Don't worry, there's a crack for it somewhere!

subscription based windows will equate to me moving to linux. I personally don't game anyway, and ubuntu is apparently really getting there.

This happens and I'm gonna start shoplifting in protest.

@tutelary: If you read the EULA, Vista already is somewhat like a subscription based windows. I would start warming up that linux ISO.

If your mother isn't already covered by me, simply send me a message with her number, and I'll gladly take care of her.

This has been in the works for a while, I've heard (though I don't know if it's true) that Office is already a subscription service in Australia. We can all blame the pay-to-use virus scanners for this anyway; they have proven it's a successful business strategy.

I've been on windows platforms for too long to remember, but it's stuff like this that may eventually turn me into an app-hole fanboy (gasp)!

Should have picked a better codename than a shitty city in New York. :)

I've lived there and it is indeed shittay.

Dumb idea, hope this thing gets killed. Its funny how I see the same story on 3 different gawker sites: valleywag, consumerist, and now here.

@Paradise:

It's Microsoft what do you expect? Come on the damn company is named MICRO-SOFT how is that a good name?

does this suck: yes. is microsoft the only one considering it: no! Unfortunately many companies are doing this now. My AutoCAD software costs me $1,000 per year, though they don't quite put it in these terms. If you don't pay, they stop supporting you and they change the format so you can't be compatible with the world. Like I said, many companies are headed this way and it is for one simple fact, they lack new features and therefore there is no reason to upgrade anymore. Hence, profits go down and they need a way to keep growth moving forward. IMO Microsoft Office is a great package, but it has been almost as great back to Office 1997. When you lack the ability to make significant improvements in your software, you have no other place to go besides subscription...

OpenOffice for the win. Seriously, there isn't anything Microsoft Office can do that OpenOffice can't. I use OpenOffice whenever I don't have Office 2003/2007 shoved down my throat, I use OOo.

[www.openoffice.org]

@mikerm19:
I agree... It's a good thing OpenOffice is free. But then again, I have free MSDN service, so all my M$ software ends up being free.

Monthly subscription is dumb. Subscription on per use and duration basis is good.

I was given a copy of iWork '08. The world is roses.

Couldn't they just make it into a web based application?

This article and it's analysis are probably the dumbest thing I've heard this week. As has been pointed out, many software companys have been going to or trying to go to a subscription based pricing model, so MS is hardly unique. Finally, it might make sense for some users to use a subscription based service. Sure You can buy a low end version of Office, but assuming Valleywag's pricing estimate is correct, if I can buy a year of Office use for $50, and I'm an occasional user, why would I lay out $120 (almost 3 years of use) up front? Openoffice is nice, but Openoffice doesn't always display documents the same way Microsoft does, so I'd never do anything that was presentation sensitive in a MS format outside of an MS application. If I'm a college kid doing my first CV, it might be worth getting a subscription while I'm job searching, instead of dropping a C note and change for software I'm not going to use that much outside of work later. And one assumes that the subscription version is always the latest and greatest, avoiding the upfront price + occasioanl upgrade cost that you're paying now. "'collaboration' service most home users will have no need for" Because people hate that SO much with Google Docs. "•Windows Live OneCare, a PC-security and maintenance service which Microsoft already sells as a subscription •Three Web services Microsoft already offers for free" Even if their paid service replicates some of their other services, there is a value to integration, to all those services being tied seemlessly togather.

Will it make sense for everyone? Nope. But it will for some people.

This just in: ctrl+alt+del will now cost .25 cents per click

*Shakes his head* In 10-15 years Microsoft will be as obscure as linux. That's why Bill Gates wants to quit while he's ahead.

On the bright side, when you're boss asks you why your work isn't done you can tell him you were cutting costs...

@junyo: Gizmodo should send you a bill for the service of letting you type words. Make sense to you?

Can we say "rape"?

Software of a service is nothing new. Surprised they haven't tried to spring this on users sooner.

@alexlr:

Software *as* a service. Guess I should use the preview function.

@mikerm19: Dammit. I was goina link that. I LUUUUUURV OpenOffice. Only us MS office cuz I get a free copy from my office.

OR YOU COULD ALL DITCH MICROSOFT AND USE open office. For free. Forever.

[www.openoffice.org]

There is a clear line for me with subscription based models. I can't quite place my finger on why but here is is...

