Jason Fried of 37 Signals has a post critical of Office Live entitled Microsoft Office Live is "web based" where he writes
Office
Live, Microsoft’s entry into the web-based office application space, went
beta today.
Check out some of the system requirements for certain features of this
“web-based” service:
- To use the Edit in Datasheet feature within the Business Applications and
Shared Sites areas requires Microsoft Office 2003.
- To export to Business Contact Manager requires Microsoft Office
2003, Microsoft Office XP, or Microsoft Office 2000.
- To import contacts from Microsoft Office Outlook requires Microsoft
Office 2003 or Microsoft Office XP.
- To link contacts to Microsoft Office Outlook requires Microsoft
Office 2003.
And of course you must use IE. I never thought I’d see a web app suite that
has more system requirements than a desktop app, but I guess I should never
underestimate Microsoft.
A number of comments in response to the blog post have pointed out
that it is misleading since it implies that Office Live requires
Microsoft Office when in truth most of the features mentioned are
related to importing and exporting data to and from Microsoft Office products
like Outlook. Since the target audience for Office Live is the same as that for the majority of the products of 37 Signals it is unsurprising that they are so hostile to the service.
However this isn't to say that there isn't some valid criticism here. Jason is right that Internet Explorer is required to use Office Live.
I also had an issue with this especially since in Windows Live
we have
an explicit goal that Internet Explorer and Firefox users should get an
equivalent user experience. When I talked to the Office Live folks
about this they pointed out to me that although Internet Explorer is
required to create a site using the service, the websites created with
it (such as http://daresofficelivesite.com)
work fine in all major Web browsers. This is a good step but they know
they can do better.
As it is with all feature requests in product
development, the best way to get Firefox support to show up in Office Live is for users demand it. That's what happened with Windows Live and I'm sure the same will end up happening for Office Live. I'm sure the question won't be if but rather when it shows up.