Microsoft Works To Be Made Free
You just have to deal with a banner ad at the top of the window all the time
Tuesday, July 31, 2007 by Zoomba | Discussion: WinCustomize News
If you have to do a lot of writing for your job (and who doesn't these days?) chances are you spend a good portion of your life staring at Microsoft Office. MS Office is pretty much the gold-standard these days for word processors, though it carries with it a pretty hefty price tag. The cheapest version, Office Home & Student 2007, goes for $150 USD at most retailers, which is no small chunk of change to most households on a budget. As a result, an increasing number of users are looking to free Office alternatives. The current pack leader is OpenOffice, an open source office tools suite that aims to mimic the Microsoft offering and be as cross-compatible as possible. Other options are web-based services such as Google Docs.
Free is a big incentive, and can overcome lacking features and imperfect compatibility with the industry standard. Free is slowly starting to erode Microsoft's control of the market space. So, to keep competitive and in people's minds, Microsoft announced that the next version of their little-brother office productivity suite, Microsoft Works, will be free to download and use. The catch? There will be embedded advertisements.
Will this make Microsoft competitive in the free space, or will the fact that there are advertisements in the software drive away most users who would consider using it?
Reply #2 Tuesday, July 31, 2007 10:16 AM
Unless I am browsing the Web, I see no reason at all to be subjected to unwanted ads.
Reply #3 Tuesday, July 31, 2007 10:39 AM
Reply #4 Tuesday, July 31, 2007 11:02 AM
Built in adverts in the free MS Works...eeeew.
Reply #8 Tuesday, July 31, 2007 1:16 PM
Reply #9 Tuesday, July 31, 2007 5:19 PM
Reply #10 Tuesday, July 31, 2007 5:45 PM
Reply #11 Tuesday, July 31, 2007 6:00 PM
Reply #12 Tuesday, July 31, 2007 6:11 PM
Reply #13 Wednesday, August 1, 2007 6:54 AM
Reply #14 Wednesday, August 1, 2007 7:00 AM
Reply #15 Wednesday, August 1, 2007 7:17 AM
They seem totally out of touch with what everyday home based pc users actually want don't they.
We want an affordable(if not free) ,none bloated,simple to use adware free office suite,all of which is provided by OpenOffice or WordPerfect.Or if you just want word processing,Abiword is excellent too.
Maybe if Microsoft threw in a free copy of Outlook with Works I might consider it
.Actually now I think about it,nah....Thunderbird with the Lightning add-on beats that too. 
Reply #16 Wednesday, August 1, 2007 9:00 AM
I have always thought MS Works was a little better than sending smoke signals, but not a lot.
It just never had much of anything that appealed to me. I have been a proud user of OpenOffice for a long time, not gonna get something free just to see some more ads. 
I use Firefox now to get away from all of them I can. 
Microsoft must be living in the stone age on this one. Smoke signals, stone age, any one at Microsoft get it??
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Reply #1 Tuesday, July 31, 2007 10:00 AM