An ad-supported version of Microsoft Works 9 is now available for free according to reports. However, no download link is currently available.

Ok, this isn’t very interesting — especially while no download link is available…and there are probably better free options…not to mention free online applications like Zoho and Google Docs & Spreadsheet. But it’s interesting that Microsoft is now looking at alternative software distribution models that fall somewhere between “give it away until everyone else is out of business” (Media Player, IE) and “make those suckers pay til it hurts” (Windows, Office). The fact that MS Works is historically junky software that defaults to strange, proprietary file formats is almost beside the point.