Microsoft is offering a free version of its Works software but it’s not exactly easy to find.  It is also only available in select markets and is only offered by select manufacturers so it may be difficult, if not impossible to find if you live outside of the markets that it is offered in.

The company may fear losing market share to the likes of OpenOffice which is a freeware substitute for Microsoft office on PCs and it’s spin-off, NeoOffice is available for Mac OSX.  So, it stands to lose quite a bit, especially if corporations discover these programs and decide to switch to them or worse yet, move over to Linux and start using OpenOffice.

So now it has put into motion what can be described as a pilot program that appears very limited in nature.  According to Cnet News, Microsoft is offering Works SE (Sponsored Edition) in five countries; the US, France, Canada, Poland and the UK.

Works SE appears to be available on select models through Packard Bell in he UK and Sony seems to be onboard with it in the US.

Much to my chagrin, most consumers aren’t yet aware of OpenOffice and will gladly head over to the nearest Best Buy, Staples or large software/electronics retail chain and pay money for Microsoft Office or Works whether they need all those features/programs or not.  Here’s a tip, most of them can be had for free in either OpenOffice (PC) or NeoOffice (Mac – no X11 required).

If Microsoft really wants to make a go of Works SE 9 (and future versions) then it should post the ad-supported download to its website and stop this nonsense of “limited availability” because everyone else will either just continue to buy Office/Works (good for them) or will flock to OpenOffice/NeoOffice (bad for them but good for the consumer).

The only win-win scenario is for Microsoft to post Works SE9 as a free download to its website and it will only be good if the ads aren’t too intrusive/annoying but knowing Microsoft, that part would probably be like “Clippy.”

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Entry was posted on Sunday, April 20th, 2008 at 6:56 pm under Microsoft, Software, Uncategorized.

Read more entries by Jonathan Schlaffer.
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