Microsoft to Release Works Free and Ad Supported

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?

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?