OpenOffice and Google Docs must be doing very well for Microsoft to take notice and take action.

In an interview with ZDNet, Satya Nadella (Corporate Vice President, Microsoft-Search & Advertising Platform Group) confirms the year-old rumor that Microsoft is going to release a free, ad-supported version of Microsoft Works. (See this article from Ars Technica.)

In the interview, it was said that the free version was released July 27. Like the interviewer, I cannot find the download link in the Microsoft Works home page.

Must be a premature announcement, then. Has OpenOffice and Google finally made an impact in Microsoft’s lucrative office productivity market?

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Hosted apps are not for me. Yet. I am not totally online, and I am not convinced by the idea of a server holding my documents. There’s OpenOffice, despite the fact that this app is a resource hog.

I’m sure Rocky (being Google fanboy that he is) is convinced by this model. How about you? Are you ready for hosted office productivity apps?