5 ms·

Google Docs have always been free, three weeks ago Apple's iWork suite went free, and now Office for mobile is free. Competition is a wonderful thing - hopefull

by jobu 12y ago

Google Docs have always been free, three weeks ago Apple's iWork suite went free, and now Office for mobile is free. Competition is a wonderful thing - hopefully it starts to bring down the price of Microsoft's cash cow, Office.

izacus 12y ago
I'm just worried that we're going to start paying for those suites with our confidental document data instead of money... with no alternative choice.
- icehawk219 12y ago
  That's how people pay for Google Docs and all of Google's products and they seem to be perfectly OK with it. As long as the perceived price is $0 they're happy and don't really care what the real price is for things. Ignorance truly is bliss.
  - izacus 12y ago
    I don't mind other people using that, but I'd rather have at least a single mobile/desktop office suite available that does not send everything to US -_-
    - pwnna 12y ago
      LibreOffice comes in mind for that one.
  - sp332 12y ago
    But not everyone uses Google Docs, and not every user trusts it with important or confidential data.
  - zacharycohn 12y ago
    A lot of people/companies/governments are not okay with it, and do not use it.
    - Chronic29 12y ago
      And a lot of people/companies/governments are okay with it and do use it.
- maxerickson 12y ago
  LibreOffice is at least a serviceable alternative. It can't overcome the "I need MS Office" problem, and it might not be feature equivalent for layout, but for 90% of stuff that is just some text, it should be fine.
- free2rhyme214 12y ago
  If you're worried don't use the software.
ld00d 12y ago
From what I can tell, iWork isn't free unless you buy new hardware, and that deal has been around for a year now.
- jobu 12y ago
  They changed it with the release of Yosemite. It's now free for anyone with iOS8 or OSX 10.10
  - themoonbus 12y ago
    I don't think so. I have an older MacBook Pro, and I'm running the latest OS X (and iOS). Comes up as 20$ each for Keynote / Numbers / Pages on OS X, 10$ each on iOS.
  - ja27 12y ago
    Nope. You need to purchase new (late 2013 or newer) hardware to get it.
- dded 12y ago
  iWork only runs on Apple's hw, but I didn't think you needed to buy _new_ hw. I believe you only need to update to Mavericks (or Yosemite).
ulfw 12y ago
A wonderful thing for end users. A shitty thing for people who actually believe they can have a career building software that sells.

by jobu 12y ago

izacus 12y ago

I'm just worried that we're going to start paying for those suites with our confidental document data instead of money... with no alternative choice.

icehawk219 12y ago
That's how people pay for Google Docs and all of Google's products and they seem to be perfectly OK with it. As long as the perceived price is $0 they're happy and don't really care what the real price is for things. Ignorance truly is bliss.
- izacus 12y ago
  I don't mind other people using that, but I'd rather have at least a single mobile/desktop office suite available that does not send everything to US -_-
  - pwnna 12y ago
    LibreOffice comes in mind for that one.
- sp332 12y ago
  But not everyone uses Google Docs, and not every user trusts it with important or confidential data.
- zacharycohn 12y ago
  A lot of people/companies/governments are not okay with it, and do not use it.
  - Chronic29 12y ago
    And a lot of people/companies/governments are okay with it and do use it.
maxerickson 12y ago
LibreOffice is at least a serviceable alternative. It can't overcome the "I need MS Office" problem, and it might not be feature equivalent for layout, but for 90% of stuff that is just some text, it should be fine.
free2rhyme214 12y ago
If you're worried don't use the software.

ld00d 12y ago

From what I can tell, iWork isn't free unless you buy new hardware, and that deal has been around for a year now.

jobu 12y ago
They changed it with the release of Yosemite. It's now free for anyone with iOS8 or OSX 10.10
- themoonbus 12y ago
  I don't think so. I have an older MacBook Pro, and I'm running the latest OS X (and iOS). Comes up as 20$ each for Keynote / Numbers / Pages on OS X, 10$ each on iOS.
- ja27 12y ago
  Nope. You need to purchase new (late 2013 or newer) hardware to get it.
dded 12y ago
iWork only runs on Apple's hw, but I didn't think you needed to buy _new_ hw. I believe you only need to update to Mavericks (or Yosemite).

ulfw 12y ago

A wonderful thing for end users. A shitty thing for people who actually believe they can have a career building software that sells.