New names and bundle changes
Among all the first looks at Office 2010 programs we’ve been posting at Office-Watch.com there has been some other Office 2010 news.
Office loses its Groove
(Frankly we’re surprised not to have seen this headline somewhere)
Groove in Office 2007 becomes SharePoint Workspace 2010. Microsoft claims this is a ‘natural progression’ of the product. Groove was purchased by Microsoft in 2005 and was folded into Office 2007.
For the Office 2010 release the software will better integrate with SharePoint which will be welcome to many SharePoint users. At present Groove 2007, because of its development history isn’t an obvious fit with the main core of Microsoft’s Sharepoint system.
Groove / SharePoint WorkSpace in Pro Plus
SharePoint WorkSpace 2010 will be included in the Office 2010 Professional Plus bundles/SKU’s. This should reduce the cost of putting Groove/SharePoint Workspace on desktops.
OneNote 2010 also in Pro Plus
OneNote 2010 is also being bundled in the Office 2010 Professional Plus packs/SKU’s.
That makes some sense – while OneNote has been mostly touted as a student note taking tool it has some good sharing features that can be useful for small companies or teams. If nothing else, OneNote notebook sharing doesn’t require the overhead of SharePoint or Groove servers.
Changes in consumer packs?
Microsoft is hinting that there will be changes in the retail bundles of Office 2010. That’s hardly news itself – every new version of Office has come with a re-arrangement of the applications in each bundle/SKU or entirely new bundles. Why would Office 2010 be any different?
As we’ve already noted – the new wrinkle in selling Office is the ‘Step-Up Your Office’ option
There’s also the possibility of ‘consumer’ versions of Word 2010 and Excel 2010 programs hinted at in some Office 2010 product lists.
