What concerns me I feel this Universal Healthcare program will allow those who "don't" work who think the Government "OWES" this to them so should those people be allowed "free" this and "free that" No one owes anyone if one works and through their employer health care is available what is so wrong with that? 98% of liberals view it's all owed to them and at a Trillion dollars [per] year it will health care program it will  bankrupt this country. I feel this is exactly what Barack wants he seems to loath the U.S. Listen to his speeches and take notice who he's associates with that tell the whole story.

Nance

I seldom think about universal healthcare when considering what software to buy. Did you post here inadvertantly, Nance?

She's a troll

According to a Forrester Research analyst, Microsoft will trounce Google: "Microsoft Office already has broad reach on computers everywhere, with approximately 80 percent of businesses that run production tools using Office, according to Forrester data. This level of trust and comfort is a luxury that Google does not have." -- PC World

They're predicting that consumers will be trying it out before business adoption. In that article, they stated that consumers must have a Windows Live account to access Office Web Apps. There are 400 million active users worldwide using the free Windows Live Online Service, according to Microsoft.

Wow.

It's interesting that after having been adopted by business users and filtering into consumer usage, Office is expected to sell itself the other way round. How many of you, reading this, think you could get your IT department to adopt a technology?

According to PC World they are reporting that businesses licensed for Microsoft's Software Assurance maintenance program are allowed to  run Office Web Apps as a free service within the company's firewall. That would also give workers access to the apps via the Web. They're calling it a boon to "skittish IT managers who want more control over potentially sensitive online content."

For a small office like where I work, it won't be a big deal but for places that can size up to the hundreds, etc. I can imagine it is a headache. The question is whether the most smaller companies that have an incentive to try Microsoft Office 2010 can afford Microsoft's Software Assurance program that lets them adopt both web/IT access.

Well, thegatorbaiter, it looks like Office 2010 will have a hard time having its web apps adopted by medium to smaller businesses who don't already shell out for Microsoft's Software Assurance maintainence program. What is Microsoft's Software Assurance?

According to CRN: "Microsoft has been aggressively pushing Software Assurance, a contractual upgrade rights program that allows businesses free upgrades -- and other benefits -- in exchange for annual fees over a two- or three-year timeline."

However:

Three quarters of the small- and medium-sized businesses that the the analyst's report surveyed, don't participate in any Microsoft licensing plan, a strong indicator that buyers and the Redmond, Wash.-based seller don't see eye to eye, said Joe Wilcox, an analyst with Jupiter Research's Microsoft Monitor..."SMBs prefer to buy software off the shelf or when their budget allows," said Wilcox. "They want to buy it when they want it, and pay for it at the same time. Wilcox found only 16 percent of corporate enterprise customers subscribe."

At this point, I think Microsoft is trying to claw back its consumer user base from Google Docs. The Office 2010 IT permissibility for licensed businesses is eh. Just look at the stats that @seattlesounders provided. It's not really a draw for them motive-wise.

At this point, Microsoft is catering to younger demographic and trying to make sure they won't get infinitely hooked on free apps like Open Office, Google Apps and trying to keep them within the Microsoft family so to speak. PLUS, think about the advertising they can sell on the ad-supported version of their free apps.

The consumer no longer has to worry abou lock-in. That's the change I see. Moving from Google Docs to Office should be easy and quick. Microsoft might win back some of its customers by making it easier to work together, but no one is stuck in an application silo anymore.

Free is free. Don't forget the free version of Office 2010 online for web users who sign up for their Live accounts. If Microsoft does a faithful adaptation of their desktop software to a web-app, I am sure alot of people will thank them for not having to convert them over (50/50 chance of it going screwy) to Google Docs.

Take it for someone who's tried to translate their powerpoint presentations into Google Docs PPT. It don't work and it don't look pretty.