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Microsoft announces Python formulas in Excel... which have to get sent to the cloud
(techcommunity.microsoft.com)
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this post was submitted on 23 Aug 2023
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I don't get it. Why I need cloud to run Python scripts which can be done locally? Installing Python isn't hard and MS can bundle it as a library with Office either.
This sounds like a security check. Our liability and ransomware insurance both require scripts to be turned off for excel and word.
I believe security threats can be mitigated locally without resorts to cloud.
Actually, one can argue using cloud is less secure because there is a risk of sensitive data leaked out of cooperate network.
You could argue that, but I wouldn't recommend it.
Microsoft has a massive amount of resources to throw at securing their environment, whereas most businesses simply don't have the ability to field a dedicated security team. The solution many reach is to offload risk to your software vendor, in this case Microsoft. Then, if there is data lost, it's Microsoft's fault, and it's their problem to fix, too. It's not ideal, but it's the world we're living in.
But Micro$oft never implement any permission system or checks for Visual Basic in Office so any macro can use anything the user has access to. If the scripting language could only access its document’s content in an undoable way without explicit permissions such as to use the filesystem and Internet or modify the Normal template (as opposed to the current system, which does not differentiate between useful scripts and malware and can easily be bypassed by social engineering), the risk would largely be mitigated but Micro$oft does not care.
Cloud doesn’t have access to local drives…but in this day and age, python could be containerized or sandboxed. Sounds messy though.
I've been asking this for every other cloud service - either companies are jumping on the 10-year-old bandwagon or want to collect data for AI training purposes in a way you cannot just disable in the settings. And of course you cannot self-host your own server.
Richard Stallman on Service as a Software Substitute:
https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/who-does-that-server-really-serve.html
Not everyone has an opportunity to work with Python in their work environment. I'm on the "business" side of the company, capable of doing most of programming stuff myself (Python, C#, SQL, etc.), whereas only "IT" people can work with the proper compileable code. And I'm left out working with VBA macros, or ask IT to write a script for me, which will take 1 year to develop. This change now will improve my local productivity for sure.
This issue isn't about authoring the script, is about why it needs to execute on the cloud rather locally.
Fair point, maybe I replied to a wrong comment. Nonetheless, I've seen comments saying "just use native Python". Not everyone can do that.
This happened in my old place - also on the business side. Asked for python, got it, then had it immediately removed because of security risks.
I told the head that I could still access tables and shit via excel if I wanted so what does it matter? He didn't realise this, and asked that I told no-one else it could be done. FFS.
When you save your doc to one drive then you can access it from the web version of office. That's the reason they've been encouraging developers to write add-ins that run from the cloud. I'm guessing that this is for similar reasons
You can also access docs by uploading it to the web version of office. Correct me if I'm wrong but last I remembered add-ins don't choose between desktop and web.