Microsoft Office Tries Tempting with a $39.99 'Lifetime License'` (popsci.com) 164
From the world of proprietary software comes this report by Popular Science. "Despite the increasing number of more economical options (read also: free) on the market, many people still prefer Microsoft Office over the alternatives available..."
"The only setback? A license can be expensive, especially if you're the one shouldering the fees instead of your company. If you wish to have access to the suite for personal use, you either have to pay recurring fees for a subscription or cough up hundreds in one go for an annual license."
Sounds pretty rough. But through Thursday they're at least getting a temporary price drop: If none of these options appeal to you, maybe this Microsoft Office Home and Business: Lifetime License deal can. For our Deals Day sale, you can grab it on sale for only $39.99 — no coupon needed. This bundle is designed for families, students, and small businesses who want unlimited access to MS Office apps and email without breaking the bank. The license package includes programs you already likely use on the regular, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, and OneNote.
Upon purchase, you get access to your software license keys and download links instantly. You also get free updates for life across all programs, along with free customer service that offers the best support in case any of the apps run into trouble. The best part? You only have to pay once and you're set for life. The Microsoft Office Home and Business: Lifetime License normally goes for $349, but from today until July 14, you can get it for only $39.99 thanks to the special Deals Day event. Click here for Mac and here for Windows.
"The only setback? A license can be expensive, especially if you're the one shouldering the fees instead of your company. If you wish to have access to the suite for personal use, you either have to pay recurring fees for a subscription or cough up hundreds in one go for an annual license."
Sounds pretty rough. But through Thursday they're at least getting a temporary price drop: If none of these options appeal to you, maybe this Microsoft Office Home and Business: Lifetime License deal can. For our Deals Day sale, you can grab it on sale for only $39.99 — no coupon needed. This bundle is designed for families, students, and small businesses who want unlimited access to MS Office apps and email without breaking the bank. The license package includes programs you already likely use on the regular, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, and OneNote.
Upon purchase, you get access to your software license keys and download links instantly. You also get free updates for life across all programs, along with free customer service that offers the best support in case any of the apps run into trouble. The best part? You only have to pay once and you're set for life. The Microsoft Office Home and Business: Lifetime License normally goes for $349, but from today until July 14, you can get it for only $39.99 thanks to the special Deals Day event. Click here for Mac and here for Windows.
$39.99 per PC (Score:5, Insightful)
I have multiple PCs, for one thing, so I think I'll stick with Libreoffice.
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If you already have Libreoffice, why even bother posting? Even TFS says this is for people who don't consider the appeal of free alternatives.
Re:$39.99 per PC (Score:5, Informative)
Re:$39.99 per PC (Score:4, Funny)
If you already have Libreoffice, why even bother posting?
To get First Post! Duh!
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You're better off aiming for Libre post instead. Libreoffice is many excellent things, but performant is not one of them.
In case anyone is wondering, yes, I use Libreoffice. The only MS Office component I still use on occasion is Excel '97. It really is just a joy to use, to me it is the absolute peak of functionality:bloat ratio (and I first actively used 1-2-3 on DOS, so I know efficiency — it would run in less than 640k. I only touched viscalc once...)
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This is the thing though, MS Office has a long history of format lock in, those free alternatives don't exist for lock-in situations.
For people who need a license because they bring work home, this may be appealing, or some people who have to interact with clients who are locked in to an MS environment.
Maybe they're just pointing out that the majority of people have access to LO, and if you don't already, then you should start using it.
Re: $39.99 per PC (Score:2)
It's nice and all to be idealistic like that, but reality will bite sooner or later. I've got a job interview coming up (4th in a series) where I have to give a live presentation for an hour demonstrating past projects I've done. They'll also need a copy of the PowerPoint file.
There's no guarantee that what LO outputs will actually load on their computers. The company I'm applying for is no joke and the competition for jobs there is quite stiff, with very few people even making it this far. You really think
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If I was asked to give a live presentation for an hour demonstrating past projects, I'd turn down the job. That sounds like HR bureocracy gone crazy. Who would want to work for a firm that asked you to do that, and you weren't even getting paid for it?
No, I suspect that the "presentation" is just so that they can pick your brains for ideas and steal them.
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Absolutely. They don't need an hour to figure out if you can give a presentation. But an hour on the stuff you're most proud you've done lately might be useful intelligence.
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Absolutely. They don't need an hour to figure out if you can give a presentation. But an hour on the stuff you're most proud you've done lately might be useful intelligence.
