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No more "Everybody uses MS Outlook at home"?
Vista is coming, so is Office 2007. The
brand new all shiny ribbon looks utterly
familiar (OK, it was at the bottom
of the window and less cluttered in 1998). It seems Microsoft has taken
a few lessons from IBM (not only about software
processes from the OS/2 team)
and comes up with the most confusing licensing scheme ever. While the Vista
versions can be understood (4 packages, take the biggest, have it all),
the Office schemes are pretty confusing. 8 editions are available (if you
are an enterprise, otherwise it's 6) which are all packaged differently.
Most stunning: Home, Student, Small Business, Professional and Ultimate
don't contain the Outlook mail client anymore. Is Microsoft ignoring their
loyal student user base (hey they will make future purchase decisions!)?
Or do they want to hook them onto Windows life? Also Small Businesses might
not be amused. Also if you want to get as much features as possible you
have to shell out a whooping 1078 USD for Office & Vista Ultimate (and
end up using Groove for eMail). That might be even more than your Vista
ready PC might cost you.
Read the full review yourself.
Read the full review yourself.
Comments
Kind of.
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/products/FX101635841033.aspx
There's a column further down for Outlook with an add-on named "Outlook with Business Contact Manager". Only the Student version of Office has absolutely no Outlook - all other versions that seem to lack it have Outlook with the add-on.
Why the heck they couldn't just put the add-on as its own line, I don't know. It would have been far less confusing.
Are Microsoft trying to confuse people into buying products that they might not need? Or are they simply desperate to show that you'll get value for your hard spent cash? I don't know. I do know that I'm confused, just when I'm looking at the Office chart. Heaven help anyone trying to build an entire worklow system using the whole product range Microsoft ship!
Posted by Philip Storry At 22:11:34 On 11/29/2006 | - Website - |
Posted by Rod Westwood At 00:50:54 On 11/29/2006 | - Website - |