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Microsoft quietly released a free offline version of Office, but you're not going to like it
(www.xda-developers.com)
this post was submitted on 24 Feb 2025
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A server/client solution is absolutely not offline. You need a connection to save your doc, I mean please.
I'm not sure if people are purposefully being ignorant, but this shit is crazy...
There's a serious difference between having an entire application in a cloud environment (office365) and an entire application on your local PC (office) with the inability to save locally... That's not a server/client setup.
For the life of me I cannot understand why everyone here is being seemingly as disingenuous as possible. It's honestly fucked up.
If you can't use it without a connection to the cloud, it's cloud based.
What you mean by not cloud based is that it's a native application rather than a webapp.
What others mean by not cloud based is that it can be used... Without the cloud being involved.
It's not disingenuous. There's multiple definitions of "offline" being used here, and just because some people aren't using yours doesn't mean they're ignorant or arguing in bad faith.
Your definition of "offline" is encompassing just the executable code. So under that definition, sure, it's offline. But I wouldn't call an application "offline" if it requires an internet connection for any core feature of the application. And I call saving my document a core feature of a word processor. Since I wouldn't call it "offline" I'm not sure what I would call it, but something closer to "local" or "native" to distinguish it from a cloud based application with a browser or other frontend.
Would you say that your game can be played entirely locally of you can't save your game while offline?
I cannot fathom even using a software that ties a critical feature such as the ability of saving your work to an Internet connection.
At that point, if your software relies on the Internet to accomplish an important task, it doesn't matter if the app is native or runs some code in your browser if some critical features depends on someone else's system to work as expected.
Can you define offline.
This is the argument you are purposely ignoring.
How is that different from the Office 365 installation I have at work? Other than the fact that it can actually operate entirely offline for a significant time, unlike what the article describes?
Or did you redefine O365 to only mean the web version?
I haven't seen this application yet, but is the difference that you can install word locally instead of using it in a web browser?
Yes, that's correct. You download an msi installer, install Office, and you have fully functioning Microsoft Office on your desktop without an internet connection. They say that they've removed the ability for you to save locally, but I can't see how that's possible so I highly doubt there's no fallback.
It's not a cloud solution.
You're right that it's not cloud-based, but it's still "always online" software. It's the same as a video game that doesn't function without the internet. I don't think you need to be such an ass about the distinction.
It's quite simple really: think of it as a "demo". You can be offline, start it, mess around, copy&paste stuff... close it and lose all your changes... or go online and save the file to OneDrive.
It is "not cloud" only in the sense that a cloud solution sends the code to run the app to your browser, which most likely will save it to local cache, then read it from there unless there is an update online.
Meanwhile, if you browse to draw.io, you can have your browser download the app to its cache, optionally "install locally" then go offline, open the app, load and save from local, go online, load and save from cloud... is that a "cloud" solution, or a "local" solution? What is a PWA?
microsoft released a single-player game, "microsoft office".
it runs offline, but you cannot save games locally at all. can only save games or progress to the 'cloud'.
i am confident that everyone in this discussion understands technically what is happening. the contention is, for reasons i cannot comprehend, that apparently "connects to and cannot function without the internet" is somehow the same as "offline".