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Comment by r00fus | Hacker News Reader

One thing jumps out at me... so only WindowsRT has Microsoft Office - that's pretty much a required app for many business PC users and severe fragmentation if it's seriously not available on the other Windows8 editions.

Am I missing something? Does this imply shift to "cloud" office?

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It means that it's the only one that comes bundled with Office - of course you'll be able to install Office on Windows 8, but you will have to purchase it separately.

Windows RT is an ARM version of Windows. On that version, a touch optimized version of Microsoft Office will be included with the windows license.

I think this implies "We already can sell Office on x86, but we're not even sure we can sell Windows on ARM".

I think it's more like they're driving home the point...

"Why get an artificially crippled consumption device when you can have the choice to hookup a keyboard/mouse and do real work?"

..by bundling Office with the ARM tablets.

Of course Office is available on all Windows versions. It's included with Windows RT, which is an interesting choice. It's likely going to be crippled in some way, otherwise an ARM laptop suddenly looks like a far better value than an Intel laptop. Intel can't be happy about this.

It's a completely different version of Office. I imagine it's at least partially recycled from Office for Windows Phone (which is bundled for free). It's actually rather good.

Why would Microsoft care about Intel while competing against the iPad juggernaut?

Also, the Intel tablet/laptop has the huge advantage of being able to run all Windows software to date. The ARM will only run Office and Metro apps.

That's silly. Microsoft sees the ARM-based tablet future, and doesn't want to miss out. But, they don't want to piss Intel off too bad, since they work hand in hand to develop Windows' interaction with Intel chips in desktop/server environments.

Saying ARM will only run Office and Metro apps is like saying Macbooks have the huge advantage of being able to run all Mac software to date. iOS will only run iOS apps. That's the point.

No, I take it simply to mean that Office is included with WinRT (but not Winx86) which makes sense- they are making a custom Office interface, and probably see WinRT more as an opportunity to make Office indispensable on ARM, rather than Windows. This is how they have always won- it's not about the OS, it's about the 'apps. (Apple has re-demonstrated that with iOS) Office is their "killer app"- Windows is an enabler.

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