Anyone used it:
http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/10things/10-reasons-why-microsoft-office-365-rocks/1929
Might be a good alternative, especially if you want to run Mac. I have heard orifice for Mac was cack, so this could be a starter?
Sounds like an worthy cloud alternative to Google Docs.
Except for the cloud aspect, I'm not sure about the advantages for Mac users over, say, LibreOffice?
This is MSFT big push, no nothing about the product but everything about their marketing ;)
I looked into it and it did look good. It was much more expensive than google apps was though (when I looked at least), so until I'm big, I won't be switching.
I think they're going after the paid Google Apps market quite nicely here. Anyone who has to use Office at the office will know that Google Apps will often fail on complicated Excel spreadsheets, Word marcos and Access databases. Office 365 will save you a lot of the compatibility hassle and only costs slightly more than Google Apps Pro.
Just checked the pricing again and it is much cheaper than when I last looked. I am quite tempted to switch now.
I'm seriously considering switching to Office 365.
Currently we have a Windows Small Business Server 2008 complete with Exchange, SharePoint, WSUS and what not. I love this setup but at the moment I'm having some problems with the RAID on the server. The down side of having your own server is of course the time it takes to manage the server.
I have no interest in the smallest version Office 365. However, Office 365 also comes in an enterprise edition which combines the web app, cloud storage and Office 2010 Professional Plus so it's the best of both worlds.
MS has just released the new Windows SBS 2011 which is available in a scaled down version called Windows SBS 2011 Essentials. This version contains a domain controller, file server, backup server and single sign-on for cloud services.
So Windows SBS 2011 Essentials and Office 365 is the perfect match.
I'm going to take the free trial for a month. I'll report back on how I got on.
imagine if they'd beaten Google apps with this product.
They might have actually dented the momentum of Google.
This is 'almost' a really great product.
Day 1 -
Pros:
I love the interface, it makes google apps look so old.
email set up is great.
Using the online office suite is a pleasure.
Cons:
You can't save documents online and directly edit them without office locally.
You can't edit older pre-2007 files (you can with google apps :o)
You can add additional email accounts (I'm sure people here have many accounts) to check, but you cant set the interval. 4hrs plus on one account so far.
I really want them to sort out the issues, and I'm sure they will. It is just not quite there yet for my situation. I want to be able to work on any PC/smart phone (not just those I own) from anywhere and see all my email and documents in one place. They need to ditch the offline apps requirement to make it a google apps beater.
I'm going to carry on the trial though, I have asked for pointers on the above issues, so it may be that I find work arounds.
Day 2 -
Giving up.
I REALLY wanted this to be great. I think it will get there given time. It is just not there...yet
Give it six months and Google have a fight on their hands. For the time being, google apps is just better, even if it doesn't look as good.
....and I never thought I'd side with the G
What made you give up?
Quote from: Torben on June 30, 2011, 06:11:25 PM
What made you give up?
The two things I need most -
1. To be able to get email from multiple accounts every 15min or so.
2. To be able to edit documents and spreadsheets which are attached to an email no matter what format they were created in (my outsourcers tend to work with older versions).
And this -
3. No reply to help messages within 24hrs - MS should know better for a new product.
As I said, they will probably get this right within six months or so, but I can't wait around for 24hrs for emails to arrive on connected accounts. I am not the only one either judging by the forums. I almost missed a pub lunch today because of it!!! ;)
If you have one domain and want to use it just to use email and edit the odd document away from the office then it is great, but for me it is not the answer. It really pains me to say it too, I wanted to use office as we grow.
> 1. To be able to get email from multiple accounts every 15min or so.
This is touted as a cloud Exchange server. You can set Exchange or Outlook to poll more frequently than 15 minutes. Is it the front end Outlook client that's slow?
How many accounts can you get mail from? In a standard Outlook client you can have many accounts that are polled at a frequency you choose. What's the difference here?
> 2. To be able to edit documents and spreadsheets which are attached to an email no matter what format they were created in
You mentioned this earlier. You're referring to older versions of Office? How old? Can you edit these older documents at all?
> 1. To be able to get email from multiple accounts every 15min or so.
This is touted as a cloud Exchange server. You can set Exchange or Outlook to poll more frequently than 15 minutes. Is it the front end Outlook client that's slow?
How many accounts can you get mail from? In a standard Outlook client you can have many accounts that are polled at a frequency you choose. What's the difference here?
It has an online outlook app, very slick and nice to use. You can add as many extra accounts as you like (google apps is just 5) but there are no settings available for the polling interval. It is strange since you can set that in almost every local email client. We are not talking just a 15min wait here, it can be hours. There are a lot of people complaining about it in the support forum, so it must be something they will look at.
> 2. To be able to edit documents and spreadsheets which are attached to an email no matter what format they were created in
You mentioned this earlier. You're referring to older versions of Office? How old? Can you edit these older documents at all?
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It won't work directly with anything before 2007. Some things it will convert ok, but others such as Excel 2000 files it can't open. The solution they gave me was to download the trial version of office and convert all of my older files in that within the trial period. That would be fine, but I get a lot of older files sent to me.
A related LifeHacker article on this topic: Google Apps v. Office 365 Feature Showdown: Which Should You Use? (http://lifehacker.com/5818368/google-apps-v-office-365-feature-showdown-which-should-you-use) The article doesn't draw any strong conclusions one way or the other, but sometimes the comments on these articles have some insight (no comments yet).