Microsoft Pulls Office From Its Own Online Store 127
CWmike writes "Microsoft has pulled almost every version of Office from its own online store to comply with a court order requiring it to remove custom XML technology from its popular Word software that starts on Monday. As of mid-day, the only edition available from the Microsoft Store was Office Ultimate 2007, a $670 'full-version' suite. All other Windows editions, as well as Office 2008 for Mac, were accompanied by the message: 'This product is currently unavailable while we update versions on our site. We expect it to be available soon.' Microsoft confirmed that the disappearance of Office was related to the injunction that came out of a patent infringement case the company lost in 2009. 'We've taken steps to comply with the court's ruling and we're introducing the revised software into the US market," said Michael Croan, a senior marketing manager, in an e-mail. He also downplayed the move. 'This process will be imperceptible to the vast majority of customers, who will find both trial and purchase options readily available.'"
Patent Compliance Tuesday (Score:1, Interesting)
From all system administrators, thank you Microsoft for the decision to coincide Patent Compliance Tuesday with Patch Tuesday [wikipedia.org].
The news I'm waiting for. (Score:3, Interesting)
What I want to know is what will i4i do with its 300 million from Microsoft.
And will Microsoft pay-up?
Pulling it from the store isn't enough ... (Score:5, Interesting)
... they should also have to deactivate every (legal) copy that's currently out in the wild. After all, the software industry has been telling us for years that we don't really get to buy software, just rent it. So surely it can't be legal for Microsoft to continue to rent out software that violates someone else's patent!
Re: here$ the new$ (Score:2, Interesting)
MS complied with the EU ruling, and note... immediately took full vengeance on: the USERS. $670 for an Office Cocktail to burn down your desktop. Smallchange, maybe to those driving a Veyron. I think it is finally time for those users (and their bosses) to "move on" to Open Office, even on the MS platform, and ultimately migrate to Linux desktop.
Re:Another harrasment to free software (Score:3, Interesting)
Ultimately the tricky problem is who do you actually sue with open source. Technically every person on the planet owns the code and is free to use the application that the code creates. So sue the planet, you can't really sue companies providing service and support, nor companies providing manuals, not even companies that supply you with a copy of the completed application that you technically already owned before you even approached the company.
I am trying to imagine the patent cops trying to enter every place of business and residence to ensure every infringing copy is removed and, that's world wide, even if for some insane reason they actually tried, you can;t bet it would end up having the exact opposite effect and drive up popularity.
As for M$ it's just another embarrassing management debacle, more funny than interesting but definately news worthy. Perhaps M$ can distribute copies of OpenOffice.org in the interim so that they don't leave their customers in the lurch, they are even entitled to label their version as MicroSoft OpenOffice as long as they adhere to licence requirements (oddly enough it would likely have positive marketing benefits for M$).
Re: here$ the new$ (Score:3, Interesting)
I disagree. The kind of people who would use the trial version are the kind that don't have 600 bucks for the full package and no corporate backing. Those people are used to digging for bargains, and free is a good price.
AbiWord on the other hand is pretty lame compared to OpenOffic or StarOffice. I look at it every three or four years to see if it has improved, and it is a perennial disappointment.
Brain, meet mouth (Score:5, Interesting)
Hey. Here is a radical idea. Maybe instead of telling people at work that you don't use MS Office, you should tell them about Open Office. Then you would know lots of people who have heard about Open Office!
Oh please. Not the same bullshit again. (Score:3, Interesting)
"Microsoft have done a lot of things wrong"
Like breaking the law in pretty much all major localities around the planet.
What are you? A masochist?
If you hear a chorus of disapproval maybe, just maybe, there is a frigging reason of why people feel so aggravated.
Google and Apple now have quite a dominance in the markets that will matter in the future and people are far more cool about them because they are not complete and utter unethical bastards.
Do I need to clarify the point any further?
Re: here$ the new$ (Score:3, Interesting)
Keep telling them otherwise. I know a dude who's loved him some Microsoft (as long as somebody would copy a disk for him) and has insulted my use of open source for the last decade. This month he loves OpenOffice.org and has been emailing me about how great it is like he's the one who discovered it. Looking into other open source programs and musing about whether Yellow Dog would revitalize his old Powerbook so I guess hell froze over. It can be amazing how slow people are to contemplate change
but that doesn't mean it will _never_ click.
Re:wheres the news (Score:1, Interesting)
They have a long history of using other people's innovation without permission, and this case is no exception.
Heh.. If you think inventing something trivial to do with XML tags is "innovation" you have a diminished capacity of thought or creativity.. or something.
They have a very specific patent, specific enough that other implementations (like ODF) don't infringe.
This makes no sense. Just because ODF doesn't infringe, doesn't make the patent valid or specific. Looks like you haven't even read the patent. The language is extremely general and broad. Or maybe you just agree with everything a judge says? Ofcource, that might make you a racist too ;)
and has to be aware that this patent suit is fair and valid, and yet is still dismissive of i4i's efforts
What if he thinks it isn't fair and valid? Is he not allowed to have an opinion different from the Slashdot group-think?
Re: here$ the new$ (Score:3, Interesting)
A food store, like any other store, sets the price of the food it sells to the point that brings it the most profit. Rising the price will decrease, not increase, profits. So yes, it pays for any stolen items out of its own pockets, since it has no other options.
I wish people stopped perpetuating the PR-invented myth that companies are somehow impervious to fines because they can simply get more money from their customers to cover it. They can't, because if they could, they'd already be doing so. Any company blaming a price increase to fines, theft or anything like that is flat out lying.
Re:wheres the news (Score:1, Interesting)
I can understand where you're coming from, but I take things a bit more practically. We spent three years trying to make a Server 2003 network do what we need for it to do before going over to Apple. Now we're slowly making the transition. Just getting a Mac server made things work WAY more smoothly. Setting it up was a breeze, except for making the Windows machines play nice with it. Every person I've put on a Mac, I never hear from them unless they need a new user added or something of that nature. I do my backups, check server logs, etc., and support the Windows users. The Mac users never seem to need anything fixed.
And no, Linux isn't the answer yet. It's a great little operating system that I have several systems running on, including the firewall, but it's not really ready for what we do. We have a lot of specialised software that you just can't get for Linux, and no, we don't have the time or manpower to write it ourselves. And no, I can't find any open source equivalents that the users are willing to use. I've tried a few. Some stick, some don't.
That's just my observations. Yes, Apple is probably as bad as Microsoft when it comes to business practices, but at least Apple makes an OS that actually works. And as the Microsoft fanboys scream "90% market share!", I reply "$200 million marketing budget!" You can convince a lot of people of a lot of BS with $200 million.
And yes, I do have Microsoft products that I do like, and yes, I have Apple products that I don't like. Neither company is the Messiah.