Thinking About Buying Microsoft Word?

Have you been thinking about buying Microsoft Word?

You might be out of luck.

Looks like Word includes a patented piece of software related somehow to handling XML. The patent belongs to a Canadian company called i4i Inc. They took Microsoft to court for patent infringement and won.

As the article states, there is no way this is going to end with Word disappearing from the U.S. market. MS will shell out money to keep i4i quiet and all of the MS Office products will go merrily on their way.

But, if you want an alternative you could try Open Office. It's a Sun Microsystems product, it's free, it's open source, and it can handle anything Microsoft Office can handle.

Or you could always try Google Docs. It is Google's entry into the Office software fray, it's free, and it's all web based. If you like it you can impress people by telling them you're into Cloud Computing.

Enjoy!