Ban on Microsoft Word and Office sales begins today
Microsoft has been the center of a legal battle from a small patent owning company, i4i for many months for infringing on it's "Custom XML" patent which is included in Microsoft Word 2003 and 2007 and is part of Office 2007 suites. Recently, Microsoft lost the court battle against I4i, after stalling for a few months with an emergency motion and was ordered to take Word 2007 off the market by January 11th, 2010. In addition, Microsoft must also pay i4i damages of $290m.
Today, the 11th of January, marks the day that Word was to be off the market, but to the consumer nothing has changed. According to Microsoft, they have complied with the court's ruling and have released a 'revised version' of Microsoft Word and Office 2007 suites that does not have the 'Custom XML' technology.
The new version, which hits US stores today, has no visual differences and will not be discernable from the previous variant of Microsoft Office 2007. Microsoft has also removed Office 2003 from MSDN and Technet earlier last week.
According to the BBC, Microsoft filed another appeal against the injunction on January 8, even though they have already challenged the ruling once before. The latest appeal has been filed because Microsoft believed the decision conflicted with "established precedents governing trial procedure and the determination of damages" according to Kevin Kutz, director of public affairs at Microsoft.
Office 2010 build 4730 leaks to the web
An internal build of the upcoming Microsoft Office 2010 has leaked to the web according to Wzor. The build comes in at a staggering 3.51GB which is significantly larger than the public beta build which was at 749mb; the leaked build is tagged with the build number 14.0.4730.1007
There is no information as to why the build is so much larger but one speculation is that it may include debugging software. Another possibility is that the code may not be packed for media release which would make the build much larger than the compressed format released to the general public.
Office 2010 Pricing Revealed
Microsoft Office General Manager, Rachel Bondi, has officially announced the official Office 2010 pricing. The interesting thing to see is the ability to purchase a card with a product key on it, foregoing the physical CD, and saving a nice chunk of change. But beware; if you buy the product key card only, you are limited to installing it on a single computer. If, however, you buy the boxed edition, you are entitled to install the program on two of your PCs.
Here are the prices:
- Professional - $499 boxed, $349 for product key
- Professional Academic - $99 boxed only
- Home and Student - $149 boxed, $119 for product key
- Home and Business - $279 boxed, $199 for product key
Office Home and Student will also be available in a 3 license Family Pack, though the price is not listed. The Professional version will include Word 2010, Excel 2010, PowerPoint 2010, OneNote 2010, Outlook 2010, Publisher 2010, Access 2010, and premium technical support. The Home and Student version will contain Word 2010, Excel 2010, PowerPoint 2010, and OneNote 2010. The Home and Business edition will just add Outlook on top of the Home and Student offering, and will be licensed for business use. The Professional Academic version will only be available from campus bookstores and authorized academic resellers. All editions will also come with the Office Web Apps that users have been eagerly awaiting.
Below are the editions in more detail...
50% Discount on Windows and Office upgrades
According to ZDNet, Microsoft really wants to push medium and small businesses to move away from Windows XP and older versions of Office. The "Up-to-Date Discount," as they call it, is available for the first year of the OVS (Open Value Subscription) licensing program and applies to customers using the Professional versions of Microsoft's software. OVS is a way for small and medium businesses to pay for their software licenses over time, instead of having to foot it all up front.
The new promotion available for the Up-To-Date Discount is called N-2 and allows users that are still using Windows and Office XP (which are two releases ago) to participate as well (assuming they sign up for an OVS plan). Previously, the program was only for N-1, meaning only the previous release of Windows and Office were part of the promotion. Businesses will be able to upgrade to Windows 7, as well as Office 2007, or may choose to get Office 2010, assuming they're willing to wait for its release.
Here are the details, straight from the Microsoft SMB Community Blog. Note that the 50% off is calculated based on estimated retail prices. The deal is available from January 1st through June 30th.
So who qualifies for this offer?
For Microsoft Office Professional Plus:
- Before the Office 2010 launch: Companies with OEM, Retail, or Volume licenses for Microsoft Office 2007 Professional, Office 2003 Professional, or Office XP Professional
- After the Office 2010 launch: Companies with OEM, Retail, or Volume licenses for Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2007 or Office 2003 Professional
For Microsoft Windows 7 Professional Upgrade: - Companies with OEM, Retail, or Volume licenses for Windows 7 Professional, Windows Vista Business or Windows XP Professional
What you get: - 50% off your 1st year OVS payment for Microsoft Windows 7 Professional Upgrade or Microsoft Office Professional for every qualifying N-1 or N-2 license you have.
- As an example, in the U.S., this means you would be paying $35.00 for a Windows 7 Professional Upgrade and/or $91.00 for Office 2007 Professional Plus in year 1, plus receiving all of the Software Assurance benefits (such as an automatic upgrade to Office 2010 when it launches, Office Home Use Rights, and much more) for that price!
Exclusive: Office 2007 Goes Trial, Will Windows Vista Go Trial?! Yes!
 After few days of lunching Microsoft Office 2007 system as 60 days trial version, Microsoft has removed links -temporarily- as lack of trial product key to face huge number of downloads and registeration for the trial software. I could obtain the trial copy of Office 2007 Enterprise with a trial product key, it's amazing, the wonderful thing that you can convert your trial copy to final if you entered a VLK "Volume Licence Key" in later time of the trial period, this option is high risky and I see it was a bad step from Microsoft to do because entering the product key became limited to create an algorithm to check on valid non trial product keys (I've tried all letters from A-Z and numbers from 0-9 and could determine invalid letters/numbers as the Office tells user).
Now, the question users always to ask in communities especially in
TechNet - Windows Vista Forums : "Will users be able to download a trial copy of Windows Vista after end of CCP program and release of RTM copies of it?" … The answer became clear and it's
YES !!
This answer not from a speakerman from Microsoft or any person, it's in TechNet Evaluation Site!
I also think that release of both Office 2007 trial and Windows Vista trial software will be available in few days from the information shown in
MSDN Evaluation Center :
"The MSDN Evaluation Center will be coming soon. The MSDN Evaluation Center will be the central location for all Microsoft developer product trials and beta evaluations. You will be able to try a product before you buy it or test the latest beta to see what is in store for the next release.
Looking for a Product Key for the Office Enterprise 2007 or SharePoint Designer 2007 trial downloads? This will be the place to get it, please check back in the next few days. We're working to make these available to you as quickly as we can.".
Enjoy evaluating latest Microsoft products and Merry Christmas from me!