Microsoft Ditching Works for Ad-Supported Office Starter 2010
The new version will be called Office Starter 2010. Office Starter 2010 will include Office Word Starter 2010 and Office Excel Starter 2010, with basic functionality for creating, viewing and editing documents. Microsoft indicated that the Starter version will have the same basic functionality that Microsoft Works does.
You'll recall that Anytime Upgrade for Windows 7 works differently than for Windows Vista; the bits are already on your hard drive and simply need to be activated with a key. The same is true of Office Starter 2010; by purchasing an activation key that will be sold on Product Key Cards (shown above), consumers can upgrade to Office Home & Student 2010, Office Home & Business 2010, or Office Professional 2010 without installing extra software.This software, of course, will come pre-installed on new PCs. For those with older systems, Microsoft will sort of stream Office 2010 to their PCs when required using Click-To-Run, a new technology, which the company unveiled in the July invitation-only Technical Preview of Office 2010. It downloads the essential pieces you need for the task at hand, and does the rest in the background.
;)
Microsoft Office 2010 - Visio - Click for high res...
Of course, Office 2010 hasn't even been released yet. Microsoft will offer a broader (and presumably, public) beta later in the year. At this point, Microsoft has much to be concerned with in terms of its Office offerings, as it will continue to have competition with Google Docs, OpenOffice, and eventually, its own Web Apps.
And yes, Office 2010 will have the much-maligned "Ribbon."
Comments
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I haven't used Microsoft Works in a really long time. Remember when people would point out the oxymoron... I am only concerned at well we can pirate office 2010 lol |
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Piracy aside, Microsoft has greater problems with competing suites such as OpenOffice, Google Docs. Personally, never really thought about pirated Office, most university students are able to purchase a copy for ~$60 or so. This new ad-supported basic office seems worse than bloatware, and should be promptly removed. |
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I have been using OpenOffice for a while now and it can be annoying sometimes. One common issue I kept running into was images added to a table will somehow pop out sometime down the road. But I do like the built in pdf converter. |
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I did a search, but I couldn't find any report of the OO.o issue you mentioned. I use OO all the time, but haven't run into that one myself (I might just not be doing the kind of stuff you're doing, though). If you have a sec, please report it at http://qa.openoffice.org/ooQAReloaded/ooQA-ReportBugs.html to help them make it better. I really don't see how Works could compete with the much more feature-full OO.o today, much less after they make Works (more) annoying with adverts. |
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Advertising supported software doesn't do it for me as long as there is a viable alternative and Open Office is now a very viable program. Free is a real kicker too. Sorry about that Microsoft. It must really grate on you to know that we can have an Office program for free to go along with our free Linux Operating systems. You do gaming better, but that's about it. You can't lay claim to much more than that and market share which is diminishing. |
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As long as ad-supported doesn't mean watermarked printing. |
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I can't see this version getting heavy use with the other free, non-ad supported versions listed above easily available. Since using MS Office 2007 for a while, I really dislike all the UI and menu changes that MS has made in their new versions. I can see even more people migrating to Open Office/etc. instead of upgrading to the next Office. |
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