Microsoft Phasing Out Office Starter Edition

nk497 writes "Microsoft has started phasing out its Office 2010 Starter edition, ahead of the arrival of Windows 8. Office Starter was included in the OEM pre-installation kit (OPK) of software sent to manufacturers, and included ad-supported versions of Word and Excel, but not Outlook or PowerPoint. That will be replaced with an Office 2010 Transition OPK, which will instead push users to download a trial of the Office suite and offer a link to buy the full version. The free Office Web Apps will also be available for users not wanting the full version."

Comments

Who cares?

[ozmanjusri]

They're just marketing tools. Nobody actually uses them.

Re:Who cares?

[jesseck]

That's correct... I've done the same with people I know that have purchased a new computer. I tell them to use Office Starter, save some money, and *if* they find they need more features or Outlook, they can install Office after purchasing a license key card. They save money at first, and I can only think of one instance (of about 10) where the user had to purchase Office after the fact.

Re:Who cares?

[hawguy]

actually, a lot of people use office starter, even in soho environments.. and that's microsoft's "problem", it was cutting into sales. not enough people actually *buying* their overpriced office products.

plus, some clever folks online have figured out how to install starter on any newer (vista or seven, i think) pc.

Overpriced? Office Home + Student costs around $99 OEM version (includes Word + Excel + Powerpoint + OneNote). That seems like a pretty reasonable price.

Re:Who cares?

[Bert64]

It's not wether msoffice is worth $99 as a whole, it's wether it offers $99 of benefit over and above libreoffice or the free version of office starter... Chances are that for most people it does not, making it overpriced.

Re:Who cares?

[donaldm]

Libreoffice cares, that's who. This boneheaded move by Microsoft will be good for at least doubling the downloads.

I use Libreoffice on my Linux laptop (Fedora 17) and actually do collaborative work with people who use Microsoft Office. Unfortunately I do have to produce xml, docx or doc files so the people who use Microsoft Office can read them which is easy for me to do. Usually most people I work with don't even know I run pure open source software and even if they see my screen think it is some professional version of Microsoft Widows which their company has not upgraded to yet. I do explain when asked but most people I work with have company laptops and are pretty much locked into a Microsoft environment.

Re:Who cares?

[hairyfeet]

Well I think the real point is if you need MS Office? You'll buy it and if you don't then you won't, simple as that.

I can see why MSFT did this, since it seems Word is used by more people than anything else in MS Office, but they really need to be worried about giving up the home users because $99 for Student is just too high. That is why I just give my home users LO because frankly it'll do what the average home user needs even though it won't cut it for the business users but they should be worried about home users using LO instead of MS Office because that is just money left on the table.

If it were me I'd sell Word for $30, or a Word PPT combo for $45, lower student to $60 and pick up that money they are leaving on the table. because as it is they aren't gonna get those that were using an ad supported MS Office to go run out and spend $100+ on MS Office, they'll use LO or the pirated version. But frankly with all the dumbshit moves we've seen from MSFT lately yet another one? Not surprising.

Office Starter ISN'T "worthless garbage"

[Torin Darkflight]

I'll say right off, I actually use Office Starter for my SOHO work. I know this post is gonna get voted down simply for that reason, regardless of how insightful or informative this post ends up being. But, as someone who has no need for PowerPoint or Outlook yet still requires absolute 100% Office compatibility for my work, Office Starter has met all of my needs. That right there is perhaps the biggest pro of Office Starter. Even though it might not have all the features of the full Office suite, it is still 100% across-the-board compatible. A Word document or Excel spreadsheet created in Office 2010 Professional will look pixel-to-pixel identical when opened in Office Starter, and vice-versa. Although LibreOffice and similar FOSS office suites are good programs in their own right, they simply are not absolutely 100% compatible with Office. As others have mentioned above, I too have recommended Office Starter to those who only need Word and Excel (Or even just Word), and haven't heard any complaints from them. I even found the actual installation files for it in the recovery partition on my new ThinkPad laptop, and have successfully used them to install Office Starter on my home-built Windows 7 desktop. So, when Microsoft does away with Office Starter, I'll still have a way to install it on any new computers I buy or build in the future. Yes, ads are annoying. But, at least Microsoft did something right with the ads in Office Starter, and made them unobtrusive. No rapid flashing, no popups, no ads with audio. They just sit there in the corner, slowly cycling, and are quite easy to tune out once you start focusing on your work. So, I can understand why some people dislike Office Starter...but I legitimately don't understand the mass hysteria about it being a bad program, and the "good riddance" attitude of most people in regards to the news of it being discontinued. I LIKE Office Starter. Yes, I could buy a full version of Office if I wanted to...but I don't NEED to. Office Starter meets all of my SOHO requirements. Thus, I'm part of the incredibly small minority of people who actually think it's dumb for them to get rid of Starter.