Do You Really Want to Subscribe to Microsoft Office?

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
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May 9, 2000
Messages
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If you are in the market for Microsoft Office this fall, you will have something of a dilemma as far as how to go about getting it. This year Microsoft is giving you a choice of buying the Office 2013 license outright or subscribing to Office 365 straight from the Cloud.

Consumers who want to upgrade their Microsoft Office software this fall have to ask themselves a hard question: "Do I want to subscribe to Office like I would a magazine - or continue to buy it like a book?"
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I think these pay-per-month things companies like Microsoft and Adobe are now offering are great. Get what you need when you need it, without the huge investment for something like Word or Photoshop.
 
This is the real reason why the recent push for everything "cloud". I would not be surprised if Windows 9 is subscription based.

It will all go this way now. You will pay subscriptions for games and apps alike, and it will cost you a fortune when you add it all together. Welcome to the "future".
 
Stimpy88 said:
It will all go this way now. You will pay subscriptions for games and apps alike, and it will cost you a fortune when you add it all together. Welcome to the "future".
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I would much rather pay $3.00/mo for a video game than $60 one time deal for a game that I'll spend 3 weeks playing and then get bored.
 
Cali3350 said:
I think these pay-per-month things companies like Microsoft and Adobe are now offering are great. Get what you need when you need it, without the huge investment for something like Word or Photoshop.
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I was kinda meh about Office 365, but after looking into what they're offering and the price they're charging for it, I think there are lots of situations in which a subscription would be useful or even better than purchasing software. There are people out there who, because they licensed Office 2003 at a very high cost, are still trying to keep using it even though it's a pretty old product.

I like the idea of getting acess to an offline version of Office, but it doesn't have to be the only solution. I guess I'd like to not see a more conventional version if I want it, but a subscription service is fine if offered in parallel with existing software sales models.
 
Depends on quality of service and support, updates etc per the price point and the fact it would be recurring.
Stimpy88 said:
This is the real reason why the recent push for everything "cloud". I would not be surprised if Windows 9 is subscription based.

It will all go this way now. You will pay subscriptions for games and apps alike, and it will cost you a fortune when you add it all together. Welcome to the "future".
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Yes it is easier to over reach and subscribe to more things then you can possibly support due to lower initial price point but you wouldn't be able to afford the shit to begin with if it wasn't subscripted based so fuck it? Really things like this depends on what kind of consumer you are, people who only play a game for a week or so and then never touches it again love services like game fly etc it saves them money vs buying games and turning them in if you're hitting 2+ games a month. If you're a person who only buys 1 thing and sticks with it till you 100% it for over 2 3 months then no that service is not working for you, but then again you should access that before you decide on a service =p
 
Short answer: No.
Long answer: Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
 
Just dont use it enough to warrant it.

Besides, Office is for girls.
 
My company is trying out it. Seems to work great. Assigned each user a license that allows us to install Office 2010 on any PC (so installed it in my desktop and travel laptop no hassle). When the time comes that new Office comes out the license trasfers which allows users to upgrade. When the company decides to stop paying or doesn't renew license MS pulls the plug and software stops working.
 
I have a retail copy of Office 2010 Professional on my desktop, but I run Office 365 (through browser) on my laptop. It works well for me. I believe you can download a copy of Office 2010 Professional Plus for no additional charge if you have the subscription, too.

The only drawback is the lack of Dropbox integration. Now that I think about it, SkyDrive might be better than Dropbox. I get more space and the SkyDrive apps on my Android phone and tablet are pretty nice, too. Yup, switching over now.
 
This is generally from the business end of things. The average home user will not want to be cloud based. The market will decide this ultimately.
 
Methadras said:
This is generally from the business end of things. The average home user will not want to be cloud based. The market will decide this ultimately.
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But it will soon also come with WIndows 8 straight from the clouds!

It will also have cloud based pen and touch! :D
 
I really think there are more than enough software vendors who want me pay them for their wares, forever, rather than own a particular copy outright.

If this should happen, I am glad I own a copy of Window 7, because hell will freeze over, before I subscribe to a Windows 9, or up-grade to Windows 8 either, for that matter.
 
PeaKr said:
LibreOffice is starting to look pretty sweet.
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It's not a bad effort. I use it on my Compaq laptop and it runs fine (766 MHz Celeron, 320 MB RAM) though it takes a half minute or so to load because the system is sort of slow. It doesn't convert stuff and 100% keep formats and layouts between MS Office and it which, I think, is pretty important since it really has no choice but to interoperate with MS products given how much of the market is controlled by various versions of MS Office. Spell check doesn't work on a vanilla install without messing with it a little sometimes. The latest version acted quirky until I gave it a new spelling dictionary that was downloaded from their site. If you don't mind that kinda stuff though, it's an okay alternative.

DustMite said:
If you think LibreOffice looks good, take a look at Kingsoft Office Suite. What I like about it is that it resembles Office in both looks and functionality and is lighter on the resources too. :D
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I knew Kingsoft made a version of Office for Android devices, but I didn't know they made a PC version as well. I might have to play with that a little. Do you happen to know if it works on Windows 98?
 
