More MS Office confusion

I've previously ranted about Microsoft's confusing the market with too many versions of Office and Windows but today I stumbled on another problem; Office 2007's Home and Student edition doesn't come with Microsoft Outlook.

Thankfully, I hadn't sold it or recommended it to the fellow I was discussing this with, but he made a very good point that at a time when are looking at alternatives like Gmail and Yahoo! or even ditching email altogether, it makes no sense to be discouraging customers to go elsewhere.

To add insult to injury, installing the Home and Student edition over trial edition that's been bundled with a system leaves Outlook on. When the user opens it, they are prompted for an installation key. Naturally the Home and Student key doesn't work.

I wonder how many phone calls Microsoft get on this topic, my guess is the support costs and ill-will generated dwarf the money MS make from customers upgrading to the full Office versions.

I'll be adding the different flavours of Microsoft Office to the PC Rescue website this week. The buying a computer page will be revised to include choosing the right version of Office as well.