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Subject:RE: Linux users who like Windows From:"Jonathan West" <jwest -at- mvps -dot- org> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Sun, 29 Sep 2002 13:16:41 +0100
>
> It does get worse ... the (Microsoft's) plan in the near-distant
> future, is
> to no longer offer software like MS-Office for complete
> installation on your
> computer. But rather force users to call into Microsoft (.NET), and gain
> access to it. Rather than own, you would buy (renew) a licence each year.
> Decide not to renew the following year - you would be unable to run or
> access the 'MS Office' programs desired (such as Word). At the moment you
> can decide on when to upgrade, in the future it will be more like a cable
> subscription.
A subscription pilot scheme was run in Australia and New Zealand for Office
XP. Microsoft has recently announced that the pilot has been completed and
that it will not be continued.
Given that it appears that a significant part of the reason for product
activation was to support a subscription model, as the reasons given in
terms of anti-piracy were quite inadequate, I would not be at all surprised
if the next version of Office drops the activation process altogether. The
amount of inconvenience it gave to bona fide customers outweighed the gains
in preventing piracy, and I suspect that activation was a significant factor
in persuading quite a lot of businesses to stick with Office 2000,
depressing Office XP sales.
Regards
Jonathan West
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