Microsoft May Ship a Free Version of Office 14 & Will Still Work on Windows XP
Microsoft May Ship a Free Version of Office 14 & Will Still Work on Windows XP
Posted 03/07/2009 at 9:40am
| by Justin Kerr
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Call it peer pressure, or call it a dose of common sense, but Microsoft is finally looking to take on the free rivals of its Office application suite. During a presentation at the Morgan Stanley Technology conference, Microsoft Business Division Chief Stephen Elop announced a free / ad supported version which they hope will help combat piracy. According to Elop, “There's an opportunity to draw those pirate customers into the revenue stream. We want to draw them into the Windows family and maybe there's an upsell opportunity later”.
Also in related news, Microsoft Business Software VP Chris Capossela, has also tipped off the Silicon Alley Insider as to the operating system requirements of Office 14, and Windows Vista / 7 will still be optional. The Office and Windows teams now work completely independent of each other, and I’m sure the Office guys are simply hoping to avoid the depressing Halo effect that requiring a new operating system can have on sales. With Office 14 delayed until sometime in 2010, will this give businesses even more reasons to stick with XP? If the productivity software these companies rely on still works just as well in a legacy operating systems, do companies have enough incentive to move to Windows 7? Corporate IT professionals are typically big fans of the status quo, and are usually against operating system migrations unless they can prove the value.
So will this slow down business adoption of Windows 7? And if you would be willing to use an ad supported version of Office 14? Let us know what you think.
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Wareagle
March 08, 2009 at 12:14pm
I wish PC vendors would just give you Office with a new computer like they used to.
Office 2007 Home & Student is only $150, and the OEM version is probably a fraction of that.
roninnder
March 09, 2009 at 10:48am
Quote:
"I wish PC vendors would just give you Office with a new computer like they used to.
Office 2007 Home & Student is only $150, and the OEM version is probably a fraction of that"
Yeah, but the fraction is like 7/8. Please please OEM's, bundle in more bloatware. I just take it for granted that I'm going to have to repartition my hard drive then reinstall windows clean once I get my new computer home.
Or you could just man up and build your own computer, then you could bundle in any software you want. I thought that's what MaximumPC was about, power users.
shadowstar
March 07, 2009 at 7:29pm
If Microsoft wants to corner the market with Windows 7 and get the IT proffessionals to adopt it quicker than they have with Vista then why not offer the new Microsoft Office as part of the full install since they are working on antipiracy and incorporate the updates with the windows updates as they have with Vista and the paid versions of Microsoft Office. I use Microsoft Office Home and Student version only due to my college requiring it otherwise I would use either Microsoft Works or OpenOffice.
Pinkyblister
March 07, 2009 at 6:04pm
I still own a copy of Office 2000 Professional. It functions perfectly well for my needs, but when I tried OpenOffice, I liked it better. OpenOffice is much less bloated and seems to use less resources. I see no need for adware based Microsoft Office software when I can use a faster, slimmer program alternative for free right now. I now have my entire company using OpenOffice-why pay for anything else?
Yusonice
March 07, 2009 at 3:12pm
Wouldnt it make people opt for the free version instead of buying? I wouldnt mind a few ads maybe hackers will find a workaround to disable the ads. That would be so suite
DBsantos77
March 07, 2009 at 11:22am
Microsoft. . Free software, does anyone else see anything wrong here?
DoctorX
March 07, 2009 at 10:12am
Openoffice is an extremely capable office suite. I have no incentive to get the bloatware of office adware or otherwise. I have been using it for years now. As for windows 7? Who gives a rat's ass if companies wont get it if office 14 does not make it manditory. Office 2003 is a fucking cludge. It is very slow and not useful at all. I will be running win 7 when it comes out. I have the beta running and it is more stable than vista sp1.
On a side note... when will microsoft and others and the it press realize, if they want to court the businesses, then they need to court the techies. Us techies tell the companies what to buy and NOT to buy. Vista was god aweful. We told our bosses to skip it and stay with XP. M$ decided to ignore us techies, so we got our businesses to ignore vista. Win7 has righted a lot of those wrongs. Also, who gives a fuck on how many prebuilt machines have vista on it. I have bought 1... as in ONE pc since 93. I have built all my others and families pcs. Some are running Linux now because of Microsoft. We are then ones that tell others what pc to buy with what OS. WE are the ones who everyone goes to.
Wareagle
March 08, 2009 at 12:18pm
I've had some trouble opening Word docs in OOo, particularly ones with a lot of tables. They just don't show up right.
quickone
March 07, 2009 at 11:53am
I have used OpenOffice for the past 4 years and I like it more, except
for the compatibility with the rest of the world. It's a pain in the
ass making sure it is saved as a doc or docx opposed to odt since
Microsoft won't recognize the format. I have Vista only because I get
ultimate through my university for $20, the full version of office is
only $50 so I have it just in case OpenOffice doesn't work well with
some of the features in office.
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