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Re:I've never felt less in control of my own hardware by sheetjs on Friday February 16, 2018 @01:24PM (#16394504)
> It sucks, but that's the reality of SaaS. I'm a fan of using local apps whenever possible. For instance, Google Docs is just too damn useful not to use sometimes. But I still, majority of the time, will choose to use a local word processor whenever I can get away with it. And when I'm done working on a Google Docs project, I download it in several formats and put it in the drawer.

Out of curiosity, would you pay for a standalone Google Docs that worked locally and pushed data to a server (say, a daemon you can also purchase and run in your home computer or droplet) only when you wanted to sync? If you are willing to pay, Microsoft offers much of this through Sharepoint + Office.

Re:I've never felt less in control of my own hardware by marcosdumay on Friday February 16, 2018 @06:07PM (#16397383)
Does the mobile MS Office keep working if it can't connect to the licensing servers for a month? Because the desktop version doesn't.
Re:I've never felt less in control of my own hardware by Godel_unicode on Saturday February 17, 2018 @04:11AM (#16399832)
The desktop version absolutely does not have that requirement, you just have to buy the right one. Office 2016 can be installed and used offline without ever talking to a Microsoft server. You're referring to a restriction specific to the Office365 version. If you don't want cloud requirements, don't buy the cloudy version.
Re:I've never felt less in control of my own hardware by marcosdumay on Saturday February 17, 2018 @08:28AM (#16400567)
You know, "buying the right one" Microsoft product can easily be a full time job. That is, if it is even possible. I was under the impression that the only version of Office available was the 365.

But anyway, my workplace brought some version with a clear requirement of getting an eternal license on it. Yet, it breaks all the time because it can't get licenses on the cloud. I am still not sure how MS isn't evading the requirements, but well, it's not my job to check it.

Re:I've never felt less in control of my own hardware by Godel_unicode on Thursday February 22, 2018 @03:57AM (#16436252)
Curious, when I Google "Microsoft Office" the first non-ad response is literally the page explaining which version is which and how much they cost.