This fiscal year has seen some very strange occurrences take place through Mergers, Acquisitions and tech companies offering free software, and to join the party Microsoft at WPC in New Orleans has announced plans to introduce a web based version of Microsoft Office that consumers can use at no cost. I assume that this will make a strong case for migrating to Microsoft BPOS also.

Office Web, as the offering is called, will be part of the Microsoft Office 2010 release, which is slated for the first half of next year.

The free, online products will include Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote message pad. They'll be available directly through Microsoft's Windows Live portal and launch directly within a user's browser.

The move allows Microsoft to protect its products from Web-based software from Google and from free, open source-based offerings, such as IBM's Lotus Symphony product.

Microsoft said they don't believe Office Web will replace the desktop version of Office, "We haven't taken the approach where the Web apps are a duplication of the client apps," said Microsoft. "We try to make them incredibly good for the device you are using," they added.

For instance, the Office Web version of PowerPoint will not contain the desktop version's high-performance video editing tools. The Web apps on the other hand will offer some features that won't be found on the desktop versions, such as the ability to embed tags into documents and post them on blogs.

Microsoft has about 90 million such customers. It also has roughly 400 million Windows Live users. Meaning that Microsoft at launch will have the ability to tap into half a billion subscribers.