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Microsoft Quietly Offering Ad-Funded Version of Works
mikesd81 writes "News.com reports Microsoft has finally started offering an ad-funded version of Microsoft Works in some countries. Users who run the software see a small ad as they are writing their document or editing their spreadsheet. Although the program has the ability to update its set of ads online, today it runs mostly ads for Microsoft and a few partners, all of which ship with the product itself. Microsoft remains cagey on the details of where you can find Works SE. The company has been testing Works SE in 5 countries: The United States, France, Canada, Poland and the United Kingdom. It is available only through select computer makers and Microsoft won't say which computer makers those are. However, it seems Sony is offering it in the US."
It still exists?
Is that like "military intelligence" or "jumbo shrimp".
MS Works is currently the #1 trouble child for us to do data migration from older systems.
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
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It's a $40 piece of software. I would rather them release an ad-ridden version of Microsoft Office 2003 Pro. THEN it would be worth it to deal with the advertisements.
"This resume brought to you in part by: Neutrogena. Neutrogena: We don't know what this stuff does, but women keep buying it!"
See http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=615
This has been going on for a while. My Sony laptop from December '07 came with this. It should be noted that the ad-funded version is available only to OEMs.
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Other alternatives don't make MS money. And it may be leaner than OOo. Not that I would touch it with even a virtual machine.
I bet the ad floats RIGHT over the cursor. Gently bobbing around as you type.
(Don't worry, it'll be mostly transparent, so you can sorta see what your typing.)
Is there anyone else besides me whom Microsoft Office 2007 drives completely bonkers? I have never had the gross misfortune of using such an unfriendly POS of an office suite, in my life. The only reason I did use it, was because I had to include some Powerpoint slides into a .ppt file prepared by my boss - so I HAD TO use the company-wide office suite - MS Office 2007 - even though otherwise we are quite free to use whatever we prefer. So I use OO.o usually and just publish my works in .pdf.
Anyhow, it was a traumatic experience. "Where the eff is "Save as"? And how do I insert a slide? OK, how do I center-align this text? No, I don't want to insert Wordard or multimedia clips, thank you. Just a slide. And then save the file under a new name."
For me, the value of an office program, like for example Powerpoint or Impress, is in the speed I can create the presentation (for example) and how good it will look in the end. OO.o Impress is more than adequate in that sense - Powerpoint 2007, well, it failed me. Same with OO.o Write vs Word 2007 - plus the added argument that OO.o creates standstds compliant documents which I will be able to open with a reader of my choice or own creation in 40 years from now. But yeah, the fact that I can create it quickly and without logic-killing brain-damaging consequences is the greatest value.
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
In a related story, people are still using Microsoft Works.
Oh wow. What exactly is Microsoft Works?
I can already feel the effects of this raw food diet I've just begun; my mind has already started to feel much clearer!
Does it require/use an internet connection? Are the ads served up in relation to a keyword search? Does it embed ads in output? How long before it is cracked and made to serve up porno ads etc? When are they going to start including technology from this experiment into other MS products?,,,
The list of questions goes on of possible/probable issues with this. The public needs to be better educated on their options in the software arena as they have already proven time and again that they will accept adware/spyware without much apparent concern to its effects on their privacy, security or computer health.
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You might remember me from informational presentations such as "Hi there, are you writing a letter?" and "Are you sure you want a comma there?" and I'm here to talk to you about a wonderful new kitchen product!
Why would anyone bother with Works? Seriously?
when you wipe the hard drive and reinstall the OS right after receiving a new computer.
I thought it was a good idea
Come on... "Microsoft Works" ? I wouldnt say so...
Nice! I would like to set OpenOffice.org or GNU/Linux ads there, who I need to take contact on Microsoft and how much I would need to pay about that, approximation?
Why? Open office is much better than works, word, word 2003, word 2007....
Eviscerate the Proletariat!
Seemingly OpenOffice.org makes good inroads in OEMs, so Microsoft have to do something to compete. But ad based Microsoft product is rather stretching. I mean, no offense, but it is very hard and annoying to use Microsoft products _sometimes_. Ads means additional annoyance.
Anyway, it is interesting step to watch and smells like testing waters before rolling out full ad-based Microsoft Office out.
user@ubuntubox:~$ stfu This server is going down for shutdown NOW!
Outlook 2007 has some rather interesting features. Typing in the middle of a paragraph - when the cursor crosses the line wrap the cursor is sometimes moved to a semi-random place in the text. That took a little getting used to. The last editor I used that had that problem -- well, I wrote it myself. :-(
The "invisible text" in HTML emails bug is still present too. It's a holdover from O97. You would think they would fix that. Some people feel that having some of the text of their emails randomly deleted or rendered invisible somewhat hampers their productivity.
And, like Microsoft Works, Office2007 cannot be completely uninstalled. If you get the trial version or ad supported version as crudware you're stuck with it forever.
It's shocking that quality like this became the market standard.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
Does anyone know what the ads are based off of? Are they random ads paid for by large companies, or are they based on what you're typing? Also, does this mean you have to be connected to the internet every time you want to write something, or will it download ads onto your computer? I suppose either way there are negative sides to this, but it is free, so for those that haven't heard of Open Office and don't want to shell out $40, this will be a good alternative.
Anyone want to help fund an ad for OpenOffice on MS Works?
Please do not post links to pirated versions of Office 2007 in full view of the community. In future, please direct them to Office 2003 as it's much simpler to use.
AT&ROFLMAO
it is still a pile of shit.
