Because We Can, that's why
A Microsoft representative explained that Office 11 will only run on Windows XP or 2000. In a memo entitled Is Anyone Buying This Lame Excuse?
the rep went on to say that the decision relates heavily to the push to improve security in our products. Windows 9x is inherently insecure... We understand that this decision won't be popular among all of our customers [but our shareholders love it!!!], but it allows us to create a better and more stable product.
(um... so you built an insecure product, forced fed it down our throats, and have built several more insecure versions since then, and now want us to upgrade to your newest OS so we can have a better and more stable version of your product? So are you saying that even you can't make a stable product for Windows?)
Another statement might have said, Please don't think that this decision was in no way shaped by the fact that Microsoft's illegal monopoly gives them the power to do pretty much whatever the hell they want, because, after all, what are your choices? By the way, the new software will cost $8,000 unless you buy a new computer, at which point we'll only take on $400 to the asking price, or $600 if you don't want Internet Explorer installed on your desktop. And you'll need that new computer, because Word now takes 2.3gb of diskspace, Outlook takes 4.5gb, Excel takes 7.4gb, and the various security patches will take another 1-2gb. You'll also want that new Pentium processor because this thing is going to be dog slow on anything less than 1.4GHz. Awww, who are we fooling, it's going to be dog-slow on a Dual Xeon! New features planned include .Net integration for reasons no one can explain other than we are desperate for .Net to take off and we figure the more times we say .Net the more times people will start to think it's a good idea. Also, if you put your credit card information into your computer, we will sign you up for a free 2 month trial of our new Application Subscription Support program ($49.99 per month after the trial period ends, and cancelling your subscription will be about as easy as deleting Windows Messenger from XP.)
The fake represenative went on to add, As for actual innovation.... err... um... well, Word will now suggest better font-sizes for accessibility purposes, Outlook will still send winmail.dat files but they will now be in XML, and Excel will have even more obscure features that no one needs or uses. Oh, and the file format is changing again, meaning that Office:Mac files are not compatible and will have to upgrade. Have a nice day.
PC World: Office 11 Limited to Windows XP, 2000, C|Net: Microsoft to limit access to Office 11, all of which may encourage more people to visit OpenOffice.org