Microsoft Office Opens Up to Firefox
When Microsoft offered more details about Office 2010 earlier this week, The VAR Guy noticed a rather interesting nugget of information involving Microsoft Office for the Web’s anticipated browser support and software as a service (SaaS) strategy. The software giant, it seems, will be giving equal time to Firefox (the open source web browser) and Apple’s Safari. Here’s the scoop.
First, a little background: It sounds like Office 2010 will ship in the first half of 2010. When it does, Microsoft will also introduce Office Web — positioned as the “lightweight Web browser versions of Word, PowerPoint, Excel and OneNote.” It’s basically SaaS-driven Office for Web browsers.
Now, a couple of interesting twists.
- First, Microsoft will permit Office 2010 customers to host Office Web within their own corporate networks. Smart move. (Here’s why.)
- Second, Office Web will have full cross-platform support for Internet Explorer, Firefox and Apple Safari, according to briefings The VAR Guy attended at Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference 2009 (WPC09) earlier this week in New Orleans.
Hmmm. Full cross-platform browser support? No hidden tricks or hooks that make Office Web work best with Internet Explorer? The VAR Guy looks forward to seeing the promised cross-platform browser support in action. If Microsoft lives up to its word, that cross-browser support is refreshing news.
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Is this being positioned as some sort of play against Google Docs?
Storagepipe: Exactly, Microsoft Office Web (that exact name) is Microsoft’s answer to Google Docs … though The VAR Guy suspects Microsoft wouldn’t describe the strategy quite that way.
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[…] Microsoft Office Opens Up to Firefox Jul. 17th, 2009 by The VAR Guy 3 Comments […]
I’m afraid the crossplatform compatibility may come with price of having to install Silverlight. Thus compatibility will be achieved automatically, not by some special Ms moves. Silverlight has cross-browser features built-in.
[…] it seems, will be giving equal time to Firefox (the open source web browser) and Apple’s Safari. Here’s the scoop. Filed under: OpenSource No Comments Comments (0) Trackbacks (0) ( subscribe to comments on this […]
Jau: Interesting point. The VAR Guy will ask if Office Web requires Silverlight for cross-browser support.
VARGuy, great seeing you this week, although briefly. First off, I have never been so pumped as I am right now to be a Microsoft Partner, these guys have finally figured it out and your post here simply proves this.
Hosting Web apps for our clients or allow them to host their own. This is pure brillance…and smart to allow cross browser support, even I the Microsoft fan has been swayed to the Apple MacBook (running Win 7 and Office 2010) and Firefox.
Kevin Turner, Allison Watson and of course Steve B put on an awesome event and the partners are jazzed.
Cheers
Stuart Crawford
Bulletproof InfoTech
Calgary, AB
http://www.bulletproofIT.ca
Varguy,
Is it that Microsoft will support these browsers only on a Microsoft OS or will it work with Firefox on Linux or Safari on OS X?
[…] When Microsoft offered more details about Office 2010 earlier this week, The VAR Guy noticed a rather interesting nugget of information involving Microsoft Office for the Web’s anticipated browser support and software as a service (SaaS) strategy. The software giant, it seems, will be giving equal time to Firefox (the open source web browser) and Apple’s Safari. Here’s the scoop. […]
@Stuart
I wonder if they’ll put on an awesome party in a few days to announce that they’ve had another bad quarter.
Sorry, just a bit of Schadenfreude 😉
See “Seven Reasons Microsoft’s Profits are Tanking”
http://www.pcworld.com/article/168658/seven_reasons_microsofts_profits_are_tanking.html
[email protected] 9: Always good to have your enthusiasm represented. Sorry The VAR Guy didn’t grab more time with you at WPC. Keep our resident blogger posted as you evaluate Azure, BPOS, etc.
John @ 10: The VAR Guy will look into that and report back this week. He promises.
Simplicius @12: Microsoft’s profits have fallen dramatically. But tanking? That’s a bit misleading. Microsoft remains the world’s most profitable software company.
[…] this is arguably a new Microsoft. Redmond recently announced that Office 2010 will support Internet Explorer and Mozilla#8217;s Firefox. The company is […]
[…] ?????????Microsoft???????????????2009?7???Office 2010????Internet Explorer?????????Mozilla??Firefox?????????????Microsoft???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????Sam Ramji???????????Microsoft???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? […]
[…] Here Come Smartbooks – 19 commentsWindows 7 And Linux Servers: Happy Together? – 15 commentsMicrosoft Office Opens Up to Firefox – 15 commentsStrong Demand for Windows 7 Preorders – 14 […]
Microsroft Office is still the best program when it comes to spreadsheet and word processing`;;
i use both open office and microsoft office and i would say that microsoft office is more responsive and user friendly ‘”,