4 ms·

And giving them away for free with an operating system to kill any competition that could exist? It's impossible to compete without making a whole different op

And giving them away for free with an operating system to kill any competition that could exist? It's impossible to compete without making a whole different operating system when Microsoft was in it's anticompetitive heyday. Even through the lease of how our world is meant to work that's seems messed up.

cupofpython 4y ago
reminds me of trying to compete with imessage or facetime today
mardifoufs 4y ago
Wait, Microsoft used to bundle Office for free with windows? When did that happen? (I'm pretty unfamiliar with pre-2010 Microsoft so I'm genuinely wondering!)
- yabatopia 4y ago
  That never happened.
- emsixteen 4y ago
  I don't remember them doing it at least. Maybe before the '97 versions?
- hnlmorg 4y ago
  I vaguely recall that in the Windows 3.11 days there was a cut down version of Office (might have been called something else?) which was either free or at least frequently bundled with new PCs in the same way that Windows was. I can’t find anything online that discusses this though. Most articles seem to talk about recent versions of Office (last 10 or 15 years) but the version I’m thinking of would have been pre-95.
  - jcheng 4y ago
    You might be thinking of Microsoft Works? I don't remember it being free but it was frequently offered as a low-cost add-on.
    - hnlmorg 4y ago
      Ahh yes, that’s exactly what I’m thinking of. Thanks for the reminder.
    - midasuni 4y ago
      Such a great oxymoron I seem to remember Works was around £80, office 4.3 was around £400. In reality whatever you had at work was free as you just brought the floppies home and installed it, which led to a generation of people being brought up on Microsoft products.
  - xtracto 4y ago
    There was Microsoft Write ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Write https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Write ) but Word/Office was NEVER bundled with Windows. I used Microsoft products from MS-DOS 5 to Windows 7, and that never happened.
    - hnlmorg 4y ago
      Likewise (well a slightly earlier version of DOS since that’s what my high school ran on their ring token coax network, plus some (by that time) old college stand alones that you had to run something like ‘park’ to park the HDD head before powering off). In fact I’m pretty sure I’d written some of my course work in Word for DOS too. Feels like a life time ago now. Anyhow, there definitely was an office suite (lower case O) that was bundled with some PCs. But as another HNer points out it was Microsoft Works rather than Microsoft Office. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Works https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Works (After reading the above link, Im surprised to see Works lasted so long. The last time I ever saw it “in the wild” was back on Windows 3.11)
      - xtracto 4y ago
        I remember having a hard time looking to open .WKS files from some accountants here in my country who refused to stop using Works for a long time.
        Lammy 4y ago
        It's sneaky how Works muddied the water for Lotus 1-2-3 which already used `.wks` for its WorKSheet files: http://fileformats.archiveteam.org/wiki/Lotus_1-2-3 http://fileformats.archiveteam.org/wiki/Lotus_1-2-3
- mod50ack 4y ago
  With Windows, no. But many, many computers were sold with Office bundled in through the 2000s. It's how my family got Office and how I think most consumer-side people did.
rchaud 4y ago
The only thing they gave away for free was a PowerPoint viewer software. Same with Word and Excel. These are multi-billion dollar product lines, why would MS ever give them away for free? If you received it without paying, you likely bought a PC with Office bundled in. Somebody paid for it one way or another.
- criddell 4y ago
  I think they are free on iOS and Android.
  - rchaud 4y ago
    Mobile is a different business model, as people are used to paying nothing or very little for apps. It's similar to what used to be called "shareware" or 'trialware' back in the day -- apps with a restricted set of features, designed to entice you into buying the full thing.
jaywalk 4y ago
> And giving them away for free with an operating system to kill any competition that could exist? Microsoft never did this, but Apple did. And still does today.

cupofpython 4y ago

reminds me of trying to compete with imessage or facetime today

mardifoufs 4y ago

Wait, Microsoft used to bundle Office for free with windows? When did that happen? (I'm pretty unfamiliar with pre-2010 Microsoft so I'm genuinely wondering!)

yabatopia 4y ago
That never happened.
emsixteen 4y ago
I don't remember them doing it at least. Maybe before the '97 versions?
hnlmorg 4y ago
I vaguely recall that in the Windows 3.11 days there was a cut down version of Office (might have been called something else?) which was either free or at least frequently bundled with new PCs in the same way that Windows was. I can’t find anything online that discusses this though. Most articles seem to talk about recent versions of Office (last 10 or 15 years) but the version I’m thinking of would have been pre-95.
- jcheng 4y ago
  You might be thinking of Microsoft Works? I don't remember it being free but it was frequently offered as a low-cost add-on.
  - hnlmorg 4y ago
    Ahh yes, that’s exactly what I’m thinking of. Thanks for the reminder.
  - midasuni 4y ago
    Such a great oxymoron I seem to remember Works was around £80, office 4.3 was around £400. In reality whatever you had at work was free as you just brought the floppies home and installed it, which led to a generation of people being brought up on Microsoft products.
- xtracto 4y ago
  There was Microsoft Write ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Write https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Write ) but Word/Office was NEVER bundled with Windows. I used Microsoft products from MS-DOS 5 to Windows 7, and that never happened.
  - hnlmorg 4y ago
    Likewise (well a slightly earlier version of DOS since that’s what my high school ran on their ring token coax network, plus some (by that time) old college stand alones that you had to run something like ‘park’ to park the HDD head before powering off). In fact I’m pretty sure I’d written some of my course work in Word for DOS too. Feels like a life time ago now. Anyhow, there definitely was an office suite (lower case O) that was bundled with some PCs. But as another HNer points out it was Microsoft Works rather than Microsoft Office. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Works https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Works (After reading the above link, Im surprised to see Works lasted so long. The last time I ever saw it “in the wild” was back on Windows 3.11)
    - xtracto 4y ago
      I remember having a hard time looking to open .WKS files from some accountants here in my country who refused to stop using Works for a long time.
      - Lammy 4y ago
        It's sneaky how Works muddied the water for Lotus 1-2-3 which already used `.wks` for its WorKSheet files: http://fileformats.archiveteam.org/wiki/Lotus_1-2-3 http://fileformats.archiveteam.org/wiki/Lotus_1-2-3
mod50ack 4y ago
With Windows, no. But many, many computers were sold with Office bundled in through the 2000s. It's how my family got Office and how I think most consumer-side people did.

rchaud 4y ago

The only thing they gave away for free was a PowerPoint viewer software. Same with Word and Excel. These are multi-billion dollar product lines, why would MS ever give them away for free? If you received it without paying, you likely bought a PC with Office bundled in. Somebody paid for it one way or another.

criddell 4y ago
I think they are free on iOS and Android.
- rchaud 4y ago
  Mobile is a different business model, as people are used to paying nothing or very little for apps. It's similar to what used to be called "shareware" or 'trialware' back in the day -- apps with a restricted set of features, designed to entice you into buying the full thing.

jaywalk 4y ago

> And giving them away for free with an operating system to kill any competition that could exist? Microsoft never did this, but Apple did. And still does today.