I love it. The prices are lower than buying new copies every year and you get all kinds of small perks like Skype credits, Lync and more SkyDrive storage. And the integration with my phone and PC is great.
 
Fuck this shit. I will buy it if I need it, but I rarely need Office as it is and there are other software solutions that work just as well for what I need it for. The only place I see an absolute need for Office is in the corporate workspace.
 
SkribbelKat said:
I was kinda meh about Office 365, but after looking into what they're offering and the price they're charging for it, I think there are lots of situations in which a subscription would be useful or even better than purchasing software. There are people out there who, because they licensed Office 2003 at a very high cost, are still trying to keep using it even though it's a pretty old product.

I like the idea of getting acess to an offline version of Office, but it doesn't have to be the only solution. I guess I'd like to not see a more conventional version if I want it, but a subscription service is fine if offered in parallel with existing software sales models.
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That is because Office is a rip-off.

R&D costs are decreasing due to H1-B fraud and the ability to offshore work to programmers for pennies an hour and yet software continues to get more expensive.
 
damicatz said:
That is because Office is a rip-off.

R&D costs are decreasing due to H1-B fraud and the ability to offshore work to programmers for pennies an hour and yet software continues to get more expensive.
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I'm sure that makes sense to you, but I have no idea what you're talking about or what it has to do with using Office 365.
 
SkribbelKat said:
I'm sure that makes sense to you, but I have no idea what you're talking about or what it has to do with using Office 365.
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You claimed people were still using Office 2003 because of how much money they spent on it. I stated that it was because Office is a ripoff.

Office 365 is an even further ripoff unless you only plan to use it for a sum of time lesser than what it would cost to purchase the full version of Office. You are trading long term cost for short term savings.
 
damicatz said:
You claimed people were still using Office 2003 because of how much money they spent on it. I stated that it was because Office is a ripoff.

Office 365 is an even further ripoff unless you only plan to use it for a sum of time lesser than what it would cost to purchase the full version of Office. You are trading long term cost for short term savings.
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Well, it's hard to compare them on a per features basis since Office 2010 and Office 365 offer different stuff, but Office 2010 Pro is ~$350 and a Small Business subscription to 365 is $6 per month.

http://www.microsoftstore.com/store...ons?siteID=SRi0yYDlqd0-REABPiWIkHjNzAkbgHYBDg

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/office365/compare-plans.aspx

You lose Access and Publisher but get e-mail, a web presence through SharePoint, and Lync stuff. If you buy a new version of Office Pro once every three years, 365 SB is actually less expensive.
 
SkribbelKat said:
Well, it's hard to compare them on a per features basis since Office 2010 and Office 365 offer different stuff, but Office 2010 Pro is ~$350 and a Small Business subscription to 365 is $6 per month.

http://www.microsoftstore.com/store...ons?siteID=SRi0yYDlqd0-REABPiWIkHjNzAkbgHYBDg

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/office365/compare-plans.aspx

You lose Access and Publisher but get e-mail, a web presence through SharePoint, and Lync stuff. If you buy a new version of Office Pro once every three years, 365 SB is actually less expensive.
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The Small Business Edition doesn't come with the Office Suite unless they changed the plan recently.
 
damicatz said:
The Small Business Edition doesn't come with the Office Suite unless they changed the plan recently.
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As far as I know, it doesn't. You end up using the browser embedded versions. I haven't tried them yet, but I'm seriously considering getting a SB subscription just so I don't have to worry as much about keeping Office updated or worrying about whether its installed on a computer or not. Plus it would get rid of my needing to use something else for e-mail and something else for a basic website and I could tie it into Skydrive for storage.

If I need to be offline, there's LibreOffice or (if I like it) Kingsoft's stuff too and both don't cost anything except for a donation. :) I'm actually reading Katherine Murray's 365 intro guide that you can download from Microsoft just to get sort of an idea of what I can do with it before I sign up for a 30 day trial.
 
For companies, "renting" office makes a great deal of sense. Our IT has reduced costs by ~30% moving to this model for certain software solutions.
 
Trepidati0n said:
For companies, "renting" office makes a great deal of sense. Our IT has reduced costs by ~30% moving to this model for certain software solutions.
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It's taking me a while, but I'm sort of coming around to SaaS and other things that are getting lumped under cloud technologies. I still don't feel completely comfy with the idea so I'm approaching it with some reservations...thus all the caution and wishy-washy from me about it.
 
SkribbelKat said:
I knew Kingsoft made a version of Office for Android devices, but I didn't know they made a PC version as well. I might have to play with that a little. Do you happen to know if it works on Windows 98?
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According to the Kingsoft Office website:
Required Operating System:
Windows 2000 / Windows XP / Windows Vista (32bit, 64bit) / Windows 7 (32bit, 64bit)
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SkribbelKat said:
Well, it's hard to compare them on a per features basis since Office 2010 and Office 365 offer different stuff, but Office 2010 Pro is ~$350 and a Small Business subscription to 365 is $6 per month.
You lose Access and Publisher but get e-mail, a web presence through SharePoint, and Lync stuff. If you buy a new version of Office Pro once every three years, 365 SB is actually less expensive.
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And if you are still running office 2003 (9 years later) you have saved money, or even office 2007 (5 years later) you are close to breaking even. I know 2003 & 2007 originally cost more, but I'm comparing running office 2010 for the next 5 or 9 years as opposed to Office 365.