***
---PAY OUTRIGHT---
If I pay outright for something (own) then I am OK with hiccups and bugs. (Maybe not OK but I deal with it, perhaps an expectation through experiences I have worked through?)

VS

---SUBSCRIPTIONS---
If I have an ongoing subscription (rent)
IT IS NOT FRIGG'N OK when something does not work as advertised!!!
When I have an ongoing expense it better work whe I sit down to use it.
If it doesn't can I deduct my wasted time from next months "rent"?

***

I can't help but wonder though, will my kids have different expectations because they will grow up in a "for rent" society?

I give props to Microsoft and Apple etc for providing the the tools to do what I have done, but for the health of us all I hope the future is open source.

@alexlr: Yeah, but that's usually on the enterprise, not the home front, or for like AV products. Not your core apps.

Virus scanners may have started the software-as-a-service model, but at least it makes sense for them. Their product is a constantly changing product, with new viruses and spyware being made quite often, that really does lose effectiveness if it is not updated regularly. MS Office doesn't really need to be upgraded to retain usefullness. Office 95 will still create a basic paper or report as effectively as it did when it first came out. Norton 2003 that hasn't been upgraded has 4-5 years worth of viruses at this point that can sneak past it thus reducing it's usefullness.

@nutbastard: No way dude. That would be madness. Give up Microsoft? Why would I do something like that? After all, they..........

they.......

Fuck it.

and yes im aware it's been linked multiple times here. sowhatyougottaproblemwannafight?

http:/www.openoffice.org

Good, finally some "official" incentives to bring to management when pitching for a Linux move.

@junyo: Other than anti-virus types of applications, what other software products are subscription based for the home/casual user? Subscriptions for anti-virus apps makes sense because to be safe you really need to keep that updated on almost a daily (or even hourly) basis. The amount of effort put into keeping those virus definitions up-to-date is pretty significant. I'm sure MS, like Symantec and others, has a full-time staff of people whose sole job is identifying new viruses/trojans and updating their anti-virus products. So a subscription to that service makes sense.

A subscription for an office productivity product makes zero sense as far as I'm concerned. For casual users a free product like OO makes a lot of sense. A college kid putting together a CV can download it for free, create the CV for free, and print it out for free. If he needs to e-mail it he can create a PDF for free and e-mail that.

Microsoft has proven time and again that the main reason for using the "latest and greatest" version of ANY of their products is to perpetuate vendor lock-in and not much more. I still use Word 2000 because most people I share documents with all use versions of Word/Office that are still compatible with that version. However the most recent versions of Word/Office aren't (without having to explicitly save the file in an older format). There are no features in the newest versions of Word/Office that I care about so I have zero reason to upgrade. But I'm willing to bet that their rental versions of Word/Office will (eventually) be incompatible with all current versions, so once enough critical mass in achieved they can basically force people who have no need/desire to use their rental software to have to pay for it just to access those new formats.

@Kaiser-Machead:

Madness???

THIS IS MICROSOFT!!!

@Kaiser-Machead:

...they're redundant at a higher expense of time, effort and money?

@jchasse:

"but for the health of us all I hope the future is open source."

Of COURSE the future is open source! Anyone can view the source code for the future (the past) and anyone can modify and redistribute any code they want.

However, the future is always going to be fucked up because there's only one distro, and it's full of bugs that cause certain processes to crash. On top of that, the people programming the kernel have no clue what they're doing, so us end users are always having to come up with our own scripts (no no, it's oregano, officer) and patches (duct tape).

dammit, i missed one:

"and anyone can modify and redistribute any code they want (wikipedia)."

Who cares? It's Microsoft, it's non-standard, and in about 2 yars you won't even be able to find a US Army computer with Windows, much less MS Officer.

Way to put yourself out of the Government spending cash-flow, MS!

damn i should have polished that comment more.

: (

ok take two:

"but for the health of us all I hope the future is open source."

Of COURSE the future is open source! Anyone can view the source code for the future (the past) and anyone can modify and redistribute any code they want. (wikipedia)

However, the future is always going to be fucked up because there's only one distro, (reality) and it's full of bugs (neocons) that cause certain processes (democracy) to crash. On top of that, the people programming the kernel (the Illuminati) have no clue what they're doing (relying on too much legacy code) so us end users are always having to come up with our own scripts (no no, it's oregano, officer) and patches (duct tape).

