[PCWorld]

Post your comments for Microsoft Office subscription plan sparks questions, and here are answers here

[LiveBrianD]

A few things to keep in mind: For one thing, these are a lot more expensive than before. For instance, $140 for one PC or $150 for Office 2010 on 3? Seriously? Or, if you have, say, 5 PCs, let's compare $100/year or $300 for 2 3pc licenses. (After 3 years, buying it outright is cheaper.) If you have fewer PCs, the difference is even greater. (Considering not everyone upgrades to every new version...)

The other is that, from what I'm reading, at least on the versions you actually BUY, the license is LOCKED to that machine. If the machine dies, you're buying another copy of Office.

You have to be kidding me - they've been trying awfully hard to loose business lately. No wonder why Office 2013 has 1 (!!!) and 2 star ratings on amazon... (even though otherwise, there's nothing wrong with it) Hopefully they'll fire Ballmer soon...

[gw74]

Buying Office is absolutely nothing whatsoever like buying a house vs renting.

[JasonD210]

Quote

A few things to keep in mind: For one thing, these are a lot more expensive than before. For instance, $140 for one PC or $150 for Office 2010 on 3? Seriously? Or, if you have, say, 5 PCs, let's compare $100/year or $300 for 2 3pc licenses. (After 3 years, buying it outright is cheaper.) If you have fewer PCs, the difference is even greater. (Considering not everyone upgrades to every new version...) The other is that, from what I'm reading, at least on the versions you actually BUY, the license is LOCKED to that machine. If the machine dies, you're buying another copy of Office. You have to be kidding me - they've been trying awfully hard to loose business lately. No wonder why Office 2013 has 1 (!!!) and 2 star ratings on amazon... (even though otherwise, there's nothing wrong with it) Hopefully they'll fire Ballmer soon...

I know it's just sick. Imagine if all software companies did that. Suddenly we'd have £1000 or more to pay every year. Pretty soon getting set up with a computer is going to require a mortage, like a house or car.

Office 2013 costs 180 for the standard version, and you can only install it on one PC. Even if you uninstall it and try to install it on another you can't. That sucks.

[JasonD210]

Try LibreOffice instead folks. It's the new version of OpenOffice and while it's not as good as Microsoft, it comes pretty close. It has some features MS Office does not, it works on Linux and Mac (as well as Windows) and above all it's FREE!

It's produced by a charity called "The Document Foundation" and they ask for donations - so if you use the software and like it, you might want to help them out by donating a fiver.

[JasonD210]

The standard version of Office 2013 costs around 180 GBP on Amazon and you can only it install on one machine to which it becomes digitally signed.

$100 per year subscription for Office 365 doesn't sound a lot, but if they do this with all software then it will get expensive.

Office is great software, but there are free alternatives that do pretty much what you need them to do, and which work on other platforms.

[MKZ1945]

Quote

JasonD210

Try LibreOffice instead folks. It's the new version of OpenOffice and while it's not as good as Microsoft, it comes pretty close. It has some features MS Office does not, it works on Linux and Mac (as well as Windows) and above all it's FREE! It's produced by a charity called "The Document Foundation" and they ask for donations - so if you use the software and like it, you might want to help them out by donating a fiver.

I agree with JasonD210 on this. Unless you are in a business that requires all the custom features that MS Office has to offer, OpenOffice or LibreOffice will serve you fine, and both are fairly compatable with MS Office programs, except for Access. Let me add this. In most cases, if you can get by on the standard version of MS Office than you probably can get by on one of the freebees. I use LibreOffice when in Linux, and in my opinion, it’s a very good option for most people I know.
I’ve had to use MS Office due to having to work with modified versions upon occasion, including Access. This alone would prevent me from the rental plan.

I look at this pay as you go thing in two different ways. One is that if you are not sure that you need it’s capabilities, or if you want to find out what it is capable of, it’s a cheaper way of finding out then blowing up to $400.00 on something you may not need. The other scenario is that if you find you only occasionally need to use some of it’s capabilities, then it may be the cheaper route to go. What I would like to see is something more on the lines of a rent-to-buy option where people can use the software on a monthly bases and after paying in an amount equal to the purchase price of the product version they are using, it becomes theirs. Not everyone will know right up front how long they might need to use this rental sevice.

[LiveBrianD]

JasonD210, on 02 February 2013 - 10:01 AM, said:

Try LibreOffice instead folks. It's the new version of OpenOffice and while it's not as good as Microsoft, it comes pretty close. It has some features MS Office does not, it works on Linux and Mac (as well as Windows) and above all it's FREE!

It's produced by a charity called "The Document Foundation" and they ask for donations - so if you use the software and like it, you might want to help them out by donating a fiver.

I've tried it, and while it's good as far as Office alternatives go, it's not great at compatibility. FWIW, the free office web apps are quite good for most uses, as long as you don't mind storing stuff in the cloud and not having an offline editor.

[brainout]

LiveBrianD, on 02 February 2013 - 09:42 AM, said:

A few things to keep in mind: For one thing, these are a lot more expensive than before. For instance, $140 for one PC or $150 for Office 2010 on 3? Seriously? Or, if you have, say, 5 PCs, let's compare $100/year or $300 for 2 3pc licenses. (After 3 years, buying it outright is cheaper.) If you have fewer PCs, the difference is even greater. (Considering not everyone upgrades to every new version...)

