Microsoft Considered Screwing Apple by Dropping Office for Mac

[REVENGE]

So Mac users, have you ever felt that Microsoft has been giving you guys the short end of the stick? Well [shock], it appears that your suspicions might be true after all. MacWorld UK reports that excerpts from documentary evidence used in the Iowan "Comes v. Microsoft" antitrust lawsuit suggests that Microsoft may have had intentions of causing "a great deal of harm" to Apple through cutting off the support and development of their Mac Office division. The excerpt is from a long email conversation between Bill Gates and then Mac Business Unit chief Ben Waldman in 1997, in which there were discussions of "dumping Mac support" and "dumping development of the product [Office]", both of which were perceived as "The strongest bargaining point we have, as doing so will do a great deal of harm to Apple immediately."

 

In addition, Microsoft had apparently been using Mac Office as a test-bed "guinea pig" for the development of new features NOT for the potential benefit of Mac users, but rather "because it [Mac] is so much less critical to our business than Windows." You can read the whole document for yourself in PDF format here. In the end, you were probably expecting this as usual, since Microsoft seems to make many decisions based on their self-interest for profits, rather than the interest of their consumers.

[Colonel]

Microsoft signed an agreement with Apple that they'd keep making Microsoft Office for Mac for at least 5 more years.

[Skylor]

Why can't apple just make their own version of M$ Office? They could even take the easy route and base it off of openoffice....

[ccihon]

1997 was a long time ago, in the small computer world. And at that time, Office for mac wasn't the compatability app it has become for mac users. These were the OS 8.1-8.5 days, people. In the end, I'm sure the availabilty of cross-platform Office tools helped to transition PC users to Mac. But this is making a big deal about nothing.

 

While it's great to think that companies that compete with Microsoft act in the interest of consumers, I really think that's only if it helps the bottom line. No surprise. MS is not greedier, just bigger.

 

Suggestion for users of any OS: OpenOffice. Mac did make their own Office Suite for a while - Claris Works. They basically gave it away with macs. And ultimately people bought MS Office.

[bwhsh8r]

How would that be screwing apple? im surprised they ever even made it for apple in the first place, but im quite sure if they did apple would at least try and make one. but still, how is this screwing mac, theyre making a product for their RIVAL company?

[John the Geek]

im surprised they ever even made it for apple in the first place,

 

Actually they did make it for Apple in the first place. Both Word and Excel were Mac products before they were DOS/Windows Products.

 

EDIT: Correction - Apparently there was a DOS version of Word in 1983, then the Mac version in 1985. The Windows version came in 1989. Link

 

Excel was first on a Mac in 1985 and the Windows version came in 1987.

Edited March 6, 2007 by John the Geek

[Soündless]

i wouldnt care if they did away with office for mac. i have really started to like pages since i broke my copy of word

[head]

i´m using pages, who cares for crappy non ub-ms-software? it is still not fully compatible to the pc version, just like pages or open-office. who needs *.doc´s anyway?

 

i wouldnt care if they did away with office for mac. i have really started to like pages since i broke my copy of word

 

 

haha, nice, thats my story, too

 

i am really getting used to it lately...

[rollcage]

I'd like to see more development of Pages, along with the addition of a spreadsheet app to iWork. I can't stand to use OpenOffice/NeoOffice, they just feel/look like {censored} to me. And MS Office is only one step up. On second thought, maybe Apple needs to make Pages more of a Publisher app and they could make another app that would better suite word processing.

Edited March 7, 2007 by rollcage

[Suzuka]

NOOO

I don't often say this

but I love this M$ product, unless they mkae 2004 UB, Ill be pissed if they drop office mac

[Zulu.Walker]

Mellel is UB, and it is a fully-featured word-processor for Mac OS X. Great multilanguage support too. Office 2004 is such a CPU and memory hog, but I still have it just for those damn annoying .docs.

[asap18]

NeoOffice 2.1 is Universal and has all the features office 2003 has on windows. I would be sad since I look forward to 2008 but I wouldnt be that mad.

[Soündless]

NOOO

I don't often say this

but I love this M$ product, unless they mkae 2004 UB, Ill be pissed if they drop office mac

why do you need it universal? it runs pretty damn fast on my mbp, at least twice as fast as on my ibook

[alloutmacstoday]

well, then again, ur ibook was 900mhz and g3, and ur mbp is dual 2.33 and core 2 duo

[bwhsh8r]

Actually they did make it for Apple in the first place. Both Word and Excel were Mac products before they were DOS/Windows Products.

 

EDIT: Correction - Apparently there was a DOS version of Word in 1983, then the Mac version in 1985. The Windows version came in 1989. Link

 

Excel was first on a Mac in 1985 and the Windows version came in 1987.

hmm, interesting piece of history right there, the first one (i remember, which is definately not teh 1st one) was where steve jobs was giving that keynote with the microsoft parnership (and announced that there would be mac internet explorer too) because of that whole lawsuit agreement thingy, i guess i learn something new every day

 

edit: but i still dont see how that would be screwing apple...

[Takuro]

I really can't see the immediate danger of a 10-year-old document. Since 1997, Microsoft and Apple haven't really been as territorial. Microsoft likes Apple because it helps lift some weight from their shoulders when they're accused of being a monopoly. Office: Mac market share is definitely higher than it was in the past.