Let's remember, MS wanted everyone to pay THEM to use the internet. Soon they'll charge us for NOT using Vista.

I see a Google-Microsoft software-as-a-service Battlemodo in my swarovski-encrusted swarovski crystal ball.

Giz, come on! Nowhere in the original source (clearly you didn't care to read it) does it mention a "monthly fee." That was added in by your fellow blog, pulled from the sky.

It will likely be an annual fee, just like OneCare already is. That would also be in line with a lot of other software packages, as others have mentioned. It's really a consumer version of Microsoft's corporate Software Assurance Program, where the customer pays a subscription fee and gets all updates and new versions as they come.

I actually did pick up One Care on sale for $20 'bout a month ago. I like it, and if you think about it, most software is re-released every year or less in one way or another, so instead of charging you for the 'upgrade' version, you enjoy constant updates (and big, non-decimal-place updates, too) throughout the year and pay the price of a yearly magazine subscription for it. Not bad, IMHO.

Started out with DOS on a Tandy 1000TX, stayed in the MS PC world through XP. Glad I bought an iMac last month and will over the course of the 18 months replace the remaining XP based machines with Apple and Linux based machines.

@mikerm19: print slides from the open office version of powerpoint then. 3 to 6 a page.
sorry, but open office can't.

Hey M$, if your reading this, go FORK yourself!

Stupid idea, **SMACK**

And to the above running One Care, did you ever read the comparison of all the AV software out?? One Care, didn't even rank. It does absolutely NOTHING to protect your PC. Will make it run slower, but won't stop a damb thing.

@kahri

They already kinda are. It costs more to get a computer from Dell with XP than it does for a computer with Vista.

Ironic that they are naming a program destined to be dysfunctional after the capital city of one of the most dysfunctional state governments in the United States...no Eliot Spitzer joke necessary. (Or would that perhaps be prophetic?)

More reason to keep XP, Office 2003, and go no further.

Subscription software/media is coming in a big way so get used to it. It really seems to be the best solution for digital intellectual property distribution. If paying a monthly fee for software sounds ridiculous, think about it like you do cable TV. Would you pony up 3000.00 up front for all your minimal expanded basic cable TV for the next 5 years (my estimate for how long people may go between office productivity suites)? Or would you rather continue to pay your 50.00/month and have the ability to change or drop the service and not risk that sometime in the next 5 years that cable would get so bad/outdated that you wouldn't even want it anymore? If they price it right, subscriptions services will make financial sense (I'm not saying that businesses will price it right or market it ethically right away). I'm just biding my time until Gmail becomes a pay service and backing up all my important docs rather than storing them in the 'cloud'.

I think this was what IBM used to do in the early days of computers. No one complaint, and made fortune. I think Microsoft wants to see if that way of thinking still works today.

I've stopped paying the Office tax to Microsoft. If someone sends me a simple .doc file I open it in WordPad, it sort of works. If someone sends me Excel or PowerPoint or complex Word, I upload it to docs.google.com. At that point it's better than Office: easy revision history, I can export to PDF and Open Document Format (and Office format) I can edit it anywhere, let others view it without emailing a stupid 1MB attachment, even do online collaboration. Google Spreadsheets adds a new feature every few weeks. I hear other online suites like Zoho are even better than Google Docs. I've never had to work on documents without Internet access, but Google Docs now work offline with Google Gears, and HTML 5 has a spec for offline storage that Firefox 3 implements.

If you really need a local program: Besides OpenOffice.org, there's also AbiWord for Windows and soon KOffice will run on Windows.

There is NO reason for the average user to pay the Office tax. Tell everyone you know, and put this in your signature:
"I'm trying to ban e-mail attachments. I just want an ASCII e-mail.
If you want to show me something, put it in a Web page, publish it,
give me the URL, and I'll look at it. That's the new model."
   Scott McNealy, CEO of Sun Microsystems, in May 1997 Upside magazine.

I use free or open source alternatives for everything I can under WinXP.

Don't worry, be happy. (New Microsoft Slogan).

Or really be happy and convert to OS X. I did and I scored a hot babe in the process (Not directly because of the Mac, but because it made me a happier person once I made the change :-).