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Microsoft To Try Works As Adware
Several readers noted that Microsoft has announced plans to pre-install an ad-laden version of Works on some manufacturers' PCs in coming months. Works is Microsoft's lightweight docs-and-spreadsheets software. The manufacturers involved were not disclosed. The adware Works will come with a pre-installed cache of ads that will be refreshed when the machine is online. Microsoft will decide by mid-2008 whether it can afford to forgo the $40 normally charged for Works.
I'm pretty sure *I* have a free CD somewhere here, and I have never bought a computer with Windows on it. Maybe it came free with my digital watch.
With some irony it isn't even a useful office suite for homework as it can't (or couldn't when I was 17) handle 'industry standard office files' - as required by UK schools.
Think of the Children; Sleep with your Sister
the Calc part.
The last time I saw Works installed and being used actively was in the late 90's.
Nowadays you sometimes see it as a "free bundle" with some cheap home PCs, the ones that don't come with office, but even there I can't imagine it being used for long.
Why would Microsoft do *anything* with works? This can't be a big money-maker for them, unless they are charging OEMs behind the scenes to have it installed (in which case the OEMs are stupid for installing it).
I think Microsoft is just practicing the ad-supported software model with an application they don't really care about, just to see how well it works. They can iron out the wrinkles (or maybe drop the idea all together) without damaging the reputation of one of their core products.
Life is like a web application. Sometime you need cookies just to get by.
Is it the ads that bother you? Slashdot is adware, you know.
Not with Adblock!