This is Microsoft realizing that Windows desktop monopoly, while mighty, doesn't necessarily translate to other markets, especially cloud services, all that well because the monopoly is based on compatibility and compatibility means leaving those holes that allow for third-parties to hijack the platform to deliver their services. Also in a world that kept needing new desktop operating systems, OS monopoly was far more valuable than app monopoly but in a world where a 10-year old operating system is hard to kill, app monopoly is more important, because OS has already been commoditized.<p>In this sense, their Office monopoly, which is not as reliant on third-party add-ins or platform openness, and is far more based on product superiority, is more important for them to preserve. Office gives them a strong chance at dominance in business cloud services. Since they are far ahead of competitors at this point, they want to win it as quickly as possible before competitors catch up. This has nothing to do with Microsoft conceding anything - it's simply that Office is far too important to be tied to Windows.
Actually a pretty impressive about-face from Microsoft. I know some people are all-too-ready to see the demise of Microsoft, but I'm glad to see them try their best to be nimble. The more they fight for eyeballs, the more we win.
Chromebooks (with either Google Drive or Office Online) are as work-worthy as Windows RT devices. Both are perfectly capable if your work only entails answering emails, browsing the web, and light word processing. If you need to do anything that isn't possible in a web-app, you'll quickly find yourself turning to a different device.
The "real" title is the subtitle:<p><i>Offers Office Online apps via Chrome Web Store to Chrome and Chrome OS</i><p>With the further qualification:<p><i>The move was largely symbolic: The Office Online apps have long been able to run within virtually any browser, including Chrome, the foundation of Chrome OS.<p>But by packaging the apps in .crx format and submitting them to the automated review run by Google, and thus publishing them to the Chrome Web Store, Microsoft put its Office Online in front of Chrome and Chrome OS users and in a place they've been trained to look for Web apps.</i>
While getting Office listed in the Chrome app store is a refreshing thing for MS to do, it seems like quite a stretch to conclude that MS has conceded anything, or that this is related to how MS perceives Chromebooks. If anything, this kind of press might make MS less likely to do things like this in the future, which sucks.
The headline is pure linkbait. The Chrome Web Store is not a ChromeOS store, it is for Chrome on all platforms. I would bet that most people using the CWS use it on Chrome on a desktop machine, not on ChromeOS.
I posted this earlier, but it's relevant for a repost.<p>My brother got a chrome pixel at Google I/O and he loves it. The hardware is beautiful. The interface is simple. The speed and ease of use is really unparalleled. The downside is by far the most important - the functionality is very limited due to the limited App space.
I can't seem to get this to install/load/whatever_the_jargon_is in the Chrome Web Store tied to a Google Apps (for domains) account. Anybody have any idea what magic incantation I need to mutter/mutter/invoke?