Star Microsoft Axes Works, Introduces Office 2010 Starter with Ads
Linked by Thom Holwerda on Thu 8th Oct 2009 22:04 UTC
Microsoft Are you familiar with Microsoft Works? It's sort of a My First Office Suite kind of thing which includes support for Microsoft Word and Excel documents. It is usually not sold separately, but instead comes pre-installed on new OEM machines. Well, Microsoft has announced today that it will kill Microsoft Works, and replace it with Microsoft Office 2010 Starter - an ad-supported version of Office 2010.
E-mail Print r 0   · Read More · 61 Comment(s) http://osne.ws/h7s
Thread beginning with comment 388443
To view parent comment, click here.
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
RE: works just... works
by Bobthearch on Thu 8th Oct 2009 23:57 UTC in reply to "works just... works"
Bobthearch
Member since:
2006-01-27

I never minded using Works, simple and fast, but the incompatibility between Works and standard Office files prevented it from actually being useful.

Reply Parent Bookmark Score: 2

RE[2]: works just... works
by phoenix on Fri 9th Oct 2009 22:18 in reply to "RE: works just... works"
phoenix Member since:
2005-07-11

I never minded using Works, simple and fast, but the incompatibility between Works and standard Office files prevented it from actually being useful.


MS Works has always been able to open MS Word and MS Excel files.

It's the other way that (open .wks in Office) required the purchase of an expense add-on File Formats package. Talk about shooting themselves in the feet, legs, arms, chest, and head. Instead of Works being the stepping stone into Office, it became the bastard child that nobody liked and that got blamed for everything.

Works was perfectly compatible with Office. Office was completely incompatible with Works.

Reply Parent Bookmark Score: 2

RE[3]: works just... works
by Bobthearch on Sat 10th Oct 2009 02:56 in reply to "RE[2]: works just... works"
Bobthearch Member since:
2006-01-27

I didn't mean to say it was primarily Works at fault, just that the two didn't always play well together. With most businesses and schools using Office, the lack of Office compatibility was a major problem for Works users.

Besides, I recall file compatibility being a two-way problem: opening Works files in Office, and Office files in Works.

Reply Parent Bookmark Score: 2

RE[2]: works just... works
by gustl on Sun 11th Oct 2009 17:55 in reply to "RE: works just... works"
gustl Member since:
2006-01-19

When it comes to standard office files, Microsoft is not your choice anyway.

Older versions do not use standard formats, and the new format follows a really braindead standard, nobody will implement this atrocity of a standard in full anyway.

Reply Parent Bookmark Score: 2