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HOORAY FOR MICROSOFT BOTNET!

No, desktop apps do exist for Windows RT but no third party desktop apps, including those made by Microsoft are allowed to be installed on a Windows RT device. Office 2013 RT is included in Windows RT as desktop apps, not metro style apps. You do have to purchase perpetual license or subscribe to Office 365 for Windows 8 PCs.

I will never put my sensitive data in the "cloud". I will never put myself or company in the position where I'm at the mercy of the cloud and the internet to retrieve data/information. It will always remain onsite. As to home use, I will never subscribe to a monthly software subscription whether it be Microsoft or Apple. Like in business, I want my data/info on home site and I like buying the product and using it for as long as I want until I want. Still using Office2002(XP)and it does all I need. Still using Vista, but may upgrade to Windows 7 before 8 comes out. I don't need the latest and greatest nor will I be a slave to a software subscription service where much of what I do does not require the internet or the latest and greatest software. I got off the must have the latest hamster wheel years ago where I thought I had to have the latest and greatest that Microsoft (or anyone for that matter) put out. So I'll pass and if Microsoft nudges everyone to where Office is solely a subscription based service, I still will be using my Office 2002 (XP) upgrade retail package. If Microsoft should stop activating the retail Office 2002 (XP) in the future when I need to reinstall it for whatever reason, I'll start using the Office 2000 retail package that I own or go to OpenOffice/LibreOffice.

I currently have all my data in three places: C drive, external drive, and SkyDrive. SkyDrive serves as my offsite backup.

However, I don't intend to use Office online. Why? Because to use Office online, the Office files cannot be encrypted (saved with passwords). And there's just no way I will store sensitive Office files unencrypted in the cloud -- just one email password away from being downloaded, opened and read by hackers.

"This approach is not necessarily a bad thing: If product costs are low, consumers tend to be more willing to pay ongoing fees, just as they already do with subsidized phone handsets and their corresponding multiyear contracts."

As it happens, more and more people are getting fed up with multi-year contracts and are switching to prepaid services. Certainly not everyone, but a growing percentage.

I will NEVER submit to extortion - having to pay someone in order to access my data. And that reason is just the tip of the iceberg, but it is the most objectionable to me.

Keyword here seems to be it "will".

One little nugget that is never mentioned is the cost for continually uploading and downloading charged by ISP providers. All forms of the telecom industry will take a bite out of our wallet. Government oversight, anyone?

One little nugget that is never mentioned is the cost for continually uploading and downloading charged by ISP providers. All forms of the telecom industry will take a bite out of our wallet. Government oversight, anyone?

Snake oil thy name is "da cloud." For the vast majority of computer users, including business users, da cloud is da farce. Why would any rational person place their data in the cloud rather than on their own computer? Internet connections go down all too often. Online storage has proven anything but secure.

Of course, our wonderful private sector can force us to the cloud and make our lives miserable -- all to boost their profits. It's a shame that so many people forget that the vast majority of the problems we face in life are produced by the private sector, not government.

Snake oil thy name is "da cloud." For the vast majority of computer users, including business users, da cloud is da farce. Why would any rational person place their data in the cloud rather than on their own computer? Internet connections go down all too often. Online storage has proven anything but secure.

Of course, our wonderful private sector can force us to the cloud and make our lives miserable -- all to boost their profits. It's a shame that so many people forget that the vast majority of the problems we face in life are produced by the private sector, not government.

I'm REALLY HAPPY to finally see a majority of responses to an article about "cloud storage" have the same view as mine... I'd NEVER trust "the cloud" for anything more than MINOR backup of files or data I neither considered "sensitive" NOR was particularly concerned about having used by someone else who claimed it as their own (such as my photos being used by someone else -- which is why I've posted VERY FEW photos on Facebook, and joined ONLY after my oldest online friend begged me to so I could see a bunch of pics she had uploaded).

I KNOW MS and just about everyone else are doing their level best to drag us all, kicking and screaming, into "the cloud," while AT THE SAME TIME, high-speed ISPs, which USED TO NOT have any monthly bandwidth restrictions, have imposed them with either throttling when you pass those levels, or increased fees.

