News - Office 2013 retail is “permanently assigned” to a single computer

I will stick with Open Office :P

And yet they wonder why windows xp is still so common in the workplace. The only reason for most to move on from xp is for having more than 3 gigs of ram which is more workstation than desktop environment.
Corporate xp licenses were so much easier to manage than vista/7/8 ones are.
It's not just Microsoft that are at it, we have a multi user floating matlab license from mathworks on a service contract (basically want up to 3 instances of matlab at once across 8 machines) but since they changed the terms to be one license per machine which has to phone home every hour we no longer pay to always have the latest version as well the new features aren't worth the associated hassle.

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Originally Posted by shabz8324

This all comes down to what version of office you normally buy. If like a high percentage of people you buy home and student then yes you are getting a pretty raw deal. However if you are someone who buys the office home and business, which costs around £180, you are getting a great deal with office 365.

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You might consider it a good deal, but I absolutely do not.

First, I am not interested in the online collaborative asoects. Second, not only do I not want to be able to access documents from "anywhere", but I absolutely want this prevented.

Third, there are NO circumstances under which I'm storing private peronal files, or confidential business files, on MS servers, even encrypted, and especially if the company doing the storing is the company writing the encryption. That, for me, in an absolute non-starter. I already go to considerable lengths to avoid those risks.

Fourth, not interested in Skype minutes, etc, and absolutely not interested their "Drive" storage services .... or Googles, for that matter.

All I do want is traditional office functions, like Word, Excel and Access.

But finally, absolutely no way am I letting MS lock down access to my own data files into read only, even including print, if I stop subscribing, which is what happens in the restricted mode if you MS account is not kept in good standing. And suppose there's acockup, and I find my account locked .... no proper access to my own data? The hell with that.

Some of those files are documents prepared for clients, under contract, and I could be exposed to significant legal problems if I can't deliver on thatcontract, perhaps because MS gave locked my documents into restricted mode. I make myself a hostage to fortune by doing that, and basically have to bend over for whatever demand of me if I'm in that situation.

So sorry, but no, Office365 is an utter non-starter for me, and that's before I even get to not being willing to pay subscription charges to MS. That, I will never do, and if avoiding it means changing office suites and even OS, so be it.

If I but a desktop suite, I know on day one what that will cost me, from that moment on. It's a known, quantifiable amount, and I can decide to do it, or not. But rental? Hell, no.

So Office 365? Not now, not ever. MS with control over my data? Not now, not ever. And a suite where I have to buy it again every time I change PC? Bother that for a game. If that's the say MS go, I will simply cease using MS products.

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Originally Posted by pipTheGeek

Slightly off topic but still in line with stupid license restrictions. Has anyone else noticed that it doesn't appear to be possible to buy a non upgrade retail edition of Windows 8? Or am I just being dumb and can't see it?

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Yes they have done away with the retail licences you buy the retail upgrade or the oem full version so you are going to be buying a new version of windows when your system dies by the looks of it, unless you have a retail copy of xp,vista or 7 you upgraded.

You have to assume that MS think their office suite is indispensable. Perhaps for some businesses it is, but for the average home user... no chance - most of them aren't willing to shell out retail prices for it in the first place.

And since businesses will likely be using VLK solutions or similar, they won't be buying licenses like this - so it's hurting the group least likely to continue using the product. Interesting logic.

From my understanding your preset save location is skydrive however you can change this to your hard drive. The read only thing after your subscription of office 2013 runs out is you can read the documents in word etc but not edit or create new doc's but you can open/edit/ read them on other office suites, in essence the file itself doesn't expire but the use of the software does. Like i said thats my understanding of it i might be wrong but it seems pretty much how i would expect it to be you created the files therefore they are yours to do with as you please.

As for being worth it i meant in a capacity of more than 1 person needing office home and business say 2 that would be an outlay of say £360 where you could just rent the software for 3 years and going by how it works now on a 3 years cycle you are updated to the latest version and its cost you less in the long run that way. I am not a fan of it either the home and student licence is an absolute joke but they are a business and have to look at how to keep rolling over money since pc/ laptops are considered a decreasing market.

Well, I guess Office 2010 will be the last one I buy. At least Windows 8 has been good (yes, I'm serious).

I don't need to have an opinion on MS office. Business is fine for the last 14 years with Open Office and now Libre Office.

Libre Office 4.0 rocks.

I'm still on Office XP... still don't see any reason to upgrade

Windows 9 will be subscription. They will call it Windows 365.

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Originally Posted by kingpotnoodle

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I wonder if and how they do any tracking of whether Technet/MSDN users really do use the software just for testing /development.

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they have removed the majority of technet keys for the personal type of windows or office installs...
allowing mostly the pro/enterprise versions whereby activation is via kms and renewed every few months.
this allows them to stop your key should you not continue subscription...
and the t&c changed to stop allowing the use of the products should your subscription expire.

Maybe windows 360
give it 5 days off a year for crashes :)

but also if its a leap year, will its usage be allowed on feb29 even if its the 365 product? ;)

so let me get this straight. my computer mobo stops working and there goes my office product i paid for?

they seriously expect people to accept this? open office couldn't have wished for a better day.

I'm going to miss using the Office suit from Microsoft, but I can't justify this. I guess I'm going to move over to one of the free suits.

Libre Office or Open Office? Don't like neither of them as much as Micrsofts Office suit, but they are ok.

I just downloaded Libre Office 4.0, and found a way to have documents open by default in "Web Layout" view.

Bye bye Microsoft Office

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Originally Posted by zaph0d

And this is why I use Open Office, all the tools, none of the hassles or expenses :)

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I know that when I really had a need for an office suite at work, for presentations or large spreadsheets, Open Office usually failed me, but it's possible that it has become good enough since I last tried it.

At home I use Softmaker Office, even though I've had licenses for Microsoft Office for years (while I was a Microsoft MVP). I like that it's lightweight and it has the features I want. Its license allows using it on up to 3 PC's.

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Originally Posted by Firejack

On top of this you can't have any confidence that the product you are using will be supported in 1-2 years time. Without warning Microsoft are just pulling products and services. Leaving you no upgrade path or escape route.

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Can you give examples? For Windows and Office Microsoft has very long service cycles, more than most companies have.

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Originally Posted by snootyjim

You have to assume that MS think their office suite is indispensable.

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Instinctively I thought this, but I can't imagine it's as simple as that. I refuse to believe that lots of thought hasn't gone in to this. Maybe it's intentional to drum up some interest just for MS to then go "naaaah of course we're not doing that" before updating the license to make it seem much more attractive (and so drumming up yet more interest and sales)