Microsoft office

[Lowell]

I'm also leery about storing my  financial files on the cloud.  But perhaps if I had, I may have had a better chance of recovering them. 

There are two non financial files that i won't be able to reconstruct that bums me out.  One is the service records for my 2009 Dodge Ram and the other is a file of "What did we do and when."  The last file showed all the improvement we made to our house for the last 20 years, who did it and what did it cost us.


I had those files stored on a flash drive and I guess I never copied them to my back up hard drive.

 

[HappyWanderer]

I have Word and Excel files created in Office 97 that are frequently used with Office 2016 and 2019 with no issues ever experienced.

 

[Goodspike]

I have Word and Excel files created in Office 97 that are frequently used with Office 2016 and 2019 with no issues ever experienced.

You wouldn't have a problem with later versions of Office--Microsoft has always built the conversion in.  It was when using other companies programs trying to open newer files.  Those other companies would create files to convert, but you'd have to download them.

And it was widely suspected that Microsoft had a program were existing versions of WordPerfect wouldn't run on new versions of Windows.  "Windows isn't done until WordPerfect won't run" was an update to earlier rumors about Dos and Lotus.  I had to upgrade at least a couple of times just to get the WordPerfect program to launch after upgrading Windows.  Little such problem with other programs.

 

[jymbee]

Office and Office 365 are different animals.

I use Office 365 for the sake of compatibility given many of the people I work with use it. I actually think it's a pretty reasonable cost given you can install it on up to FIVE different computers.

 

[Ex-Calif]

Some time in history I paid MS almost $400 for a full version of office. Then they rebuilt office and newer documents could not be opened on my version. I also was expected to buy a brand new version of office at full ticket.

I vowed to "steal" every later version of Office as it came out. Then my company made a deal for a "home use" version (probably so they could make us work from home - LOL) and I get it for $10 and download the full version with a special key. I also have a couple of fresh "student" disks that my brother got me as he is an IT guy for the California state college system. Saving those for post retirement when I probably have to buy myself a new laptop and give this company one back - LOL...

Many companies are moving to the subscription model.  My kid is doing on-line media and Adobe, Photoshop and others are selling subscriptions. I am conflicted by that. Basically you'll never own it, but it will always get updated.

However for most users outright purchase should last "years" before an upgrade is needed.

It's hard to deny that all software makers are trying to hook people in and maximize the wallet.  I suppose even with subscriptions free market pricing is prevailing?

 

[Goodspike]

Some time in history I paid MS almost $400 for a full version of office. Then they rebuilt office and newer documents could not be opened on my version. I also was expected to buy a brand new version of office at full ticket.

I think Microsoft has always provided files you could download to update your version of Office to download new file types.

Some companies have gone to a policy that you can only install a program on one computer, and when that computer dies you need to buy a new copy.  Not sure if Microsoft has that policy on the Office products, but they do on Windows itself.

 

[Ex-Calif]

I think Microsoft has always provided files you could download to update your version of Office to download new file types.

Not always - This was probably in the 90's and they completely rebuilt Office.  They had forward compatibility and there were file "readers" but you could no longer edit the new version files.

This was also when intel and MS were in cahoots and every 8 months you needed a PC upgrade to run the latest bloated software. My last version of DOS (DOS 5.0?) is still in a box somewhere and came on like 20 X 3 1/2 disks.

"no one is ever gonna need more than 1mb of RAM..."

 

[Lowell]

My granddaughter was able to load an Office suite on my computer using her sign in her university account. And she does use my computer sometimes for her school work when visiting.

So playing around with an Excel spreadsheet, I didn't see a "Save as" option for the file.  I don't know where the file is stored.  It did have an option to download a copy to my PC.  But I don't like the idea that an additional copy could be stored somewhere else.  I think I was able to delete the file.

 

[Goodspike]

I'm not sure why people are so afraid of cloud storage.  As long as it's an encrypted system it should be reasonably safe, possibly even safer than your own computer given some of the malware out there.  But more importantly, unless maybe you have a work and home location and can store a backup at the alternative location and are diligent at updating backup copies, your data would be very at risk of loss from fire, theft, etc.

Maybe I'm paranoid, but I have:

1.  Cloud backups at two different sites.
2.  Run local attached backups daily.
3.  Run monthly full backups to two different drives (alternating months) which are then disconnected and put in a safe after the backup completes.
4.  Run an old computer monthly roughly 15 days from the full backup date to update the data locally from one of the cloud services.

 

[Larry N.]

I'm not sure why people are so afraid of cloud storage.

Have you noticed the frequency at which Google (as just one example) starts something neat, then suddenly discontinues it, leaving its users in the cold? There are many other companies that have done the same. Not to mention how many hacks there have been of various corporate site that steal a tremendous amount of information, including sensitive information for a multitude of people.

At home, I can copy that info to offline storage, as well as take other measures, and that guarantees that Google, et al, will not use my information without my knowledge and permission. Sure, there are things they can get anyway, but not stuff that never gets out there in the first place. On this subject I'm paranoid. I don't even like the idea of online banking, partly because of things like this:

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/12/evil-mobile-emulator-farms-used-to-steal-millions-from-us-and-eu-banks/

And I'm not fond of online purchasing, though the millions+ that embraced it have forced it on me if I want to buy much more than the few high volume items that brick and mortar stores carry, things that I used to be able to get locally.