I'm a Charter customer, and for the longest time Charter had NO bandwidth restrictions, but within the past year or so -- at the VERY TIME they jumped to a maximum speed of 100 Mbps -- they added a maximum monthly bandwidth (for only THAT price level) of 500 GB (it's 250 GB for my 30 Mbps level). I KNOW there used to be NO limit, because in the past I subscribed to Graboid for a couple months at their 500 GB/month maximum package, and maxed it out at least one of those two months, and received no notice or extra fee.

So, at the very time everyone is being encouraged to do everything "on the cloud," ISPs are imposing limits and/or making users pay through the nose beyond a certain point (lets not EVEN talk about the nuts who think they have to spend all day downloading movies to their stupid phones!).

And cloud storage is NOT SAFE, I don't care what ANYONE SAYS! I don't even care if you can "encrypt it seven ways from Sunday," the storage is STILL on someone else's server, subject to that company's (and its employees) whims, to any and all manner of hackers, to any and all manner of government agencies that may decide they have a "Homeland Security" need to see it, or, for that matter, to SHUT THE SERVER DOWN. The company can go out of business, or sell to someone else, with different ideas about your data...

And then, of course, you never know when the internet is going to go down -- at your end, at their end... somewhere in the middle. IF you have ALL your programs AND all your data ON your own system (and preferably sensitive data backed up on at least a second hard drive and/or removable media -- even if you LOSE POWER, you can always get a generator or something, if you HAVE TO, and run your system.

Short of a massive EMP (assuming you don't have your entire system completely shielded underground, somehow), IF all your data is on YOUR OWN system, at YOUR OWN location, and properly backed up (and you keep your system running properly, and excellent virus and firewall protection running), you should be almost 100% assured of ALWAYS having access to both your software AND your data.

All I know is that except for a 2-month-old WD external drive I hadn't backed up yet (because I NEVER expected a 2-month-old drive to CRASH on me), I've NEVER LOST ANY software or data, PERIOD.
Jeff Hayes

Ouch! This release of Office is going to be a problem.

Defaulting everything to the cloud? Yikes! Our company simply can't do this, not with the sensitive information we work with. A big no-no.

Sorry Microsoft, but we will continue to stick with our network storage devices in our office. We won't be using the cloud anytime soon.

And then there's the issue of the government poking its nose into everything. Imagine the government snooping on confidential documents. They can. Because, they can!

Nope. No cloud. We're stickin' with Office 2010.

Have a great day.

dfschmid, on 24 July 2012 - 09:57 AM, said:

The default to cloud storage will not affect most businesses. They will customize their installs so storage will be on the company server. This is directed at the poor uniformed home user. They will not know how or they will not know that they can change this setting. Once they run out of storage they will be hit with a popup to pay for additional storage. Microsoft will not tell them that they can just change settings and store everything locally. Most computer illiterate will just pay the fee.

JeffAHayes, on 24 July 2012 - 06:49 AM, said:

There is a reason for the coincidence of pushing to the cloud on one end and monthly bandwidth fees on the other... corporations at both ends recognize that money can be made for doing almost nothing.

In the case of ISP's, this actually encourages them to STOP improving their service. In those cases where they need to petition for increased monthly rates, it's to their advantage to have OLD technology in place. It gives them something to point to when asked, "Why do you need to charge more money?" The ISP's never seem to be asked, "Why haven't you upgraded that yet with the money you already charged?" Even in the cases where they're free to charge whatever they wish, customer complaints about service an fees get the reply: "You guys are swamping our old technology, and we need to discourage you from using it."

Not that they're usually that blunt about it though. Their standard reply so far has usually been a vague reference to those who use more bandwidth than they deserve (again, never put that bluntly, but it's understood that this is their opinion about these users).

For those that were in IT when it was called MIS, this is a throw back to the mainframe days, the Compuserve's. It didn't work then, and it won't work now. The first time it rains (so to speak) and the cloud isn't available will be the last time the CEO will allow needed data to exist on someone else's servers.

This sounds like a wonderful oppurtunity for a Corel or someone to ramp up their "office suite" applications and start grabbing marketshare from Mein Kampfsoft.

For those that were in IT when it was called MIS, this is a throw back to the mainframe days, the Compuserve's. It didn't work then, and it won't work now. The first time it rains (so to speak) and the cloud isn't available will be the last time the CEO will allow needed data to exist on someone else's servers.

This sounds like a wonderful oppurtunity for a Corel or someone to ramp up their "office suite" applications and start grabbing marketshare from Mein Kampfsoft.