This is a two way street with waste on both sides. Companies that want outsider ideas and not invest in training/research/development sounds toxic and I don't think intelligence theft will get them far if they can't invest in people to implement and maintain.
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> You really think I'd want to risk using anything other than MS PowerPoint for that?
I remember LO having some sweet GL slide transitions. Would make your presentation more memorable if that's the way they work.
Ask a friend if a simple LO file loads ok in their MS - it should at least import ok there was a legal file format ruling around this. The problems normally start when you go the other way, from MS to LO.
Have a play with transitions if you haven't already and good luck with the interview process.
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Agreed on the Libreoffice option.
However, if you're considering building a Windows machine(s) in the near future, they have Windows 11 Pro for $34.99
https://www.microsoftkeys.net/... [microsoftkeys.net]
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I'd be careful about any grey-market key sellers.
Re: $39.99 per PC (Score:3, Informative)
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> are you also a vegan?
If he was Vegan, drove a BMW or was a cross-fit member it would clearly say in his signature, haha.
life of what? and will it end being tied to an oth (Score:3)
life of what? and will it end being tied to an other buy later one?
must be online?
Re:life of what? and will it end being tied to an (Score:4, Interesting)
Life of the particular windows installation on the particular machine. Reinstall or upgrade and you're out of luck.
Personally, I prefer Microsoft Office... 2003. The modern Office sucks.
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I still run MSO 2007. I upgraded from Office XP just for the new file formats. I haven't had a reason to upgrade sense.
Re: life of what? and will it end being tied to an (Score:4, Insightful)
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I am usually running Office 2003 in an old Windows XP VM under Fusion when I want to use Excel comfortably. I am on a Mac and both MS Excel 2019 and LibreOffice are much slower and even buggy in comparison, even if they are running nativelly.
Re: life of what? and will it end being tied to a (Score:2)
On that point, why has Excel been so bad in the last decade? I hate using it in Mac. It's just so unpredictability buggy.
And even on Windows, it seems to be calculating the next largest Prime for every little thing. I now have a stupid shortcut for replacing formulas with values just to have a sane experience.
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Well, every update fixes all the bugs, you just get NEW BUGS. Then it's a mini-game to figure out what's broke in THIS update.
At least that's been MY experience. It's like the ol "don't like the weather? wait an hour!" trope. Don't lke the bug? Run updates, and see if you like the new bugs instead? (and once you find an update that has only bugs you can tolerate, maybe just never update again!)
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Get this, someone on Slashdot thinks Microsoft has IMPROVED Office.
"Now works with other apps, rearranged icons, and has a eyedropper to grab colors like everyone other program has on the planet."
Only 1% of the public uses those extra power features. And, if the documents were compatible, I'd consider the NON-ribbon version of office an upgrade in usability. I've given up finding where the change case button is to be found and just use that search bar for it.
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I've never used anything with the ribbon, but my understanding is that you can pin stuff
Re:life of what? and will it end being tied to an (Score:4, Informative)
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Life of that version of Office. This is basically a discount version of the boxed version Microsoft sells. It doesn't get the drip feed of feature updates like Office 365, just bugfixes and security updates. It'll keep working even after that date, but it becomes increasingly unwise to do so the longer it's been, just like any unmaintained software.
Fraud: 1 install only, no reinstall (Score:3, Informative)
"The best part? You only have to pay once and you're set for life. " Not completely true.
Can only install this 1 time. Can never reinstall, recover from crash, move to different machine. read the fine print
Re:Fraud: 1 install only, no reinstall (Score:5, Insightful)
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Perhaps it's a different company now, but I'm not forgetting two decades of misbehaviour for just a few years of not being terribly evil...
Course you don't. That's why people still don't trust IBM or Germany. Motto:"Never forget, never forgive".
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that doesn't make commercial software companies inherently evil. Profit motivated, but not always evil.
Some would say that was the same thing. We used to call them Christians, but these days most Christians seem to believe that economic success is proof that God loves them.
Microsoft and Apple are nowhere near the scale of evil that google and facebook are.
Microsoft set computing back a decade with FUD wars and lawsuits against Linux, notably by funding post-tech patent troll SCO Group. Their core user-facing product Microsoft Windows is literally the worst spyware [networkworld.com] in existence. Microsoft and Apple are both, willingly or not, part of the PRISM [wikipedia.org] warrantless citizen spying program. Apple exerci
Re:Fraud: 1 install only, no reinstall (Score:5, Informative)
your comment is false. microsoft allows you to transfer the license (as long as it's not an OEM license) to another computer. they deactivate the installation on the previous computer
source: i had to call ms last week to do this as i purchased a new laptop
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Yeah, that's the problem. You have to f***ing CALL them. There's absolutely no reason to force that. You should be able to do that online through your MS account page.
