Bye-bye, MS Office!
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I used MS Office since the early 1990s, always thanks to the volume discounts my employers got. But then my Office Pro 2016 got munged, and I had to factory-reset my PC, and now my options are $400-something for a standalone version of Office or $100 a year for Office 365. Obviously, Office 365 is the far better deal, but then I asked myself if I needed Office. Looks like I don't. I've installed Thunderbird for email, and that works fine. I use Access in application development because it has a nice interface, but I can do the same with SQLite and "DB Browser for SQLite." If I need to open Word or Excel files, it looks like Google Docs and even Microsoft's free web-based Office apps can do the trick. How about you?
Not so long ago, I was forced into using Libre or OpenOffice, cannot remember which one it was, because that was the tool of choice of my son's school. This was the worst experience ever. /edit: 50% probably because I am not used to the tool UI, I reckon, but 50% because the tool was really poor once you used it for something else than writing a few lines and inserting two images. I know bashing MS Office has been going on for years, but let's be honest, the tools are awesome, and I would not switch to anything else - while the free alternatives are probably good enough for most, they do not come close to the Office toolchain. At home, I use resold unused Office licences and always got the full professional edition for max 50€ - Currently happily using 2016 version and I do not plan to change it anytime soon. And generally speaking, I avoid all kind of subscription system, which is the new rip-off trend of software industry nowadays. "recurring revenues", or how to make ten times more money with the same thing.
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I used MS Office since the early 1990s, always thanks to the volume discounts my employers got. But then my Office Pro 2016 got munged, and I had to factory-reset my PC, and now my options are $400-something for a standalone version of Office or $100 a year for Office 365. Obviously, Office 365 is the far better deal, but then I asked myself if I needed Office. Looks like I don't. I've installed Thunderbird for email, and that works fine. I use Access in application development because it has a nice interface, but I can do the same with SQLite and "DB Browser for SQLite." If I need to open Word or Excel files, it looks like Google Docs and even Microsoft's free web-based Office apps can do the trick. How about you?
Well, you can always go back to stone tablets and smoke signals if you really want to save money.
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Not so long ago, I was forced into using Libre or OpenOffice, cannot remember which one it was, because that was the tool of choice of my son's school. This was the worst experience ever. /edit: 50% probably because I am not used to the tool UI, I reckon, but 50% because the tool was really poor once you used it for something else than writing a few lines and inserting two images. I know bashing MS Office has been going on for years, but let's be honest, the tools are awesome, and I would not switch to anything else - while the free alternatives are probably good enough for most, they do not come close to the Office toolchain. At home, I use resold unused Office licences and always got the full professional edition for max 50€ - Currently happily using 2016 version and I do not plan to change it anytime soon. And generally speaking, I avoid all kind of subscription system, which is the new rip-off trend of software industry nowadays. "recurring revenues", or how to make ten times more money with the same thing.
Yup. As a person who has written some Office Add-ins, toolchain is the key here (for me). I use Softoffice for my personal stuff, does what little I need (Linux user). When you say that version 2016 is all you need, you define the reasons behind subscription offerings to remain in business for many large shops. I avoid them wherever possible. FWIIW, I can (and have) run Office 2000 on W10, everything but Outlook runs. Well, for me, everything being Word and Excel. That version came without any activation requirements. One wonders about buying/selling unused licenses. You can get same for Windows itself. Seems to me I read that it is against the EULA to sell them, but I don't know, IANAL. I have none to sell anyway. :)
>64 Some days the dragon wins. Suck it up.
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I used MS Office since the early 1990s, always thanks to the volume discounts my employers got. But then my Office Pro 2016 got munged, and I had to factory-reset my PC, and now my options are $400-something for a standalone version of Office or $100 a year for Office 365. Obviously, Office 365 is the far better deal, but then I asked myself if I needed Office. Looks like I don't. I've installed Thunderbird for email, and that works fine. I use Access in application development because it has a nice interface, but I can do the same with SQLite and "DB Browser for SQLite." If I need to open Word or Excel files, it looks like Google Docs and even Microsoft's free web-based Office apps can do the trick. How about you?
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Not so long ago, I was forced into using Libre or OpenOffice, cannot remember which one it was, because that was the tool of choice of my son's school. This was the worst experience ever. /edit: 50% probably because I am not used to the tool UI, I reckon, but 50% because the tool was really poor once you used it for something else than writing a few lines and inserting two images. I know bashing MS Office has been going on for years, but let's be honest, the tools are awesome, and I would not switch to anything else - while the free alternatives are probably good enough for most, they do not come close to the Office toolchain. At home, I use resold unused Office licences and always got the full professional edition for max 50€ - Currently happily using 2016 version and I do not plan to change it anytime soon. And generally speaking, I avoid all kind of subscription system, which is the new rip-off trend of software industry nowadays. "recurring revenues", or how to make ten times more money with the same thing.
Microsoft Office is overkill for most people -- 90% of the folks use 10% of the features. LibreOffice is good enough, although for those who use more than 10% of the features, LO falls down quickly. It's a distant second best to Office. Also, while each can read the other's formats, translation of moderately complex documents is a one-way trip -- neither MO nor LO plays nice with the other. The advantage of Google Docs over Notepad is for when I want Google to know what's on my shopping list. And Google wants to convert everything to their format, regardless of what the owner wants. Folks complain about the Microsoft 365 subscription? For $100 USD I get 6 licenses for all of Office + OneDrive. Each license allows me to install Office on multiple PCs (all access same license materials), plus on tablets and phones. 1 TB of OneDrive space is far more than I'll ever need, and it makes sharing of files across my devices effortless, plus sharing with others. For $100/year I share with 4 family members, and have a license left over, so my actual cost is $20/person. This doesn't work for everyone, but the cost of what is provided can be quite low.