... for a looooong time, but someone always screwed up the strangulation by reminding everyone just how much money it brings in. This looks like yet another strangulation attempt.
Need i say more?
---- Booth was a patriot ----
It still does more then what 95% of the public needs. Its cheap, and does the job.
Though i saw the latest version the other day and it looks pretty hokey with all the wizards..
---- Booth was a patriot ----
My Packard Bell machine came with ad-supported Works bundled. I bought it on New Year's Eve, so the fact it's taken four months for this to appear on the front page of /. astounds me.
And yes, it sucks far more than previous versions of Works.
Those using pirated Tinysoft signatures(TM) are a real threat to society and should all be thrown in jail.
umm.. you are aware word supports it, right?
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/HP011881161033.aspx
also, sun's converter tool may help.. keep in mind that you can convert anything to pdf and then from pdf to almost anything if you really need to. I read about it.. but did not bookmark it.
Is it perfect? No. Adequate for most things? Yes.
Works can't compete against Open Office without ads. I can't believe anyone would be happy to have an ad based version.
And why would a company want to risk alienating customers with placing ads in a computer they just bought?
Having said that, the amount of BS pre-built computers have on them anyway and the fact consumers seem to enjoy getting half of the performance out of their machine they should get because of that leads me to believe customers won't care and would enjoy taking it up the back side from MS.
In other news, Open Office is being offered WITHOUT ANY ADS for all platforms :-)
In other news an entire office suite Open Office not only is without advertisements, it opens many more formats, saves in a open standard format, is multi-platform, and free. There, Fixed it.
The truth shall set you free!
"Hello, I am calling you to see if you wanted to advertise on our exciting new advertising medium targetted at skinflints who will use crap rather than fork out any money! Hello? Hello?"
They whose government reduces their essential liberties for temporary security, receive neither liberty nor security.
As you wish
http://thepiratebay.org/tor/3771346/Microsoft_Office_2003_-_Lite_(Word__Excel__Powerpoint__Outlook..
A 70Mbyte archive, isn't OO.o 127Mbyte, I wonder what that means?
I've heard about converting document formats to PDF, but how do you convert to a document format from PDF?
http://openoffice.org/ Fixed.
Even though the parent has been modded as "Funny" it is actually a pretty decent idea...
But... There is a minor conundrum with it...
On the one hand, purchasing ad space on MS Works will be giving money directly to Microsoft.
On the other hand, it would be a potential loss of money for Microsoft over the long-term, if people start using OO.o as opposed to MS Works (losing out on the advertisement revenue).
I think I'll have to do a bit of digging to see if doing something like this is actually feasible, and how much it costs...
Calling a sword by a pretty name is no more than adding perfume to poison.
I'm in if you can find a way.
Fear the Penguin
I find it unlikely they'd accept your ad.
Slay a dragon... over lunch!
Not mentioned anywhere is the fact that regular Works is eligible for MS office upgrade BUT adware works is NOT. Which could be a potentially significant cost difference if you need MS office. And yes, our Sony Viao came with the adware version of works, not the regular version.
From the article "File formats that are supported in Works 9":
You can open the following file formats in the Works 9 Word Processor:
- Works Documents (*.wps)
- Works Templates (*.wpt)
- [snip]
- Word (Asian Versions) 6.0/95 (*.doc, *.dot)
- Word 2.x for Windows
- Word 2007 Document (*.docx)
- Word 2007 Macro-enabled Document (*.docm)
- Word 6.0/95 for Windows & Macintosh (*.doc)
- Word 97-2002 (*.doc)
- Word 97-2003 Document (*.doc)
- [snip]
You can save files in the following formats in the Works 9 Word Processor:Works 9 Spreadsheet
You can open the following file formats in the Works 9 Spreadsheet:
- [snip]
- Excel 97-2007 (*.xl*)
- [snip]
You can save files in the following formats in the Works 9 Spreadsheet:TO START
PRESS ANY KEY
Where's the 'ANY' key? I see Esk, Kitarl, and Pig-Up...
You irritate me. I'm sure that you've contributed very little if anything to the OSS community, yet you're one of the people who feels the need to troll posts like this with "oh but I can get it for free" posts. Microsoft - a commercial organisation - is not going to release open source or free versions of its software unless its got a good (commercial) reason. We all know this, we all use Open Office. Shut up. Feel free to espouse the values of OSS when you're actually helping the model work.
Too bad OO.o sucks in general for the market that MS Works targets.
MS Works on Windows and iWork on Mac target those that don't need the power of MS Office and OO.o, and don't want to deal with the complications of those apps. MS Works and iWork offer task-based templates to get simple tasks done quickly. MSO offers that as well, but to a lesser extent, and OO.o is woefully lacking in that sort of thing.
-- "I never gave these stories much credence." - HAL 9000
MS Works and iWork offer task-based templates to get simple tasks done quickly. MSO offers that as well, but to a lesser extent, and OO.o is woefully lacking in that sort of thing.
--
MS Works is targeting the Wordpad and Notepad group as a step up to MS Word. Unfortunately many documents saved in the old works format have migration issues. People remember this. It's not just a text editor like Notepad and it's not quite a word processor like MS Word. Open Office is lacking in task based templates, but does a much better job opening other documents and saving in popular formats including PDF. Works is fine on a non networked PC. It's limitations quickly show when in a network. I think MS designed it as a teaser to the office suite. In a Monopoly, it works. In a free market, other upgrades are there.
The truth shall set you free!