Microsoft: Buy Office 365, Not Office 2013

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
Joined
May 9, 2000
Messages
75,399
There’s nothing like a company competing against itself; who could be the winner in that scenario? The obvious answer is Microsoft and not the customer. If you are looking for a new version of Office Suite, you have two basic choices and neither is the perfect solution.

Office 2013 is apparently locked to a single machine, perpetually, while Office 365 licenses are sold to a group of users, who can license and de-license PCs at will.
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Microsoft needs to reverse course or its i for a lot of trouble luckly most of the corp world is still on 03/07/10
 
So let me get this straight. You fork over the money for 2013 and they're just going to say too bad if you have to buy a new computer? Not to mention a quick Google search makes me think that all MS did was remove features in 2013 that worked in the last version. Pay more for less? Fuck that.
 
I really don't understand any of the business decisions Microsoft has made in the last year or two. What the fuck are they doing?
 
damicatz said:
LibreOffice is a fork but OpenOffice is still around and under active development.
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More precisely: LibreOffice forked while OpenOffice was still languishing at Oracle and being really poorly developed, but since the fork, Oracle gave up and let Apache have it and it is now under active development and called Apache OpenOffice.

There is a ton of debate on LO vs AOO, but the upshot seems to be that LO has more new features, some of which may be significant like OOXML support, but also has significantly more bugs.
 
Rizen said:
I really don't understand any of the business decisions Microsoft has made in the last year or two. What the fuck are they doing?
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That's the question that comes up in my mind when it's a company that uses hundreds of computers thinking about ANY Microsoft Office product.

Open Office gets my vote.
 
Office is incredibly over priced. I don't see why anyone outside of a business environment would pay for it, and I'm sure businesses get huge discounts.
 
Full disclosure, I work at Microsoft. I don't get what the issue is. I can buy a 1 year subscription for $100 and install it on up to 5 different machines for my use. That doesn't really seem overpriced.
 
TechnoMage said:
Full disclosure, I work at Microsoft. I don't get what the issue is. I can buy a 1 year subscription for $100 and install it on up to 5 different machines for my use. That doesn't really seem overpriced.
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...as apposed to FREE open Office???
 
prndll said:
...as apposed to FREE open Office???
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Free for life is also cheaper than $100 per year.

Well, $10,000 is much more expensive than $100. In that sense he has a point.

It's Microsoft math ;)
 
prndll said:
...as apposed to FREE open Office???
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I like free software just as much as the next guy, but to have any reasonable expectation for it to have the same features and support as an business product (read: paid for) is nonsense and therefore do not expect nor desire it.

I personally don't need 5 licenses for $100. Maybe I need 2. Then again, I am fine running 2010 until its out of support at which point the payment for 2013 or whatever the product is at that time is a reasonable expenditure. I am single, so this scenario makes sense. If I had a family with multiple users of the product then the 5 licenses for $100 becomes a much better deal. I suspect quite a lot of people fall into that category which is why there is a product for it.
 
canna said:
Or just keep office 2003....
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Or 2000 with its 2007 converter packs. ;) However, I am unable to open password protected docx files with old versions and the latest third parties (OpenOffice and LibreOffice). :(
 
prndll said:
...as apposed to FREE open Office???
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I can definitely understand this sentiment. However, for many people Open Office just doesn't cut it. You need the real deal for somethings, especially where compatibility is paramount.
 
prndll said:
...as apposed to FREE open Office???
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If the product that one produces is of little value then sure, go for the free stuff. When the product that one produces is significant, if it means getting that contract, that promotion, that degree or keeping that job, a couple of hundred bucks is jack shit.
 
@heatlesssun
Under certain circumstances, I could easily see that. But, that is a very small portion of what's happening. The vast majority of companies out there are just trying to do their business. They are NOT trying to "promote" Microsoft or gain any "contract" with them.
 
I bought excel 2010, I expect that to last me for 5 years if not longer. Renting software is more expensive. And they need to seriously change office 2013 so it don't blind people.

What is with Microsofts fascination with using white in all the ui that it hurts the eyes?
 
oh wait....it almost sounds like your saying that if it (whatever "it" is) actually means something, then Microsoft Office is the only way to go. Is that what your saying? Because that makes absolutely no sense.
 
prndll said:
@heatlesssun
Under certain circumstances, I could easily see that. But, that is a very small portion of what's happening. The vast majority of companies out there are just trying to do their business. They are NOT trying to "promote" Microsoft or gain any "contract" with them.
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Exactly, doing business means making money and being penny wise and pound foolish isn't generally good business.
 
