The future of OneNote

Posted by Ken
Apr 25, 2018 at 02:49 AM

Dellu wrote:

>I don’t know a lot about these products. I really don’t follow what
>products they buy. But, from consumer perspective, I find Microsoft much
>more reliable: at least its Office products have been here forever. I
>barely know a single Google product that lasted as any of Office
>products. I was devastated when Google killed Picasa. I had spilled
>hundreds of hours on that product. Google is the worst in abandoning
>products.
> >As to onenote, if you are comparing Onenote 2016 and Onenote 2010,
>they are very comparable. Onenote 2010 is growing pretty fast. It even
>gets a lot of feature that the 2016 doesn’t has. I really didn’t look at
>the web version. it is even sufficient if has some basic features for
>the web version. Most of the great note taking applications loved in
>this community (like Tinderbox and Apple Note) don’t even have the basic
>web version. I don’t blame MS for that. I personally don’t much care
>about the web version: so far as it has it has good desktop version,
>even more attractive as it has versions for Mac, Android, Window.
> >WE have to give a value that deserves it. I am sure there are economical
>or strategical advantages that MS is thinking, but, to my mind (to the
>regular consumer), giving Onenote for free is one of the most generous
>things MS does. They don’t plug ads to it. It might not be a surprise
>that they developed it for Windows. it is generous that they did for mac
>and Android as well.

Well, I can certainly share your frustrations about Google abandoning software. And while I did not use Apple’s Aperture, I am sure that many folks who did would feel the same way about Apple. Regarding OneNote, it is my understanding that the desktop versions are soon to go away and be replaced by the web version that is part of Office 365. I am sure that you can continue to use your desktop version for some time to come, but understand that it will be an abandoned product at some point in the future. I do understand the appeal of offering a web-based product, but for those of us that need features that cannot be easily supported or offered in web products, that leaves us in a tough spot. I am watching a similar situation play out with Adobe’s Lightroom. They no longer support a stand-alone version, and now have two subscription model versions. The “classic” version is primarily machine-based and is fully featured, and the “new” version is heavily integrated intot he web, but offers far fewer features (for now). How companies reconcile this split or find a way to enhance their newer web-based versions is the million dollar question for many of us.

—Ken