"Free" Office for Windows is being trialed

https://office-watch.com/2025/free-office-for-windows-is-being-trialed/

by WoodenChair • 1 year ago

16 12 1 year ago

gnabgib• 1 year ago

Small discussions (25+10 points, 3 days ago, 4+2 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43168581 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43166990

politelemon• 1 year ago

This kind of makes sense to showcase the other tools available in their ecosystem, and is probably something they should have done a long time ago, when the Google suite entered the scene.

porridgeraisin• 1 year ago

Once upon a time (windows 8 I believe) you could install the "mobile" version of office apps on the desktop and just use that for free. Limited in functionality, but free.

This seems to be severely handicapped. Only onedrive files, no local files, for example.

aetherspawn• 1 year ago

Seems useful to view/edit files once in a blue moon on random Windows installs that don’t get used much.

Grandma’s computer… stuff like that.

yummypaint• 1 year ago

Ads in edge that Microsoft won't let you block. Ads in the start menu instead of things that could be useful. Ads in a goddamn word processor while kids are trying to do their homework. Total surveillance of everything displayed on the screen. This is apparently the best that for-profit software is willing/able to provide.

Yes everyone on HN knows how to use Linux and avoid all these traps etc, but you sort of have to know to know. We are at a point where open source versions of common software are often functionally superior to paid equivalents, but hardly anyone uses them because there is no money in forcing people to use them.

What a hellscape the software industry has made for the tech illiterate and children who are kept ignorant in order extract their capital. Having a "free" version of the MS office is about keeping people from discovering better alternatives. It's probably a better return on investment than fixing bugs.

timbit42• 1 year ago

Welcome to capitalism.

hagbard_c• 1 year ago

Don't you get tired of that old trope only to be reminded that is is capitalism which provided you the means to kvetch about capitalism instead of having to labour on a Sovchoz or Kolchoz or in some Kombinat? It was even capitalism which gave you the opportunity to whinge about capitalism without fear of being shadowbanned or outright banned or put on probation while those who commented from the more conservative side often ended up meeting such a fate.

If there is one sin of 'capitalism' which needs to be resolved it is its tendency to make life so easy for so many people that they have to go look for a challenge to make them feel like they're in a fight which they can win. One of the easiest imaginary fights in capitalist society is the imaginary fight against capitalism. These brave keyboard warriors, spiritual descendents of Don Quixote all, tirelessly fight their enemy until they feel a bit pecky when they go to that trendy cafe to get themselves a certified organic vat-grown Bambi-Burger with extra quinoa and a siding of guacamole to go with their single origin soy-latte. Ah, it is a hard life, that of the capitalism crusaders but someone has to do it.

ale42• 1 year ago

Is this going to be the replacement of WordPad... you get word with the same functionalities as Wordpad, but with ads inside? There's no end in sight for enshittification.

jmclnx• 1 year ago

LibreOffice for me, but 99% of the time it is Emacs :)

blibble• 1 year ago

the ads will be in the paid version soon enough

"Free" Office for Windows is being trialed

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