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Office UI Giveaway: What's Old Is New Again

Microsoft announced a plan to let software developers use the Office User Interface royalty-free to build apps that should be easy to learn -- provided you are adept at Office (I still find Word to be about the most difficult app to fully master, and sometimes even keep under control).

Looks to me like Microsoft flaks are recycling press releases. A decade or so ago, when I wrote for InfoWorld, Microsoft announced what seems to be the exact same thing. As I recall, some folks like Visio hopped onboard, while competitors like Lotus and WordPerfect politely declined.

Posted by Doug Barney on November 30, 2006


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