Microsoft Works to become a free, ad-funded product

ZD Net ^ | July 30th, 2007 | Mary Jo Foley

[Tennessee_Bob]

Ad funded MS Works?

Let me make sure I got this straight, ok?

I get to look at crappy ads to work with crappy software for free?

Be still my beating heart!!

[Octar]

No thanks, I don’t allow Microshaft anything on my computers.

[Domandred]

http://www.openoffice.org/

Free, powerful, low overhead. Not finished yet but been using it for a year now and haven’t missed MSoffice at all.

[Tennessee_Bob]

I run Open Office on my thumb drive. Can’t beat it.

[MarineBrat]

>>Microsoft Works to become a free, ad-funded product

I heard that Microsoft Works was an oxymoron.

[wastedyears]

Say goodbye to Microsoft.

[rabscuttle385]

Do you still expect Microsoft to release a non-ad-funded, paid version of Works as a subscription service at some point?

This sort of tomfoolery is why my family is looking very strongly at Ubuntu and OpenOffice.

[ejonesie22]

So if it was worthless when you had to buy it, what happens when it’s free?

[Stark_GOP]

This reboot brought to you by....

[joebuck]

Interesting, given that the first thing one should do after purchasing a new computer is to uninstall the free copy of MS Works that comes with it.

[dan1123]

Uninstall? Don’t you mean wipe the drive and install a clean copy of the OS only?

[dan1123]

My first thought was that if they plan on competing with OpenOffice, they better make Works a lot better than what it is now.

[ShadowAce]

[joebuck]

Good point.

[Clara Lou]

I’m a Linux know-nothing. I use Kubuntu. It’s great and getting better. XP is on my other hard drive. I don’t use it.

[gondramB]

>>“If ad revenues exceed 67 cents per year, we could actually give Works away and still make more money,” two Microsoft researchers and one person from MSN stated in a paper presented to Chairman Bill Gates at a Thinkweek brainstorming session earlier this year.”<<

So they could sell it for $1 a year and make more money but they won’t do that.

Do people really want Microsoft looking at every letter they type and deciding what ads to target them with?

Hmm they already let Google read their mail and do the same thing so I guess there are enough suckers.

[The Duke]

Bill Gates: "And we can call it 'Internet Push'!"

[N3WBI3]

This is MS feeling the pinch, or perhaps anticipating it, from Google (docs.google.com) and OpenOffice (openoffice.org). I had a friend over who just bought MS Office 2007 and he flipped when I showed him OpenOffice2 and Google Docs he was going to see if he could return his office 2k7 and switch over..

[antiRepublicrat]

I thought Works would have been relegated to the dust bin by now. What a horrible set of software.