Software As A Service (SAAS) is doomed, will go nowhere and is a waste of time for all concerned.

Paris as she even knows to buy a retail boxed copy of Microsoft Office Professional.

Compared to Google's offerings that looks kind of expensive for a cheapskate option.

Knowing how bad their software is, can they now be charged with "going Equipt"! No? Suit yourselves!

Micro$ will end up making a fortune off of this Crap. Bill said 20 years ago that, someday, all software would ONLY be available on-line. It looks like someday has arrived.

Acer Aspire 5315-2153, $348 Walmart Special,Mandriva Linux 2008.1 Spring Edition. The fist Linux distro where everything worked, on this laptop, the first time !

It's all about money... The key piece of this is RESIDUAL income for Microsoft.

Part of it is obviously a way to control piracy - you can't bootleg what you can't have - but the bigger part is making a user not just "pay to play", but to pay on a recurring schedule. KaaaaaChing$$. This is the same reasoning behind leasing automobiles - the Dealer can make money once on the lease and then again on the subsequent sale.

The convienince part of online software is that it is more convienient for MS to bill you annually than to try to entice you into making a major purchase on the bi-annual release of thier latest and greatest... MS is a marketing machine - NOT a software producer. The software is secondary to the money.

Wow, could Microsoft actually be learning something here? In my opinion, $70 per year for Office still isn't a great price if you only have one machine, but if you actually have two or three systems you want to install it on, then the $70/yr price point does seem reasonable to me. My problem is that I don't want "online" software. I want the standard offline software, even if it is limited to one year (like antivirus products). If they offered the standard offline software at this price point, I think they'd see a lot more interest (and a lot less piracy).

I've been saying this for ages that eventually Microsoft would switch to a subscription model. It's obvious... if you charge users $300 for office they will just find a way to pirate it, charge $70 a year and people are more likely to pay for it.

The eventual solution will probably be a monthly subscription where you pay per application used... so if you don't use PowerPoint you don't pay for it that month. At the same time, every PC with windows on will come pre-installed with word, excel, PowerPoint, access, outlook, ExpressionWeb, publisher, Visio, project, money, antivirus, OneCare... and every application you could ever need that Microsoft sell. Integrate MS's OneCare online backup service and let the customer pay per GB.

Since they control the OS and almost every PC now has a net connection they can integrate Office's licensing system with the windows licensing system.

Hell, why not even have windows licensed the same way... the vista DVD comes with all versions on anyway. Just install windows and pay for the features you want.

By charging per month the £130 per copy for Vista Business and £200 for Office Home gets spread across the life of the PC.

From a consumer’s point of view, buying a PC will be cheaper as you aren’t paying the licensing costs up front. PC builders will just assemble it and install the Microsoft software suite and the customer can decide what to pay for. MS might actually decide to SUBSIDISE the cost of the PC in the same way as mobile phone companies do.

Expect to see ASDA selling PCs for £100 some time soon, or, quite possibly, Microsoft offering free computers to everyone, locked into Vista obviously, by setting it to boot from Hard Drive only and passwording the BIOS.

Oh yeah, I can just see government agencies, research facilities, schools and corporations trusting their secrets, industrial or otherwise, to the security geniuses at Microsoft or their agents. Given Microsoft's security track record and today's dangerous, paranoid and super competitive world, they have no business asking anybody to trust them to hold data secure.

I wouldn't trust this bunch of miscreants to keep a surprise birthday party secret, much less anything of real importance such as financial data, nuclear plant safeguards information and, well, anything.

I've got 3 PCs, so one license = $70/year. Assume 3-year software cycle = $210 total -- or I could go buy a 3-PC copy of Office Home & Student for $109 on Newegg....

Oh, wait... I've got OpenOffice.org

Never mind!

<- Should El Reg retire this guy now?

Lets see... First we have PERPETUAL security-problems... creating untold headaches to all consumers and, indeed, the entire computer-industry.

Then, we have PERPETUAL activation and authentication... treating everyone like crooks, but mostly, robbing consumers of their most basic property ownership-rights.

And, now we have PERPETUAL payment... to Microsoft (which, BTW, will also allow Microsoft to impose "updates", and changes, on consumers without mercy).

And, soon... I suspect... Microsoft will also, finally, try to implement their "per user" licensing-scheme (its already in the works).

And, all of this is for the consumers benefit..?

Lets get one thing straight. Microsoft has been ripping people-off for decades. And, none of this is what consumers want. Nor, does it, in any way, benefit anyone other than Microsoft.

I think Microsoft is desperate, and, they are, clearly, trying to stave-off their own, well-deserved, obsolescence.

Poor Microsoft... profits that are five-times higher than any other manufacturing-industry (profits that actually exceed those of illegal-drugs)... just, werent enough.

So, Microsoft needs even more, forcibly-extracted, revenue, and even greater control over customers (and their computer-use/choices)..?

No thanks.

Fantastic. I'll take 20. And clear the CMOS.

Just download Open Office, it's free works extremely well and is fully compatible.

Like Steam. You pay for a game, and you can run it on any PC. Only one at a time though. It's Fair.

You chaps always complain about security flaws...but really, isn't this just part of life?

Like, if you have a product that millions of people use, there are always going to be people that try to "break" it...isn't this thought just natural?

Don't we live and die? Don't we get illnesses?

BROOKLYN IS NOT EXPANDING

Let's see now, the Equipt service "includes Office Home and Student 2007, Messenger, Live Mail and Photo Gallery, as well as security bundle OneCare"

Sad - $70 per year, while most of what they're offering can be had for free to the home consumer. The drop in software replacements are all already out there:

- OpenOffice for your common office tools;

- Pidgin for IM;

- Thunderbird or Evolution for mail, your ISP probably already provides your maildrop;

- ClamWin, Avast, or even AVG (please disable linkscanner, thank you) for anti-virus;

Not to mention a number of good Linux OS's out there that would let you pass on the AV, if you don't have to deal with things that are only written for windoze.

As for online storage, be serious M$! Online storage should be viewed as public storage, and handled no differently than email - don't put anything out there you wouldn't want to become public knowledge. So it's not an inherently desirable, high value service to begin with.

Given the credible low and no cost alternatives to the rest of it's features, subscribing to Equipt would be money wasted.

Way to go M$, there's nothing like being 4 to 5 years late to market.

Real cheapskates use ThePirateBay.

Doug Glass:

"aimed at the consumer rather than business market". Duh. You had to read three sentences in to notice, though.

Anyhow, I think the demographic they're aiming at is aging rapidly. It'll be interesting to see who uses this, and for how long.