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Re:Fraud: 1 install only, no reinstall (Score:4, Informative)
This is grey market software. I've seen a lot of major brands peddling it lately. Not licenses intended for the US market. They have slightly different terms than the US version. Cannot install and activate on different hardware even once.
Re:Fraud: 1 install only, no reinstall (Score:5, Informative)
That is *not* the Microsoft Store.
Re:Fraud: 1 install only, no reinstall (Score:4, Interesting)
The sad thing is I have to decide between a commenter falling for phishing-level site trying to look like microsoft store, or if they are working with the linked site...
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On one hand, you're right. On the other hand, these licenses often are actually part of bundles sold by Microsoft to resellers, and sometimes they are fully legit. Other (most) times, they are supposed to be used only when bundled. For operating systems there is a grey area, because the system builder license permits use on a new PC regardless of who's building it, I think for the purpose of being able to bundle it with a component kit. For Office, I would think there would be less question about whether it
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no one could possibly be dumb enough
drink's law: any time you say "no one could possibly be dumb enough", you are proving yourself wrong.
You can stick your SaaS up your aSS. (Score:5, Interesting)
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Re:You can stick your SaaS up your aSS. (Score:4, Interesting)
It's a lifetime license. There's no recurring fee. Microsoft has rediscovered software as a product. Except it's a new and improved product that doesn't require actually making anything physical and does depend on the whims of Microsoft's activation servers.
It also doesn't seem super unusual. Looks like they had a very similar sale in April.
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Please explain how paying reoccurring fees for Office 365 is not SaaS.
It clearly states it's a "Lifetime" license where you only have to pay one.
Summary even states "You only have to pay once and you're set for life."
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Of course by "lifetime" they don't mean your lifetime. They mean the lifetime of the Windows install you put it on. One-time install only.
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This isn't Office 365, it's a discount version of the periodic releases they put out that's like the old pre-Office 365 waterfall-style releases.
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Yeah, this sounds like a trap to get your documents locked up into the Office 365 ecosystem. Lord knows that shit isn't free, and they'll be charging you for document storage for the rest of YOUR lifetime.
First a thought 'what a deal'.... (Score:5, Insightful)
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Yup. Over the past decade +, the only times I've needed Word or Excel were all work-related - and that's just because someone at work used Microsoft Office to generate some document or another. In any case, work-related means it's my employer's responsibility to pay for any "necessary" software.
At home, the free options work great. I can use the Apple alternatives (Pages and Numbers), or I can use LibreOffice. I can't say I've ever felt "gosh, I sure wish I could use Word or Excel instead of this software".
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Same here.
Of course I use LO at home (in Linux), but all my users at work are also doing the same. Once in a blue moon we get something that doesn't look or act right. And usually it just doesn't matter. And most of that time it is not the fault of LO, but because the document was just horribly designed or had freaky non-included fonts. Once I just Emailed the sender asking them to send their mucked-up PowerPoint to us as PDF.
incomplete quote (Score:2)
Microsoft Office Tries Tempting with a $39.99 'Lifetime License'` good only for the lifetime of THAT version.
FTFY
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It'll keep working even after Microsoft moves it to EOL status, it just becomes increasingly unwise to do so because there won't be any more security patches issued. It's not like as soon as the clock ticks over to the date it goes EOL it will instantly stop working.
Re: incomplete quote (Score:2)
Whether it'll be a bad idea to keep on using is not clear. Once almost everyone moves on to a new version, there are likely to be fewer attacks on the old version. Probably in between there is a period when the old version is used by enough people but not maintained and hence an attractive target, but if you can wait that period out, it then may well be safer than using new stuff.
Donation (Score:5, Funny)
Hmm, all of a sudden I feel like donating $40 to the LibreOffice people.
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Indeed. I use their stuff (or LaTeX) wherever I can anyways.
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I donated. I've never done that for them before, so it was long overdue. I was hoping there would be a way to attach a note to the donation so I could tell them why and maybe someone there would get a chuckle, but there wasn't.
But the important part was that it will help them further their projects.
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There are some, but I have no idea how good they are. I am completely fine on the CLI. I have used Word RTF export and RTF2LATEX to produce documents that do not look typeset by an incompetent. Needs some manual work though. But MS Office is really the "under-3" wannabe version of text processing: Ugly results, hard to use, slow, bad features and (WTH?) frigging security problems!
