Microsoft launches "Starter" edition of Office 2010

Microsoft has announced that they will begin offering a version of the upcoming Office 2010 as an ad-supported "Starter Edition," allowing consumers of new PCs (it comes pre-loaded) to use the popular suite for free.

There is of course, a catch, and that is that the Starter edition will only include Word and Excel and will have limited feature set.

"Office Starter 2010 will provide new PC owners with immediate exposure to the Office 2010 experience on new PCs right out of the box," Microsoft said.

The product will replace MS Works, the productivity suite usually included in new release PCs for free or very low cost.

"It really is a replacement for Works," Microsoft corporate vice president Takeshi Numoto added, via Cnet. "It is not a mere renaming of Works. It is an Office product."

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 10 Oct 2009 14:24

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7 comments

SProdigy

This is a good thing for folks that were using Works and/or ignorant of OpenOffice. One less proprietary format now (Works Word Processor, etc.) Now if only we could get Apple to get on board, instead of having to change Pages to RTF all the time!

10.10.2009 15:13 #1

jezchrizt

Wow i cant wait for the new features. The new features will make office 2010 a must have.How I got by with office 2007 i'll never know.Can't wait till i get the new windows either cause vista was class.

10.10.2009 18:51 #2

ivymike

Ya gotta read the fine print!!!

The article states that the starter edition will be AD-SUPPORTED.

Most ad-supported software programs usually contain SPYWARE of some sort. Also, who the hell wants to be bothered with ads when they have an assignment that needs to be completed?

Nice try Microsoft.

10.10.2009 23:03 #3

henryting

Hi guys,

Dont be too happy of what microsoft is doing. This time we do not know what they are up to.? They are just about to giving you a small sweet and right behind we dont know what they are really up to...so beware...of somethings great to happen.

11.10.2009 04:17 #4

henryting

and I forgot to mention is there is no such things as free lunches especially from a big giant company like mircosoft.

11.10.2009 04:19 #5

joe777

Surely the average user and small business could use open office and save money and add supported spyware being installed. OpenOffice FTW.

11.10.2009 16:17 #6

atomicxl

I'll probably use it. I've always had bootleg copies of Office but if there is a free legit version, i'll go for that. I don't do anything too intense in Word/Excel so I doubt i'll run up against the limitations.

OpenOffice has it's share of issues. If everyone in the world had it, it'd would be awesome but the last time I used it (years ago) I always had to reformat and edit my documents when I opened them up in Word. The convenience of Word and the compatibility issues of OpenOffice will always make it one of those "cool alternatives" that's actually kinda useless in the real world... for the way I need to use it at least. If I was anti-ms, i'd go for GoogleDocs any day of the week over OpenOffice.

12.10.2009 18:29 #7

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