New Microsoft Office subscription bundle to hit in mid-July

ZDNet ^ | 2008-07-03 | Mary Jo Foley

[rabscuttle385]

Microsoft has given its new Office-based software-plus-service bundle a new name — “Equipt” — and a due date (mid-July), company officials said on July 2.

Equipt is the product/service that was formerly codenamed “Albany” (and inside Microsoft, known as “ValueBox”). Equipt, which Microsoft describes as its “essential set of software and services for consumers,” includes a version of Office Home and Student 2007; Windows Live OneCare, Microsoft’s PC management/security bundle; a few Windows Live communication/collaboration services; and Office Live Workspace, Microsoft’s online-collaboration add-on to Office.

Equipt will cost $69.99 annually (for a license that can be installed on three PCs in a user’s home). If and when Microsoft introduces any updates to any of the Equipt components during the year, subscribers will be entitled to receive them automatically for free as part of their paid subscription.

[Big Giant Head]

Oh, great. More software I don’t own.

I like MS office, I really do. Especially Office 2003 that I have on disk, that was given to me. I have linux on a few computers that come with Open Office, or Koffice, or whathaveyou. They all work. MS is insane.