Is Office 2010 Starter Edition the New Crapware?

By definition, it will be. Crapware has become the term which is used to describe the semi-useless stuff that large PC builders (Dell, HP, Acer, Lenovo, Sony) put on the new computer, hoping to entice the user to buy full versions of the products that are more helpful, and much less annoying than what is currently there.

No doubt much of the problem with viral and trojan infection in computers today comes from the inclusion of things like 90-day versions of Norton System 360, which don’t do anything but nag after 90 days. After those 90 days of coverage, the user will either turn off the application completely, remove it, or ignore the pleas for money, and thereby make the PC ripe for infection by anything developed since the last antivirus update. That conditioned response to the annoying messages is the same sort of Pavlovian response that Vista engendered with UAC, and why, until things get dire, that virus and trojan infections run rampant.

Lots of other things get put on those machines, and some enterprising person made lots of people happy by making a program that will remove all the crapware.

So now we will soon have an ad supported Microsoft Office 2010, which will be another small strike against Microsoft – or will it?

from Maximum PC

If you buy a Windows 7 PC in the future, you might not be getting that copy of Microsoft Works nobody uses. Instead it will come with a completely free version of Office 2010. Oh… Office 2010 Starter Edition, that is. It will be a limited functionality version of Office supported by Ads. The nature of the ads was not made clear.

According to Microsoft, the Office Starter Edition will have, “a simple path to upgrade to a fully featured version of Office 2010 directly from within the product.” This is probably an effort to get customers used to Office features in the hopes that they will purchase the full version. Microsoft will have to walk a fine line to make the ads annoying enough that people will want to get rid of them, but not so annoying that they don’t even use Office.

The new PCs will already have the full version of Office 2010 installed on the hard drive. Customers will simply have to purchase a card from a retailer with the unlock code. The card will apparently be sold through some “major electronic retail outlets”. Microsoft hasn’t detailed which OEMs would be installing the Office Starter Edition software. Try to contain yourself waiting for this one.

Will the Starter Edition be something reviled, or possibly be something that people will endure, to be able to get some of the functions for free, and also have a clear conscience? (no one wants the shadow of the skull and crossbones over their shoulder)

Will many go and purchase the magic card? Or will they treat this like much of the rest of the installed crapware, and remove it, replacing it with Open Office, or possibly Google Docs?

Unless the magic card is considerably cheaper than outright purchase, this will be a blight on the Microsoft name, in no small way like the one that Vista left.

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