Microsoft to offer free Starter Edition of Office 2010

Stephen Withers
Friday, 09 October 2009 12:44

IT Industry - Development

Microsoft has revealed plans to allow PC vendors to ship a free, advertising-supported edition of Office 2010. There will also be a mechanism for trialling Office 2010 alongside earlier versions.

Are open-source office suites such as OpenOffice.org starting to put the bite on Microsoft when it comes to cost-conscious buyers?

That's one interpretation that can be put on Microsoft's decision to allow PC manufacturers to ship Microsoft Office Starter 2010 on new PCs.

Office Starter 2010 comprises Word Starter 2010 and Excel Starter 2010, stripped down versions of the major components of the suite.

Exactly how stripped down has yet to be seen, but according to Microsoft officials the Starter Edition will have "the basic functionality for creating, viewing and editing documents."

It will also have a new task frame, providing easy access to a getting started guide, clip art, templates and other content.

Starter Edition is being positioned as a replacement for Microsoft Works, and was developed after an examination of tasks commonly performed by Works users.

An ad-supported suite isn't a completely new idea at Microsoft - see page 2.