No, Microsoft isn't releasing a platform-native version of Office for Linux. It's doing something a lot smarter: releasing a platform-neutral version of Office -- its vaunted Office Web suite -- that can theoretically run anywhere, Linux included.

This isn't entirely new, but the clarification of details has been striking. My original suspicion was that Microsoft would use the similarly cross-platform Silverlight system to deliver Office Web to whoever could run it. As it turns out, that's part of the picture, but not the whole: you can still run Office Web without Silverlight, although it sounds like you'll be that much more at the mercy of running in a browser (at least for now).

Then I came to this most striking answer in the Q&A linked above:

Q: Are the Web Applications replacing Microsoft Office software?

A: No. This does not change the way customers buy Office nor will it slow down the future innovations coming to the desktop software.

In other words, MS is still betting that there will be plenty of life left in platform-specific apps -- whether it's Windows, Mac, Linux, or Android phones. But this is a strong sign that it's trying to get into a position where it doesn't care what you're running, as long as you're willing to use its products in some form.

Once it kicks off, I'm going to tear into it on as many platforms as I can, Linux included, and see how it stacks up against the other offerings there. Stick around; this ought to be fascinating.

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