Microsoft porting Office to Linux?

[Dragonbite]

Wow, this could be a boon to Linux AND be a sign of changing times, all wrapped up in one!

Article: Microsoft may bring Office to Linux in 2014

office-for-linux-640x353.jpg

Of course, nothing is officially announced, and I'm not sure the connection to Java is quite enough to warrant that BUT keep in mind that Microsoft is working fairly closely to Xamarin, the company made by previous Mono developers. A Microsoft Office running on top of Mono for cross-platform compatibility is not all THAT big of a stretch!

I don't know what Office has been written in, or how far they have gone with its push into the Office Online but this could be very interesting, and beneficial, news! It also means that Linux *IS* gaining enough ground to get recognized.

[monkeybrain20122]

Well as Larry David says curb your enthusiasm. Not all of us need or want MSO, even many Windows users don't need it., they have it because of the piratebay. I would rather see open formats becoming standard than deeper entrenchment and wider addiction to MS's closed formats.

[pfeiffep]

+1

Well as Larry David says curb your enthusiasm. Not all of us need or want MSO, even many Windows users don't need it., they have it because of the piratebay. I would rather see open formats becoming standard than deeper entrenchment and wider addiction to MS's closed formats.

After the recent Internet Explorer debacle I don't look forward to MS Office on linux. Since I'm retired I don't have corporate pressure to use MS Office - I've found Libre Office suits my needs perfectly!

[QIII]

+1 After the recent Internet Explorer debacle...

And yet, it would be wise not to forget Heartbleed/OpenSSL. One "Aw, fudge!" outweighs 10 "attaboys".

It seems, as I have been saying for years, that Linux has no claim to superiority in the security arena over Microsoft.

That single debacle may be as bad by itself as the sum of Microsoft debacles.

Just sayin'...

[SeijiSensei]

And yet, it would be wise not to forget Heartbleed/OpenSSL. One "Aw, fudge!" outweighs 10 "attaboys".

The one positive outcome of the Heartbleed debacle is the infusion of new funds for open-source development and maintenance, starting with OpenSSL, from the horde of large organizations embarrassed by this event.

The [Linux Foundation] today is announcing a three-year initiative with at least $3.9 million to help under-funded open source projects—with OpenSSL coming first. Amazon Web Services, Cisco, Dell, Facebook, Fujitsu, Google, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, NetApp, Qualcomm, Rackspace, and VMware have all pledged to commit at least $100,000 a year for at least three years to the “Core Infrastructure Initiative,” Linux Foundation Executive Director Jim Zemlin told Ars.

Where are RedHat, Novell and Canonical?

In the "not-invented here" category, Apple switched away from OpenSSL to "Common Crypto" back in 2011. I looked at Apple's "Public Source License. At first glance it didn't appear any more restrictive than many other open-source licenses attached to software in distibutions like Ubuntu. Why did none of the Linux distributors follow Apple's lead and adopt Common Crypto? If you follow this link for Common Crypto on Apple's site, you get shown Eric Young's SSLeay license. That was the earliest implementation of SSL I used on Apache servers. OpenSSL was also based on SSLeay.

[QIII]

You point out what is good about open source: it gets fixed before Patch Tuesday!



But yes, a very big show of downstream support to fix an upstream problem would be nice. Maybe it's there and we just don't see it.

[kostkon]

Maybe because LibreOffice is increasingly becoming a worthy competitor, MS wants to attack it on its main platform, Linux.

[SeijiSensei]

This came up a bit over a year ago, too: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2113222

I still think encouraging Linux users to adopt Office 365 makes a lot more sense as a strategy for Microsoft than porting Office to Linux.

[caver12]

This came up a bit over a year ago, too: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2113222

I still think encouraging Linux users to adopt Office 365 makes a lot more sense as a strategy for Microsoft than porting Office to Linux.

And that is on a subscription basis. Who want's to pay MS every year. Where my daugther works did that and they pay $150
per year. And only two of them use it. Google docks would be better.

[Dragonbite]

I am not sure if their focus is on corporate users, or students.

The thing is, thinking that "it's ported to Android, and Android runs Linux and Java so it will be a hop-skip and a jump to port it to Linux" is a little oversimplifying.

Competition breeds strange bedfellows. Maybe Google's push for Docs to run offline is prompting Microsoft to seek new markets? Or could they think that when the desktop market collapses, Linux will fill the void? Or is there more Linux included in BYOD offices? Or is Office doing poorly in national markets while Ubuntu seems to be improving? Or could it be more nations are moving to open source for government and school computers? Who knows?