ThinkFree Office available on CD-ROM

ThinkFree Corp., a provider of client and server-based office productivity software, says its ThinkFree Office is now available at some retail stores as a shrink-wrapped CD-ROM that runs on both Macs and Wintel systems.

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The retail version of ThinkFree Office includes a non-expiring software license, a printed User’s Guide and a registration serial number that can be redeemed for a one-year subscription to ThinkFree’s Internet services. These services provide customers with a personal Cyberdrive, a secure Internet file storage system hosted by ThinkFree servers; the ability to download any software updates available on the ThinkFree Web site; the ability to download and install ThinkFree Office from ThinkFree’s Web site, as needed, to any supported computing platform anywhere, anytime; and e-mail customer support

“The retail version of ThinkFree Office represents a marriage between today’s desktop-centric computing paradigm and our vision for the future — one that enables anywhere, anytime, any platform computing,” said Robert Wise, CEO for ThinkFree, in announcing the retail availability.

Previously, it’s only been available directly from ThinkFree’s Web site on a subscription basis as a hosted service or server-based version that’s installed and deployed within an organization’s own network.

Written from the ground up in Java, the ThinkFree Office includes:

Write, a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) Microsoft Word compatible word processor/HTML editor;

Calc, a Microsoft Excel compatible spreadsheet ;

Show, a Microsoft PowerPoint compatible presentation graphics program;

Folders, a file manager for navigating and managing documents on your local drive and on your ThinkFree Cyberdrive

The cost for the retail version of ThinkFree Office is US$49.95. Current retailers include CompUSA, Micro Center, Fry’s Electronics and J&R Music & Computer World. The product suite requires Mac OS 8.6-9.x, a Power Mac G3 or better, and a minimum of 64MB of RAM. A Mac OS X version is in the works.