Microsoft Office the software and Microsoft Office the Web application to be covered under a single license.
Can you imagine the possibilities with Office Web Applications? Organizations running their PCs on multiple platforms including Windows, Linux, and even OS X could deploy Office regardless of the operating system. That is a lot less hassle for the IT department or those users that insist on using Linux instead of Windows.
Now let's just wait and see if Microsoft has the courage to follow through on the direction they need to take MS Office...
Comments
workspace office live
Microsoft office live doesm't work on linux.
I get this message:
To use Microsoft Office Live, your computer must meet one of the following requirements:
* Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 or 7, running on Microsoft Windows XP, Windows Server 2003 or Windows Vista. You can download Internet Explorer from the Windows Internet Explorer page.
* Mozilla Firefox running on Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, or Mac OS X 10.2.x and later. You can download Firefox from the Firefox download page.
Regards
Office Web applications
Sergio... I'm not so sure if the current Office Live is the same as Office Web Applications. If you take a look at the MS Q&A, the delivery of Office Web Applications is given in the future tense suggesting it isn't here quite yet.
However, while I would be disappointed if Office Web Applications couldn't be ran on Linux it wouldn't surprise me. The "think-tanks" at Microsoft often come up with some great ideas that in the end the business side of Microsoft doesn't allow delivered.
I would like to hear more from those that may have more involvement with Microsoft's Office Web Application projects.