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I regularly use Gummi for basic Latex. It's not pure GUI, but you get near-instant rendering of your changes: https://gummi.app/ [gummi.app]
I've also hear people like TexMaker (https://www.xm1math.net/texmaker/) and TexWorks (https://tug.org/texworks/).
A Microsoft deal! (Score:2)
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Well, for the last couple iterations of Office, Microsoft has intimated "this may be the last time we release a stand-alone version". A "lifetime upgrades" offer is meaningless if they never release a new version of the software.
Advertorial (Score:3)
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I was thinking that. At least on sites like The Register they clearly mark it when it's a paid article. Thought /. used to do that, but maybe someone goofed or they changed the policy.
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Nothing to see or read here.
What do you mean nothing to see or read? Check the comments. There is an amazing and rich discussion going on about the practices of license transfer, the meaning of lifetime licenses, alternative products, benefits and downsides of different options.
If you're not here for the comments then WTF do you read Slashdot at all? If you are here for the comments, then this "advertorial" is providing content for a nice rich discussion well worth participating in.
http://www.zdnet.com/ [zdnet.com] - There's a link for you if yo
"Set for life"? Not likely (Score:2, Insightful)
MS can simply "improve" Office along the same lines they have for the last decade or so and in a few years, it will be completely unusable. Then they bring out, say, office 2007 under a new name and your "lifetime" licence is a complete joke.
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And they'll call it Office Classic!
why does this not link to Microsoft (Score:3)
Re:why does this not link to Microsoft (Score:4)
Why does it link to popsci, whatever that is? Is this legit?
Because this is a straight up ad for Pop-Sci's online shop. How the fuck did this get posted in the first place?
We use to call that "Purchasing software" (Score:2)
Microsoft has determined that they can maximize profit by moving everything online and charging you for access. It seems unlikely this is going to change in the long run.
There will be a catch - it's tied to a combination of hardware hashes so if you change anything about your computer it voids the agreement, you get 'main line' updates only and they introduce a 'format upgrade' that isn't in the main line so you become incompatible with everyone else, etc.
I simply don't believe them when they say this lice
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I simply don't believe them when they say this license will be honored for your lifetime.
I fully believe the license will be honored for your lifetime. I also fully believe that this version of the software has already have planned obsolescence build into it to make it practically useless after a few years. At that point, the lifetime license is useless, and they are hoping you have become so deeply reliant upon it that you will switch the the subscription version.
This is nothing more than a plan to increase subscription revenue. Think of this as the promotional version that softens you up for
Maybe not "prefer" (Score:2)
I have a lot of files in Publisher (2010) and, as far as I can tell, all the alternatives do a non-existent to very poor job of importing these files, so that's a sticking point for me. All my other Word/Excel files are few and/or uncomplicated enough that I can easily re-work them in something else, like LibreOffice.
My most complicated file is my multi-sheet, personal budget/financial-tracking spreadsheet that's still in Lotus 123 (v9.8 from SmartSuite) -- which runs fine on Windows 10, btw. That will
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I'm a Windows techie by trade but I've flipped everything - including my servers - over to Linux. Mostly Ubuntu.
I doubt this will be the Year of the Linux Desktop, but it's entirely practical for the home user now. Corporate desktops will mostly remain Windows so long as so many developers have their apps dependent on that environment. You know, those same devs who require their apps to run with full Admin rights with IE available, because why even try to do things right?
Re: Maybe not "prefer" (Score:2)
Nowadays when people create applications, they're typically web apps. The exceptions are generally engineering, design, medical, and industrial. They typically don't have these issues though.
The ones you're talking about are typically made in China, who doesn't seem to have even one talented UX designer amongst the whole billion of them.
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Get your files out of Publisher.
Seriously. It's not 1998 any more.
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Get your files out of Publisher.
Seriously. It's not 1998 any more.
Trust me, easier said than done. Luckily, it's mostly greeting cards I've made for friends/family, so not critical that they port, but a lot work went into them over the years... Also Publisher has really good paper handling for folds, etc ... Not sure what you mean by the 1998 comparison, but while even the 2010 version may be old, it still works really, really well for things like cards.
Never have I ever seen such a group of cry babies (Score:4, Insightful)
Microsoft: "Here is an $89/year subscription. It includes 6TB of cloud storage, a couple hours of international skype calls per month and premium email. You can install it on up to 30 computers."