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Yup. As a person who has written some Office Add-ins, toolchain is the key here (for me). I use Softoffice for my personal stuff, does what little I need (Linux user). When you say that version 2016 is all you need, you define the reasons behind subscription offerings to remain in business for many large shops. I avoid them wherever possible. FWIIW, I can (and have) run Office 2000 on W10, everything but Outlook runs. Well, for me, everything being Word and Excel. That version came without any activation requirements. One wonders about buying/selling unused licenses. You can get same for Windows itself. Seems to me I read that it is against the EULA to sell them, but I don't know, IANAL. I have none to sell anyway. :)
>64 Some days the dragon wins. Suck it up.
theoldfool wrote:
Softoffice
Never heard about it. Google sends more than one link, do you have maybe a link ?
theoldfool wrote:
Seems to me I read that it is against the EULA to sell them
There is no clear statements about it, I reckon, so maybe it is not indeed legal everywhere - but tbh instead of leaving an already bought license unused forever, I still find it better to pay again a small amount for it and use it.
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theoldfool wrote:
Softoffice
Never heard about it. Google sends more than one link, do you have maybe a link ?
theoldfool wrote:
Seems to me I read that it is against the EULA to sell them
There is no clear statements about it, I reckon, so maybe it is not indeed legal everywhere - but tbh instead of leaving an already bought license unused forever, I still find it better to pay again a small amount for it and use it.
Oops, my mistake, Softmaker office, not soft office. I got an "almost free" version when I bought my scanner software. Since it is a for sale (either rent or purchase) product, I won't post the link here.
>64 Some days the dragon wins. Suck it up.
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Microsoft Office is overkill for most people -- 90% of the folks use 10% of the features. LibreOffice is good enough, although for those who use more than 10% of the features, LO falls down quickly. It's a distant second best to Office. Also, while each can read the other's formats, translation of moderately complex documents is a one-way trip -- neither MO nor LO plays nice with the other. The advantage of Google Docs over Notepad is for when I want Google to know what's on my shopping list. And Google wants to convert everything to their format, regardless of what the owner wants. Folks complain about the Microsoft 365 subscription? For $100 USD I get 6 licenses for all of Office + OneDrive. Each license allows me to install Office on multiple PCs (all access same license materials), plus on tablets and phones. 1 TB of OneDrive space is far more than I'll ever need, and it makes sharing of files across my devices effortless, plus sharing with others. For $100/year I share with 4 family members, and have a license left over, so my actual cost is $20/person. This doesn't work for everyone, but the cost of what is provided can be quite low.
BryanFazekas wrote:
90% of the folks use 10% of the features
That is probably closer to 1% than 10%. As you poitned out, the lacking format compatibility between MO and others is really a pain - and since MS moved to xml content, I hardly understand why it is still that complicated.
BryanFazekas wrote:
$20/person
Ok, this sounds more reasonable than $100/year for a single user. What bothers me is not that price in particular, it is the accumulation of subscriptions that you have to do nowadays (phone/tv/sw/storage/, soon it will be cars, and maybe other household things) which brings the monthly bill on a quite high level ! The subscription prices are extremely high - a SW license that you would have paid $150 and maybe kept for 5 years before paying for an upgrade is now around $99.90/year, this is a $150 vs. $500 difference. So maybe OK for subscriptions, but not for the same price as the full license to be paid every year...
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Oops, my mistake, Softmaker office, not soft office. I got an "almost free" version when I bought my scanner software. Since it is a for sale (either rent or purchase) product, I won't post the link here.
>64 Some days the dragon wins. Suck it up.
Ok got it, thanks.
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I use Office 2003 (Word and Excel only really), with the converters, it's just fine.
I have used the Office 2010 version from the MSDN set of CDs when i had the Ultimate(?) version of VS many moons ago. Avoided any updates since then.....
Thar's only two possibilities: Thar is life out there in the universe which is smarter than we are, or we're the most intelligent life in the universe. Either way, it's a mighty sobering thought. (Porkypine - via Walt Kelly)
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I used MS Office since the early 1990s, always thanks to the volume discounts my employers got. But then my Office Pro 2016 got munged, and I had to factory-reset my PC, and now my options are $400-something for a standalone version of Office or $100 a year for Office 365. Obviously, Office 365 is the far better deal, but then I asked myself if I needed Office. Looks like I don't. I've installed Thunderbird for email, and that works fine. I use Access in application development because it has a nice interface, but I can do the same with SQLite and "DB Browser for SQLite." If I need to open Word or Excel files, it looks like Google Docs and even Microsoft's free web-based Office apps can do the trick. How about you?
License keys are transferable. Some companies buy in bulk then consign the ones they don't use. One can buy these license keys at a fraction and that MS honors. Just keys; no software; you download from MS and activate with your key. You should be able to reuse your keys; if you can find them.
"Before entering on an understanding, I have meditated for a long time, and have foreseen what might happen. It is not genius which reveals to me suddenly, secretly, what I have to say or to do in a circumstance unexpected by other people; it is reflection, it is meditation." - Napoleon I
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I used MS Office since the early 1990s, always thanks to the volume discounts my employers got. But then my Office Pro 2016 got munged, and I had to factory-reset my PC, and now my options are $400-something for a standalone version of Office or $100 a year for Office 365. Obviously, Office 365 is the far better deal, but then I asked myself if I needed Office. Looks like I don't. I've installed Thunderbird for email, and that works fine. I use Access in application development because it has a nice interface, but I can do the same with SQLite and "DB Browser for SQLite." If I need to open Word or Excel files, it looks like Google Docs and even Microsoft's free web-based Office apps can do the trick. How about you?