MS intros Office 'Starter' version

Aiming to turn more new PC buyers into Office users, Microsoft has introduced several ways to obtain the software, including an ad-supported 'Starter' edition that can come loaded on new PCs, reports CNET News.

Microsoft says the starter version of Office will have limited features and include only Excel and Word. The starter version will be part of the Office 2010 family, due out next year, and will only be available on new PCs.

"Office Starter 2010 will provide new PC owners with immediate exposure to the Office 2010 experience on new PCs right out of the box," says Microsoft, adding that it can be upgraded to one of several full versions of Office with a new upgrade card to be sold at retail stores.

Adobe Systems has released its Adobe ColdFusion 9, Adobe ColdFusion Builder Beta 2 and a private beta of the new ColdFusion 9 in the cloud that will run in the Amazon Web Services environment and enable more developers to access the power of ColdFusion as a hosted service, states eWeek.

ColdFusion 9, a development environment for building dynamic Web sites and Internet applications, increases developer productivity, integrates with complex enterprise environments, and delivers rich and interactive experiences for users, say Adobe officials.

ColdFusion Builder Beta 2 is the next build of the new Eclipse-based ColdFusion integrated development environment used for rapidly developing ColdFusion applications.

IT service management firm Compuware is to buy Web performance specialist Gomez for $295 million, says Computing.co.uk.

Gomez' software-as-a-service system combines load testing and performance management for Web applications, as well as cross-browser testing, and Web performance business analysis. Compuware president and COO Bob Paul says the acquisition would benefit firms moving more business-critical applications onto the Internet.

The combined firm would be able to offer "unified visibility, isolation and resolution of application performance problems from the data centre to the customer, rather than the isolated portions covered by our competitors," he added.