[onion2k]

I think a large part of the problem is that so much software (like Office) is turning into a service when it doesn’t need to be.

One significant advantage of SaaS over traditional download-and-run-and-pay-for-updates apps is the fact that everyone is always on the same version. In a large organisation, and across organisational boundaries, working around people using different versions of things is an incredibly inefficient use of time.

Office 365 is worth the money for that reason alone.

[ryandrake]

> One significant advantage of SaaS over traditional download-and-run-and-pay-for-updates apps is the fact that everyone is always on the same version.

This is undeniably an advantage to the developer, but much less so for users. When a developer releases a terrible update that removes features or does an unnecessary re-design, in the world of non-SaaS, I could simply choose to stay on the older version. Now that choice is gone and the company is in charge of what version I am using. This is a huge step backwards.

I expect when I obtain software, it will continue to work forever, behave the same way forever, until/unless I choose to update it. That fundamental promise is going away quickly.

[tyingq]

One funny piece of that is the O365 gives both online and downloaded/local editions of word, excel, powerpoint, etc.

Those two editions often cannot properly render documents made in the other one.

[mft_]

Maybe I’ve been lucky and only worked in well-resourced corporations, but across a ~15 year career in the private sector, I can barely think of any examples where this is the case.

Ironically, a far greater pain point (in my experience) has been poor interchangeability and access to cloud storage solutions between internal and external collaborators.

[southerntofu]

Well the same is true with any selfhosted office suite. With of course the main difference that Office365 is limited by Microsoft APIs, and downtime is not dictated by your bug usage or infra. Good luck working when Azure is down or your have connectivity problems.