 

[Goodspike]

Have you noticed the frequency at which Google (as just one example) starts something neat, then suddenly discontinues it, leaving its users in the cold? There are many other companies that have done the same. Not to mention how many hacks there have been of various corporate site that steal a tremendous amount of information, including sensitive information for a multitude of people.

I had an early on-line storage that did just that, but it was the companies sideline--it was mainly a computer company. (And presumably a poorly run one since they got into The Cloud before The Cloud and didn't realize the importance of what they had done!)  I don't think you're going to be much at risk of that with companies where that is their main business, but of course they could always go out of business.

Note there are some where the company doesn't have your encryption key, so they can't use your data.  If you lose your key though, you're out of luck!

And I'm not fond of online purchasing, though the millions+ that embraced it have forced it on me if I want to buy much more than the few high volume items that brick and mortar stores carry, things that I used to be able to get locally.

Just the opposite here, and with Covid-19 on-line options have been a Godsend.  I was even getting groceries delivered about 15 years ago, and joked that if they had a service that would walk my mail from the mailbox to my door I'd never need to leave the house!

 

[Goodspike]

BTW, as long as we're talking about security, if you're really worried about it you should be using disc encryption, like Bitlocker (available on Windows Professional), particularly for a laptop type device or one you travel with.  Just the ordinary Windows password does not protect your data.

 

[Larry N.]

BTW, as long as we're talking about security, if you're really worried about it you should be using disc encryption, like Bitlocker (available on Windows Professional), particularly for a laptop type device or one you travel with.  Just the ordinary Windows password does not protect your data.

Which is part of why I said, "as well as take other measures" in my previous post.

 

[Larry N.]

Goodspike, you might check out this site, which shows further what I meant by Google killing projects: https://killedbygoogle.com/

 

[Goodspike]

Goodspike, you might check out this site, which shows further what I meant by Google killing projects: https://killedbygoogle.com/

I'm familiar with Google killing things off, but unless you're using Google Drive that's irrelevant.

I'm actually surprised they never killed of Google Maps, especially after buying Waze.  They must get a lot of data off that.  I'm glad they didn't, but surprised.

 

[Rob&Deryl]

I have some Synology NAS servers at home. One is my TimeCapsule backup for our Macs. It has a raid array for protection.

Our data, docs & spreadsheets etc is on another NAS. It is a raid array too. Everything is duplicated (sorta mirrored) to the third NAS.

Each month I do an off line backup of all the data to one of 2 sets of disks alternating the sets.

When we hit the road next spring, we will have a NAS server on the trailer to protect our data. When at home, new stuff will move to the house servers.

Yes, I am paranoid. No, I don?t lose data. Belt & suspenders at least.

 

[Rob&Deryl]

I'm familiar with Google killing things off, but unless you're using Google Drive that's irrelevant.

I'm actually surprised they never killed of Google Maps, especially after buying Waze.  They must get a lot of data off that.  I'm glad they didn't, but surprised.

My big problem with using the cloud is that once I put something there, I have no rights to it any longer.
Check the user agreement. If you are paying for the service, the only thing they promise is to collect their fee.
If it free, how do you think they pay the millions for the data center?

The laws have not been updated to give you any rights to data stored in the cloud. They can sell it, delete it, or, lose it and you have no recourse.

That?s why I keep it local to me. Yes, it costs me but I know where my information is stored.

 

[SCVJeff]

I just bought a full suite version of Office 2019; The on-time price stand alone version. I don't need all this subscription c#2p from Microsoft, I'm "retired" and wanted something to run the mirrored company files from the last 20 years (oops, was my mic on?). Anyway the full 29019 Suite was around $60 from Amazon, and works exactly as it should

 

[Ex-Calif]

Have you noticed the frequency at which Google (as just one example) starts something neat, then suddenly discontinues it, leaving its users in the cold? There are many other companies that have done the same. Not to mention how many hacks there have been of various corporate site that steal a tremendous amount of information, including sensitive information for a multitude of people.

Our family invested a lot of time in a photo storage system. I think it was called Ringo.  You made albums and tagged all the photos etc. We put gigabytes of info on there.  Then we get an eMail - "We are going out of business. Reply here if you would like a CD of all your photos."

The CD(s) never came.  If we didn't have local copies it would all be gone.

I will never trust "one" place for my stuff. I have a terabyte DropBox and 2 terabyte portable drives.  If my house catches fire I grab the terabyte drives and even if DropBox crashed the same day I would have all my content. My PC HDD is mirrored on DB and the external HDD runs a file sync program every night while I am sleeping.

Cloud storage will always be "backup" at best for me.

 

[Goodspike]

Our family invested a lot of time in a photo storage system. I think it was called Ringo.  You made albums and tagged all the photos etc. We put gigabytes of info on there.  Then we get an eMail - "We are going out of business. Reply here if you would like a CD of all your photos."

The CD(s) never came.  If we didn't have local copies it would all be gone.

I would suspect that there would have been a way to download too--for a Cloud service is pretty useless without that.  ;-)  And I've yet to run across one that shuts down without notice.

I will never trust "one" place for my stuff. I have a terabyte DropBox and 2 terabyte portable drives.  If my house catches fire I grab the terabyte drives and even if DropBox crashed the same day I would have all my content. My PC HDD is mirrored on DB and the external HDD runs a file sync program every night while I am sleeping.

Cloud storage will always be "backup" at best for me.

Those sound like good practices.  I would also mention periodically testing any backup systems to make sure the data is recoverable.