The other is that, from what I'm reading, at least on the versions you actually BUY, the license is LOCKED to that machine. If the machine dies, you're buying another copy of Office.

You have to be kidding me - they've been trying awfully hard to lose business lately. No wonder why Office 2013 has 1 (!!!) and 2 star ratings on amazon... (even though otherwise, there's nothing wrong with it) Hopefully they'll fire Ballmer soon...

To the blue bolded text -- yeppers. Just think: 80% of MS Office users are not using a current version of Office. Why? Because ever since 2007, MS has messed up the interface. The alleged new features aren't needed, as the third-party market created add-ins to do the same thing, prior. I think I have one client and one accountant who use MS 2007. I just bought another MS Office 2000 and another 2002 for I think $40 each. People still sell the open-box retail versions. License allows you to install on one main desktop and one portable, caveat being you don't use them both at the same time.

Since we can keep using these older and better versions of MS Office and at such a price, why would we want to buy 2010 (blecch) or 2013 (meh)? So why want to subscribe to 365, since it means you have NO CONTROL over when THEY change the software with a history THEY show of DYSFUNCTIONALLY CHANGING THE INTERFACE?

So yeah, blue-text apt. They must have a death wish, to so trash both the OS and the MS Office flagship products, and then have the nerve to overprice them.

[LiveBrianD]

brainout, on 02 February 2013 - 01:49 PM, said:

LiveBrianD, on 02 February 2013 - 09:42 AM, said:

A few things to keep in mind: For one thing, these are a lot more expensive than before. For instance, $140 for one PC or $150 for Office 2010 on 3? Seriously? Or, if you have, say, 5 PCs, let's compare $100/year or $300 for 2 3pc licenses. (After 3 years, buying it outright is cheaper.) If you have fewer PCs, the difference is even greater. (Considering not everyone upgrades to every new version...)

The other is that, from what I'm reading, at least on the versions you actually BUY, the license is LOCKED to that machine. If the machine dies, you're buying another copy of Office.

You have to be kidding me - they've been trying awfully hard to lose business lately. No wonder why Office 2013 has 1 (!!!) and 2 star ratings on amazon... (even though otherwise, there's nothing wrong with it) Hopefully they'll fire Ballmer soon...

To the blue bolded text -- yeppers. Just think: 80% of MS Office users are not using a current version of Office. Why? Because ever since 2007, MS has messed up the interface. The alleged new features aren't needed, as the third-party market created add-ins to do the same thing, prior. I think I have one client and one accountant who use MS 2007. I just bought another MS Office 2000 and another 2002 for I think $40 each. People still sell the open-box retail versions. License allows you to install on one main desktop and one portable, caveat being you don't use them both at the same time.

Since we can keep using these older and better versions of MS Office and at such a price, why would we want to buy 2010 (blecch) or 2013 (meh)? So why want to subscribe to 365, since it means you have NO CONTROL over when THEY change the software with a history THEY show of DYSFUNCTIONALLY CHANGING THE INTERFACE?

So yeah, blue-text apt. They must have a death wish, to so trash both the OS and the MS Office flagship products, and then have the nerve to overprice them.

To be honest, I've always found the ribbon to be more logical than the 2003 style UI (in fact, I get confused whenever I use 2003, as I use 2010 at home). Since 2007, the UI really hasn't changed much. (even through 2013, which I've tried) The issue with 2013 is really just that they had a moron (Ballmer perhaps?) come up with the pricing scheme. (sure, you get 20GB on skydrive and 60 skype minutes, but what if you don't use skype, and don't need that much space on skydrive? 7GB goes a long way with word documents...) A little minor qualm I have with it is that there's no dark theme. (only dark gray, which isn't really that dark) I kinda liked the black theme in 2010 because it helped reduce eye strain...

[JasonD210]

Don't get me wrong, I think Microsoft Office is a great suite. I think Microsoft word is superb.

However, I believe that since word processing software is THE medium for documents in this day and age, it is just too important to be messed around with. I find it disturbing that Microsoft can just stop you using it, if you don't pay. To me, a subscription based model just seems inappropriate for something as basic and important as a word processor.

It's just nice to know that software like LibreOffice is there, as a backup. I use it for writing research papers with Zotero. It reminds me of what Word Processors used to look like before the dreaded ribbon...

[RaulYbarra]

Well, as happy as I have been with the 2013 preview, I've been saying for some time that if they cannot offer a cost effective perpetual license, I'm gone.

The only thing they have assured is that piracy of Office is going to through the roof. Is anyone but me old enough to remember Lotus 123 and their ridiculous copy protection/licensing? Hard to believe that they had better conditions than Microsoft today.

Unfortunately, the open source solutions lack the high-end power that I need for much of my work. It seems like that after nearly 15 years with Office, I may be seriously considering shifting back to WordPerfect. It all depends on file compatibility.

[GiantStuffedAnimals]

I want to know what DEFINES PC. If my graphics card dies do I need a new copy? If my hard drive dies do I need a new copy? If my mother board goes out do I need a new copy?

[mymail]

I download my Office softwares and install them for free from the Internet for all of my PC's. Nothing can beat that, certainly not MS Office 365 on a subscription basis. Who in his right mind would want to do that kind of stupid thing? I can spend my money on a lot of better things than MS Office! There are certainly many other Office Suites available that are free to use perpetually with no yearly rental payments required. My 2 cents for today.