“BetaNews on Tuesday reported that in a newsgroup posting for beta testers a Microsoft representative said Office 11 would run only on Windows 2000 with Service Pack 3 and Windows XP.

Limiting the final version of Office 11 to Windows 2000 and XP would potentially encourage users of older operating systems to upgrade, but it could further erode relations between Microsoft and business customers already stung by increases in volume licensing fees, analysts say. Some business customers have indicated that they may explore alternatives to Office, such as Sun Microsystems’ StarOffice and OpenOffice, because of Microsoft’s licensing plan.” c/net. Notably absent from the story is a description of any features of Office 11 that would make anyone want to upgrade…