Yep. In an effort to appease the many, many people who think Microsoft needs to make productivity software more affordable, Works 9.0 will be available on new systems soon, for free.

As long as you don’t mind ads in the corner. Or a software package that hooks itself up to the web to update the ad content. Is it just me or do most of us spend money on software every year to STOP programs on our computer that access the Internet and download ads to our systems?

For the retail price of $40 you can get a key to make this ad-supported Works ad-free. Or download the trial version of Office 2007 (for free – but only for a limited time).

Frankly, I’ve always thought of Works as substandard software – just enough functionality to tick a girl off and not enough to allow you to really get any work done. For my money-or lack thereof-I’ll take OpenOffice any day!