Free Microsoft Office?
According to an article on CNN.com, Microsoft will have a free downloadable version of Office when they release Office 2010. To quote the article:
Get this: Microsoft – the king of paid software – will announce today that it is going to give a version of Office away for free online. Both the online and desktop versions are scheduled to arrive in the first half of next year. Yes, you read that right. The latest version of its ubiquitous productivity software, dubbed Office 2010, will come as both a piece of software you can buy for your computer, and as a service you can access in your browser. [UPDATE: Microsoft says it will support the Firefox and Safari browsers as well as IE.]
For free. From Microsoft.
While Open Office has been free forever, Microsoft has always held the upper hand and they have always charged for their product, and they charge a lot.
Certainly the free version will likely be stripped down, but if you just need Word, or Excel, this may be the thing you’ve been waiting for.
The author of the CNN article thinks it is a stroke of marketing genius on Microsoft’s part, but I think it is just another step they are taking to repair the damage caused by Vista.
It reminds me of the line in Don McLean’s song American Pie: “While the King was looking down, the Jester stole his thorny crown”. Don was singing about Elvis and Bob Dylan, but I think the parallel between Microsoft and Apple is clear.
When Vista was released, Microsoft had turned its attention to making gains against Google, attempting to buy Yahoo and so forth. They thought the people would never revolt, and they were wrong.
They began losing support from end users by the droves while Apple gained ground and Google continued to beat Microsoft on the web at every turn.
Windows 7 promises to stop the bleeding in Redmond, but it is going to take moves like free copies of Office for everyone for Microsoft to regain favor in the public’s eye.
~Steve