Slashdot: "Fuck off with your cloud subscriptions I want perpetual licenses!"
Microsoft: "Here is a $39 one time purchase for just the software but without any cloud storage."
Slashdot: "OMG Read the fine print! This is just a single license! If you want to move it from a PC to a Mac you have to repurchase it! You won't get upgrades to the latest versions!"
Yes... that's how your precious perpetual licenses have always worked.
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Yes... that's how your precious perpetual licenses have always worked.
Nonsense. I've had no trouble moving MSO from one computer to another. At the absolute worst, it takes a 5-minute phone call.
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Nonsense. I've had no trouble moving MSO from one computer to another. At the absolute worst, it takes a 5-minute phone call.
Not sure why you say nonsense. That's literally how MS licenses have worked since the Windows XP days. You're vehemently agreeing with the OP will claiming his post is nonsense.
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As hirride as hw licence dongles where ( prone to being list too), the at keast made transfering licenses from computer to computer somewhat easy, and not reluant on the tech support person beliving that this is really a transfer to a new system etc. Maybe that would be an idea.0. And since thst dingle also can include a bit of flash any special driver needed could be on the device itself so no download or driver media to be l
kinda, but not really (Score:2)
This is how software used to be. If I reading the
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No. MS licenses are transferable. You're reading comments correctly, people here are just idiots.
By the way did you completely uninstall the Office from your previous Mac before moving it to your new machine? If not then you were in breach of the terms of the license. If yes, then you'll have no problem here either you just need to contact MS to enable the move since the licenses status is now checked (precisely because people felt entitled to not stick with the license agreements in the past).
Remind me (Score:2)
Why do I need MS Office again?
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>"Why do I need MS Office again?"
To create and send files to others, just proprietary enough to try and force everyone else to also buy and use MS-Office :)
So where is this on Microsoft.com? (Score:3)
Competition (Score:2)
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LibreOfflice Nearly $40 Cheaper (Score:3)
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Is it for literally a single PC, or one at a time? (Score:2)
If I re-install my PC do I still have the lifetime license? If I upgrade to a new desktop, can I carry this with me?
1 PC is a bummer (Score:2)
One I am typing this on could croak a week later for all I know and then I am out $70/year regular price if I like the features vs Google Docs and other free or pay once solutions. This is on the right track, even at say $100/pc long term, just needs some refinement. I wish Adobe creative cloud also offered per PC lifetime license at somewhat predictable prices. It would be great to be able to budget for software when purchasing new hardware.
Gimme a 1-time iPad Word license and I'm on board (Score:2)
Help needed (Score:2)
"lifetime" (Score:2)
Which lifetime, though? My lifetime? Microsofts lifetime? The lifetime of this specific product? The computer I've installed it on? The activation servers? Oh look, it's not what you think it is... oh look over there, a three-headed monkey! Don't mind the fine print, it's bad for your eyes...
I will buy it! (Score:2)
I can run it on the windows 10 install which was sold to me as 'the last windows version, it will just be updated forever'.
Thus, either :
a) my OS and Office suite needs are solved in perpetuity
or
b) sales and marketing are lying weasels
Lifetime license on what platform? (Score:2)
Will it work on Win7? What about Linux?
In the future will you be required to have an increasingly higher Win Version
to get updates?
This may not be as free as it appears, if you are required to purchase increasingly higher versions of some associated software (like an OS or something else they might tie to the office-upgrade ability.
Unless they support Win7, which many people still use, then predict future versions to only be supported on future versions of Win....
Not really "free", if tied to new OS that
Likely not a legit deal (Score:4, Interesting)
There is discussion on SlickDeals. One poster said:
I think you don't understand the difference between the various Office products. Office Professional Plus is only sold by Microsoft through volume licensing to large organizations. It is never sold directly to consumers. This seller bought volume licensing keys and is reselling them in violation of Microsoft's terms of use. The fact that they tell you to activate the product within 30 days is a HUGE red flag. Legitimate retail keys can be activated at any time.
SCAM??? "Invalid Key" (Score:3)
I just plopped $40+, got a key, and MS rejected it. "Contact the seller". How come others didn't have a problem? What do I do now?
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It is not that I do not _trust_ them. I actually completely trust MS crap within my expectations: Insecure, unreliable, low performance, hard to use, "improving" to make it worse, incompatible even to itself, essential config options missing, data import/export a joke, overpriced and under-delivering, generally incompetent and a decade or two behind, and most of all, a high level of determination to screw over their customers whenever possible.
So, yes, I "trust" them. But that is nothing good.