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• twitter

  2010-08-30 13:18:09

  Microsoft's heavy hand will do more to damage Facebook than it will to promote their bloated new Office. Two years ago, Steve Ballmer promissed that advertising would be used to overcome university students' preference for Google Docs for sharing. A part of the story that Slashdot did not quote from my submission is worth remembering now:
  
  

  "Ballmer tacitly conceded that Google Apps are hurting Microsoft in at least one area. University students, who are "the leading edge of all consumerization phenomena" use Office but "when it comes to sharing stuff they use Google Apps, which is why we're moving to Office Live," he said."

  
  
  It has taken Microsoft two years to get to this point because their first strategy, Windows Live promoted through Yahoo, obviously failed in adult and business land. It is doubtful that University students, who hate slow and bloated more than most, will go for Office any more than previous targets. The more stupid stuff Microsoft does to Facebook the more young people will seek other services.
  
  Of course, the service does not work. According to the Register article, the Facebook tie in is an artificial exclusive where only the latest and greatest Microsoft Office can be used to author and share documents with Facebook. The search and share facilities don't work well [booster speak for hoplessly broken], as you might expect from something that relies on a program few people have or want, despite a lot of dumping on Universities. Students are heavy Mac and GNU/Linux users because they don't have time for Microsoft bloat. I imagine they are going to be bright enough to continue linking to Google Docs, blogs or their own servers when they want to collaborate and share. If Facebook makes that kind of sharing hard, they will dump Facebook.
  
  People will continue to think of Microsoft Office as dated and a rude thing to send someone. Office has never been a good way to share because formatting has always been hit and miss for all but plain text without graphics and macroviruses routinely wiped out people dumb enough to use Office. Because Microsoft was sneaky and hid the file type rom users, people who sent the new "docx" format and friends were embarrassed as people who did not know what they were doing. People who receive the new formats are faced with the rude prospect spending $400 to cooperate with the clueless person or company that made a mistake back in the early 90's.