Microsoft Clippy is No More

We suspected something was brewing when the iconic figure started donning a 3D skirt in Japan, but a brief interview with Office's group program manager revealed that the clip is indeed dead. While it had been fading for awhile due to an apparent lack of mass fanfare, and was even turned off by default in Office 2003, it seems that Clippy fans will be forced to stick with now-antiquated versions of the Office suite in order to keep their darling on screen. But don't fret too much, as the countdown until someone crafts a freeware app re-instilling a Clippy rendition into Office begins... now.

Have you received any negative feedback about Clippy's death?

Interestingly, the negative feedback that we've gotten has been much more about the dog than Clippy. I've never had anyone say, "Gosh, I really miss Clippy," but we have had a few people say that they missed the dog, and wanted to know how to get him back. I think there are certain characters that engendered themselves more than others. But again, we're talking a half-dozen requests in the three-million beta testers that we had. I think people are ready to see that pass on, as part of Microsoft BOB, and the past.