Why is Microsoft Word a multi-GB install, yet Word Online loads in ~5 seconds with 99% of the features?
In: Technology
Ok, I’ve used word online and it doesn’t have 99% of the features, it’s kinda annoying and i can’t really stand it. Anyway, Microsoft has computers called servers that have word installed. The server tells your web browser what’s running on word so it can display it.
It’s like reading Reddit offline vs. online. To make you able to read the whole Reddit offline we need to download tons of data. However, reading it online is much easier because only retrieving the page that is requested is much more light-weight.
So when you’re using Online version of a software, you’re actually continuously downloading features you demanded. During the first five seconds, probably only fundamental tools are retrieved and processed by your browser.
Because the online version is mostly running on Microsoft’s server, not your computer. You’re just interacting with another computer (a much more robust server than what you likely have) through mouse, keyboard, and video signals going back and forth over the network. It’s the same concept as not having to have Google’s whole database in your PC, you just send Google’s server the words you want to search for and it sends you back the results.
Because much of the “word processing” done in Word Online is handled by your browser. Word Online has about 90% of the features found in the thick client. Those 10%, plus the stand alone application and its associated frameworks for linking in with other microsoft products and your microsoft operating system as well, likely account for much of the rest of the space.
* When computers first became popular, the internet was incredibly slow compared to today and it wasn’t even available to the public.
* So users had to install applications on their own computers.
* Now the internet is very fast, easily accessible.
* Fast enough to allow you to enter data on a website, have that data sent to a server and have the result sent back, all of this while you type things.
* So now Microsoft offers access to Word that is installed on *their* computers instead of yours.
your web browser does a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to web applications. your browser is a pretty big install. also online word is likely slower than native installed word.
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