Office 2003 'dead' after June 30

Rik · Jun 20, 2007, 16:12:01

El Reg is reporting that MS will only be supplying Office 2007 from July, so anyone wanting to stick with 2003 had better hurry.

DorsetBoy · Jun 20, 2007, 16:17:06

Office 2003 'dead' after June 30...................was it ever alive then?

Rik · Jun 20, 2007, 16:21:30

Given the installed user base, I'd say the answer was probably 'yes', Dorset, though in a MS qualified kind of way...

RobMc · Jun 20, 2007, 16:32:03

Well Microsoft will cease selling Office 2003 to OEMs and presumably has already stopped shipping retail versions of 2003. There is no great shock there other then the rather quick withdrawal of sale of Office 2003. Business users will most likely be buying via the volume licensing scheme, and home users are financially much better off with Office 2007 Home & Student compared with the Office 2003 Standard Edition.

Rob.

D-Dan · Jun 20, 2007, 18:09:19

Or you can just use OpenOffice, which is the most cost effective of the lot and will be supported for some considerable time to come.

RobMc · Jun 20, 2007, 18:38:24

Very true, actually I've been trialling Ubuntu on my spare laptop which has Open Office preinstalled. So far I've been very impressed.

I've used Open Office on Windows in the past, the only problem is that there are some odd compatibility issues if you are sharing files with MS Office Users, but for a Home user this wouldn't be an issue.

Rob.

mrapoc · Jun 21, 2007, 09:54:04

Office 2007 is quite slick once you get used to it! /Prepares for verbal bashing

Rik · Jun 21, 2007, 09:58:50

How long did it take you to adjust, aamoi?

Azazel · Jun 21, 2007, 12:43:59

Business users are buying office 2007 now they just install office 2003 using downgrade rights under their licence plan, i dont know of any business that i deal with that are realistically looking at Vista or Office 2007 other than for testing purposes (AKA the geeks in the IT department bought a kick ass rig to "test" vista and office for compatability and spend the day playing games on it!)

Rik · Jun 21, 2007, 12:47:29

Quote from: Azazel on Jun 21, 2007, 12:43:59
(AKA the geeks in the IT department bought a kick ass rig to "test" vista and office for compatability and spend the day playing games on it!)

There have to be some perks I guess...

Kheldar · Jun 21, 2007, 15:37:23

well we are just upgrading to office 2003 and Outlook !

Rik · Jun 21, 2007, 15:38:37

From what, aamoi?

Kheldar · Jun 21, 2007, 15:41:31

older office and groupwise.

Rik · Jun 21, 2007, 15:47:36

Any plans for 2007, do you know?

B52 · Jun 21, 2007, 19:05:30

Seems like we've struck lucky then. The Primary Care Trust that my wife works for have just come to an arrangement with MS that allows the staff to purchase a copy and licence of 2007 for the extortionate sum of £17 delivered.
Dare I try it on our 2 PCs though?

Use Oo on my machine with Ubuntu and Ability Office on my main PC from a free mag disc 2001. Ability is still my favourite word processor. We just get along together.

Kheldar · Jun 21, 2007, 21:58:07

Quote from: Rik on Jun 21, 2007, 15:47:36
Any plans for 2007, do you know?

lol u r joking.

we are always about 3 years behind.

only seems like yesterday we upgraded to win 98 !

Quote from: B52 on Jun 21, 2007, 19:05:30
Seems like we've struck lucky then. The Primary Care Trust that my wife works for have just come to an arrangement with MS that allows the staff to purchase a copy and licence of 2007 for the extortionate sum of £17 delivered.
Dare I try it on our 2 PCs though?

Use Oo on my machine with Ubuntu and Ability Office on my main PC from a free mag disc 2001. Ability is still my favourite word processor. We just get along together.

i bought office 2003 via work for £17 last year when they had announced this years big project to upgrade to 2003.

i still have a softspot for Wordstar - really liked it. still rememeber .pr or=l

also ami pro was under rated.

RobMc · Jun 21, 2007, 22:49:22

Quote from: Kheldar on Jun 21, 2007, 21:58:07
Wordstar

Ahh Ctrl+KB Ctrl+KK Ctrl+KC memories.....

Back in the 80s I was using Wordstar as an editor for writing Cobol Programs before uploading them to the mainframe for compilation. Those were the days when you could boot an IBM PC (yes the original one), run wordstar and save your files all from a couple of 5.25" floppy disks (That's 360KB each)

Rob

Scott · Jun 22, 2007, 08:33:33

This is a deliberate and none-too-subtle means to keep us on the upgrade path. I was recently at an MS open day showcasing VS Orcas (Now entitled VS 2008 - bet that had the marketeers scratching their heads for hours). Within this presentation there was a lot of web, winforms and .Net framework 3.5 goodness

However something that did slip past a little unnoticed from most in the room was that much of this loveliness was only going to be available on Vista...no back-porting the .Net API down to XP. Very interesting as they (the MS drones) were making a big deal about no need to recompile and regression test code as the CLR was all the same as current .Net framework (v2.0).

What has this all to do with Office 2003 going out of production ? Well...they were very clear that they believe the biggest expansion in the MS software code repository in the coming years is going to be in Office application extensions. In other words out-of-the-box your Office 2007 install will do 75% of your required business function and to complete the picture you will extend the Office function by programming against the .Net framework to develop hand-rolled office extensions within a managed codebase...not shonky old VBA ! So in other words if their projections come true and folks out there really are extending the Office object model for their own specialist requirements then there's only going to be one place and platform on which to do it. Office 2007 on Vista !

So rather than the "Carrot and Stick" approach it's the "Stick and Stick" approach !

Sneaky huh ?

Rik · Jun 22, 2007, 09:23:51

Quote from: Kheldar on Jun 21, 2007, 21:58:07
i still have a softspot for Wordstar - really liked it. still rememeber .pr or=l

Memories.

I used Wordstar, then XyWrite before moving to WordPerfect, which I found 'worked better' for me. I still use it.

Rik · Jun 22, 2007, 09:25:08

Quote from: Scott on Jun 22, 2007, 08:33:33
So rather than the "Carrot and Stick" approach it's the "Stick and Stick" approach !

Sneaky huh ?

MS have never been shy at putting their products forward, Scott. At times, they remind me of the Mafia in the way they operate - only without the guns afaik.

Kheldar · Jun 22, 2007, 10:36:24

Quote from: Rik on Jun 22, 2007, 09:23:51
Memories. I used Wordstar, then XyWrite before moving to WordPerfect, which I found 'worked better' for me. I still use it.

never took to word perfect.

we used both in them days and i always tried to stick with wordstar.

Rik · Jun 22, 2007, 10:42:59

WPs used to be intensely personal apps back then, each one had its foibles which you loved or hated. The market is much more bland these days.

Kheldar · Jun 22, 2007, 10:45:51

indeed.

i knew all the menu commands and dot commands etc for wordstar and could navigate around and add in stuff much quicker than i seem to with word

Rik · Jun 22, 2007, 10:49:13

Likewise... I used to chant key combos like mantras...

Kheldar · Jun 22, 2007, 10:54:00

and then ofc i went on to talking to my computer and dictating letters etc via voice as technology progressed !

Rik · Jun 22, 2007, 11:01:05

I've never found a voice recognition package that will cope with my voice - I seem to produce a bass rumble as a continuum, which confuses such software. I put it down to growing up amongst pipers...

Kheldar · Jun 22, 2007, 11:25:08

yeah it was funny and i was involved in the early days years ago.

sure its a lot better now.