Is Microsoft Waking Up to the Threat of Open Source?

New news: it appears that Microsoft is has decided to respond to the threat posed by the open source, shared content, and free services communities. It was report on Monday morning by CNN that Microsoft will make an online version of the next revision of Microsoft Office, MS Office 2010, available as a free online service. Apparently, Microsoft’s strategy is that by making their closed source application available as a free online service, it will appeal to those like myself who don’t wish to pay for the next latest version of their product. Microsoft may also see this as a move to block users from using GoogleApps as well as other free-service competitors such as Abiword, Slideshare, and Zoho.

Apparently Microsoft’s online services will include advertising, not unlike what we see in Hotmail accounts. I view this move as nothing less than free advertising for Microsoft in that users will be able to draw comparisons. They will see the capabilities of MS Office 2010 and find Microsoft’s product superior to, say Google Apps. And with all due respect to Open Office as well as other open source word processors that I have used, they leave much to be desired; I have only relied on them in the absence of MS Word.

This may be especially relevant for owners of netbook computers or similar machines that have no CD-ROM drives and limited storage space. For these types of machines it makes sense to have an internet-based suite of applications such as Office that can be accessed from anywhere rather than having to be installed on a single PC. An added benefit is that docs may be stored in an online repository thereby enabling access from any PC, or to be shared with a group of users...

It will be interesting to see if or how or where Microsoft will profit from their decision to make Office available online as a free service.