Aielman said:
I don't think this true. The EULA implies you only get one installation, which is where this seems to come from. But the instructions for how to remove Office 2013 include references to the same 5 installations as previous versions.
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I'm a bit confused what happens after you used up 5 installations? the key becomes in invalid!? :confused:

I probably do 2-3 upgrades a year (mobo/vga) I usually do a clean install every time :/
 
heatlesssun said:
Exactly, doing business means making money and being penny wise and pound foolish isn't generally good business.
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So opting for Open Office is "pound foolish"? I guess I am so sorry for not being so shallow. Enjoy your ride along the surface of the waters...I'll be going a bit deeper.

I have never understood "corporate thinking" and I never will.
 
jcvjcvjcvjcv said:
Get rid of the ribbon and I'll pay...
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Ribbon isnt bad, its just different. Its essentialy like tabbed browsing. It automatically selects the appropriate tab and appropriate page full of pertinent settings when you click on an element like word art or table.

If you click on word art in a table, and it automatically selects the wrong tab for you, you just click on the appropriate tab and modify what you want.

It is a good alternative management of screen space when you have hundreds of potential options when only few might be pertinent.

And you can still add toolbars that have the things you always want visible.
 
I purchased Microsoft Office 2013 Pro and installed it on two computers and a laptop (all the same key.) I didn't encounter an issue until I decided to add an mSATA drive to the laptop and did a fresh install of windows 8. Then I just did the phone activation procedure. I was asked how many machines I had it installed on and it still let me continue to activate it. I did not encounter an installation limit of 1.
 
OpenOffice is good enough for like 90% of things that people do from home. However, if you can get a copy of MS Office for cheap, it's usually better to spend a few bucks. When I was in college, I ran into a few issues going back and forth from MS Office on campus PCs to OO at home (usually formatting things). It wasn't bad enough to warrant spending $300+ on a copy of Office, but I would have gladly paid a little bit back then to avoid the problems, period. There a ways to get it on the cheap too: Home Use Program, college discounts, etc.
 
heatlesssun said:
If the product that one produces is of little value then sure, go for the free stuff. When the product that one produces is significant, if it means getting that contract, that promotion, that degree or keeping that job, a couple of hundred bucks is jack shit.
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Are you claiming that using Microsoft Office will give me a promotion? If so, does it come with a money-back guarantee if I don't get promoted?
 
bpizzle1 said:
OpenOffice is good enough for like 90% of things that people do from home. However, if you can get a copy of MS Office for cheap, it's usually better to spend a few bucks. When I was in college, I ran into a few issues going back and forth from MS Office on campus PCs to OO at home (usually formatting things). It wasn't bad enough to warrant spending $300+ on a copy of Office, but I would have gladly paid a little bit back then to avoid the problems, period. There a ways to get it on the cheap too: Home Use Program, college discounts, etc.
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Exactly, this is why the price of Office is so indeterminate. The sticker price of MS Office is beyond what most people will pay. The price at which people can really get if for is substantially less.
 
damicatz said:
Are you claiming that using Microsoft Office will give me a promotion? If so, does it come with a money-back guarantee if I don't get promoted?
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What I am saying is that if one is trying to impress with an office document, would one do so with Open Office or Libre Office?
 
Sales of Office to home users is about to halt completely.

I can guarantee my customer base has NO INTEREST WHATSOEVER in paying $100/yr for a 5 machine subscription that expires and it stops working. NONE. ZERO.

They WILL pay the $120-140 for the Office 2010 that they have been buying for the retail version. Installs on 3 computers. Customer has media and can install on any systems they choose.

People buy a license to office and expect to use it for 5-7 YEARS.

The subscription is going to be the end of Office. Maybe it is time. I like the Windows operating system fine, but MS has made a fatal mistake with its Office decisions. Time for other software to replace the Office suite.
 
prndll said:
So opting for Open Office is "pound foolish"? I guess I am so sorry for not being so shallow. Enjoy your ride along the surface of the waters...I'll be going a bit deeper.

I have never understood "corporate thinking" and I never will.
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Obviously you only use office software for very basic tasks. That is fine, but do not presume to know that everyone shares your same needs. MS Office provides many more features than OpenOffice can, or ever will. They have money to put in it, simple as that. Have you ever tried to do an online document share with an oo doc? Or perhaps manipulate pivot tables on multiple computers?

OO is a great tool for people just doing basic things. For some, MS is really the only viable option however. You may think $1.67 per month per computer is expensive, but for some people it is chump change.
 
TechnoMage said:
Full disclosure, I work at Microsoft. I don't get what the issue is. I can buy a 1 year subscription for $100 and install it on up to 5 different machines for my use. That doesn't really seem overpriced.
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Considering that we just started phasing out office 2003 last year (2012) it would have cost us $900 per machine @ $100/year. No thanks.
 
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