Of course that assumes you actually paid the full $350 price as opposed to an upgrade price.

This is similar to the argument about buying vs. leasing a car.

If you always want to be running the latest version (or driving the latest car), and only care about the monthly cost, then you’ll probably like the cloud based software (or leasing a car).

However, if you keep using the same software for years after the new version comes out, and only upgrade when you have to (or when you find a deal that’s too good to pass up), then you’re going to hate the higher long term cost with cloud based software.

I prefer to buy, then I have the choice on whether to upgrade or just keep using my old stuff. I shake my head when I hear people complain about their lease payment, or having to get a new car because their lease is up & they can’t afford it, etc.
Instead, my 10 year old car was paid off 7 years ago. I can easily afford a new car (7 years of no car payments really help), but since I didn’t find a deal on anything close enough to what I wanted, I’ll just wait till next years models are out.
 
If it fucks over all the software pirates, then I am all for it.

As long as the prices are reasonable and the restrictions are minimal.

If the prices are too high, then I might just consider Google Docs.
 
SkribbelKat said:
As far as I know, it doesn't. You end up using the browser embedded versions. I haven't tried them yet, but I'm seriously considering getting a SB subscription just so I don't have to worry as much about keeping Office updated or worrying about whether its installed on a computer or not. Plus it would get rid of my needing to use something else for e-mail and something else for a basic website and I could tie it into Skydrive for storage.

If I need to be offline, there's LibreOffice or (if I like it) Kingsoft's stuff too and both don't cost anything except for a donation. :) I'm actually reading Katherine Murray's 365 intro guide that you can download from Microsoft just to get sort of an idea of what I can do with it before I sign up for a 30 day trial.
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Well, you're in for a disappointment then. The browser version is nowhere near the desktop version in terms of functionality; for example, pretty much everything that makes Excel better than Libreoffice (The Data Functionality) is non-existent. You can actually get the online Office versions for free using SkyDrive.

Staples said:
If it fucks over all the software pirates, then I am all for it.

As long as the prices are reasonable and the restrictions are minimal.

If the prices are too high, then I might just consider Google Docs.
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I was not away that they were transporting so much software on ships. I thought everything was digital download these days. Obviously, boarding a ship and plundering its cargo of boxed copies of software is a bad thing.
 
I don't like the idea of having to be online all the time to use a word processor or something so this whole could thing doesn't work for me. Unlike video games which I can survive without in the rare event that my internet goes down, my assignments and jobs isn't going to care about that.
 
Hell no. I have a copy of Office 2003 I got from MS for free and a 3 license copy of Office 2007 Home and Student that I bought for a dirt cheap price. I'll keep using both for when I need an office product. If I need something else, I just found out I can get a copy of Office 2010 from work for $10/license. Screw a subscription plan. I pay for enough stuff on subscription now.
 
Methadras said:
This is generally from the business end of things. The average home user will not want to be cloud based. The market will decide this ultimately.
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It's stupid.

Basically, to use a cloud service you have to risk losing control of your data. Banks would not use any 'third party' cloud service, federal regulations prevent storing sensitive data (customer information) anywhere except in the banks control.
 
damicatz said:
Well, you're in for a disappointment then. The browser version is nowhere near the desktop version in terms of functionality; for example, pretty much everything that makes Excel better than Libreoffice (The Data Functionality) is non-existent. You can actually get the online Office versions for free using SkyDrive.
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Good point. I can see cloud services limiting what you can do for various reasons, especially performance. Just try running a moderately complex query on excel for a few thousand lines of data. It will take yuour CPU to 100% for anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes or more. This does not work well in virtual desktop infrastructure or citrix. We take those users off of shared environments and put them back on physical devices just to prevent them from killing everyone else's sessions for minutes at a time.
 
BBA said:
Good point. I can see cloud services limiting what you can do for various reasons, especially performance. Just try running a moderately complex query on excel for a few thousand lines of data. It will take yuour CPU to 100% for anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes or more. This does not work well in virtual desktop infrastructure or citrix. We take those users off of shared environments and put them back on physical devices just to prevent them from killing everyone else's sessions for minutes at a time.
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The harder aspect, at least for cloud computing, is finding a way to connect the "cloud servers" (which the customer does not control) to the customer's data, via ODBC. Basically, what makes Excel useful, at least to me, over other spreadsheet programs, is PivotTables and especially PowerPivot. I don't see a way to effectively do PowerPivot in the cloud without major complications from a security standpoint.
 
How much will Office 2013 cost? I like the CP, I think I'm gonna upgrade to it.

I hate subscriptions, I recently canceled all mine.
 
Subscriptions... always paying for something that is never yours. You lose your job and can't pay, no more access to your documents. On top of it all I'm sure your state will charge you sales tax on the thing you are not buying and will never own. Maybe Linux will eventually catch on. It is not my first choice, but I am not going to pay for software like it is one of my utilities.
 
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