 

I hope they continue to make Office: Mac for many more years to come (beyond the 5 year agreement they recently renewed.) You can argue that iWork will eventually encompass a lot of Office's features, but it's got a long way to go if it ever does. Open source alternatives are nice, but they really aren't packaged as nicely. I know it might seem sort of tongue-in-cheek, but Microsoft definitely has the nicest and best-looking office suite available for Macs. You can argue until you're blue in the face, but that's how I feel.

Edited March 7, 2007 by Takuro

[Careless]

well to be honest, considering apple decides to dog on vista and microsoft products and lie to millions of viewers about their own products through their tv ads (yeah, they're funny though...), I see it fit for microsoft to screw them over.

 

if you're gonna insult the software that pretty much made the office suite what it is, when half of the {censored} is totally untrue or blatantly childish in the way that it's presented, then EFF YOU.

 

That's all I would say.

 

Microsoft doesn't need a reason for this, because too many are already too obvious. and on top of that, Mac users shouldn't care, because if MS products are so "vulnerable", then all of their products would have the ability to allow people to compromise even a mac easier than if it were not running their MS products, correct?

 

so IF MS is taking this to heart, and saying "serves you right", then I'll agree with them.

 

 

My favourite misconception that these commercials brought forth is that macs don't crash. SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUURE. lol

 

big hoax

[REVENGE]

Lol wow, nobody here is implying there exists any immediate danger from a 10 year old document.

 

This is just pointing out how Microsoft considered doing what they thought to be in essence "screwing Apple" back in the day. Now, as to whether Apple would've been screwed or not, who knows? That's their opinion as represented in their discussion.

 

So 1997 is 10 years ago, but has Microsoft changed their attitude towards consumers or competitors in the channel? Not really. Consider the fact that OGL was almost crippled by Microsoft's initial graphics driver model for Vista (until vendors came out with acceptable implementations on their own), the fact that ridiculous resource hogging DRM technology is now used by Windows Media Player, and the fact that there were plans to undermine the Open Document Standard in a variety of ways. Of course, there's always the argument that this is the natural course of things in a market economy, but that doesn't mean consumers won't suffer negative consequences due to Microsoft's profit seeking initiative.

[Synaesthesia]

I really like Pages when I create my own documents. But if I have to import word .doc files, I'm afraid MS Office has better compatiblitiy and is thus a necessary evil

[sandmanfvrga]

Well first off Careless, you really don't get it. The mac ads are frankly truth. The ads never says the macs are perfect, they don't crash etc. They just point out the obvious flaws in a pc/windows and go from there. Sure most of them are kind of childish, but what they say are true and what gets to many is that they are so funny, light hearted, but when you take a look at what the ads are saying, you just know they are true. I think why so many hate them, is the fact they hit home. You will disagree and probably want to go into a long discussion/argument over it, I don't. The ads do their job.

 

 

Office is a necessary evil. Right now you only have a few choices on the mac:

• OpenOffice
  
• NeoOffice
  
• Abiword
  
• iWork
  
• Microsoft Office 2004
  

Now I may have missed some, but those are the main choices.

 

Of course, MS Office 2004 is the main one, cause well, it IS office.

 

Behind that you have OpenOffice. It is very good, but to me lazily put together making Mac users have to deal with X11. Why no use of cocoa? I have NO clue but I think it is rediculous that cocoa wasn't used.

 

After that, you have Neooffice. Oh, no X11 required, cocoa like buttons, but it is ALL java. F'ing memory/resources hog and frankly a bad choice. IF you have a Mac powerful enough to run it, then good.

 

Next is Abiword. This is great piece of software, for MS Word only users. It is not perfect, but very close.

 

Last is iWork. The lack of a Excel/Spreadsheet program hurts this package. Now Apple is suppose to be making a spreadsheet app, Apple really has dropped the ball on iWorks. I have tried Pages and it just can't open Word docs right, Abiword does a better job.

 

All in all, if you want a true all in one package you have:

• MS Office 2004
  
• OpenOffice
  
• NeoOffice
  

These will do the job, but with Office 2004 you are dealing with Microsoft that will NOT make the app universal. With OpenOffice you lose the nice look of OS X and have to use X11. Finally with NeoOffice's java based code, you are hit with a program that demands more of the machine.

 

All in all to me, Apple needs to get their head of their ass and make iWork GOOD with a spreadsheet app and then Office 2004 will be not needed. Also OpenOffice makers need to give Mac users justice with a cocoa version. Stop being lazy and do it right.

Edited March 7, 2007 by sandmanfvrga

[Paranoid Marvin]

Key word being "considered"

 

To be honest, I kinda regret splashinging out on iWork - I NEVER use pages, word is much more feature-full

[BaselineAce]

*Enter new software developer*

[Lostgame]

Dude, I love Microsoft Office 2004.

 

It runs just fine, on any computer, it's not nearly the resource hog that it's major competitors are (even with Rosetta on Intel, it doesn't touch NeoOffice) and it's got lots of great features that I use every day like Notebook layout view.

[sandmanfvrga]

I am downloading OpenOffice to try again with X11. I thought that now I got a real mac, I would try it. If it works, then I am set. I just refuse to really use much Microsoft anything. I think I will put IE 5 on mine, to check my webmail from my work. Only doing that because the requirement of IE.

[m1tra]

This ...hm... joke is even better than this one :-)

Someone is really pissed with Microsoft.

 

Microsoft can screw Apple in many different ways, but dropping a product, which results millions in income... Sounds a little too crazy to me.

Edited March 7, 2007 by m1tra