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Microsoft announces subsription based office suite plans



As part of their Office.NET strategy, Microsoft has announced that their next office suite - code
named "Office 10" - will be available through a subscription service.  They plan a release "toward the
end of the first half of 2001."

http://www.microsoft.com/PressPass/press/2000/Nov00/SubscriptionPR.asp

This model still assumes that the software will be installed on the individual workstation.  It just
gives the user the ability to upgrade the software over the Internet, and Microsoft the ability to
shut off most of the functionality of the software if the user fails to renew the subscription (though
"they can still open, view and print their existing documents").

Microsoft is also planning to offer a license option that is based on hosting the software through
application service providers, which will mean that it isn't installed on the users computer but is
instead provided as a service when needed from a server over the Internet.

Slashdot has a discussion of the Microsoft announcement
http://slashdot.org/articles/00/11/19/2348258.shtml

"Software as service rather than product" is becoming increasingly common, with a huger number of
major vendors either offering or considering new subscription-based licensing approaches.

A few related links can be found at
http://www-personal.si.umich.edu/~calz/ermlinks/asp.htm

This could obviously have pretty hefty implications for long-term preservation and access to
electronic files.  I would be curious to hear what others think of this.

=======================================================
 Cal Lee
 University of Michigan
 School of Information
 Phone: 734-647-0505
 http://www-personal.si.umich.edu/~calz/
 "Those who forget the past are condemned to reload it."
                        - Nick Montfort, July 2000

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