Sometime in 2010 Microsoft is scheduled to release Office 2010 Starter Edition. This will be a free version that only includes Word and Excel. In exchange for receiving and using this edition of Office for free, you will have to put up with ads. Here is the quote from Microsoft:

As part of Office 2010 software that will be pre-loaded by the PC manufacturers on their PCs, we're introducing Microsoft Office Starter 2010. Office Starter 2010 is a reduced-functionality, advertising-supported version of Office 2010, available exclusively on new PCs. Office Starter 2010 will provide new PC owners with immediate exposure to the Office 2010 experience on new PCs right out of the box.

For some casual home users, this will probably be ok. We will have to wait and see if the public accepts this new business model from Microsoft. I would expect to see more of this in the future.

To Your Success,

Tim