New computer but no MS Office Suite

gorilla

I have MS Office 2000 and Open Office 2.0 but recently formatted the hardrive. I could not be bothered to reinstall MS Office as it takes so long compared to Open Office. I have not had any compatibility issues between Open Office docs and being able to open these in MS Office. Note that I still have to save the Open Office docs in MS Office format. If ever anyone did have a compatibility issue then they could always use the handy inbuilt pdf maker in Open Office and bobs your uncle you'll be able to at least read the doc. My girlfriend works on complex spreadsheets and these open fine in OPen Office.
The point, just download it and trial it, if you can't get to grips with it then buy MS Office, but I can't see me ever going back.

beautifulgorgeous_2

The student/ teacher version I used had a licence to be used on three machines for the 100 oddquid

lipidicman

alexjohnson wrote:

You completely missed the point. While technically you are correct everyone knows that what Microsoft has done is to write T's&C's deliberately to exclude business use. That is what they are trying to achieve, not to crominalise your Grannie who wants to write the odd letter to the bank manager. If you are a home user they don't care whether you actually do have a child or not. They are happy if you buy the software _at all_. That is not the case if you are in business, where it is "stealing", no if's or but's about it. I didn't say that just having the CD was good enough - but for a home user Microsoft really doesn't mind if you buy Student & Teacher if you don't really have children - they aren't expecting ordinary consumers to spend £300 to get Word. They just aren't.

Hmmm, I think you are deluding yourself.
http://www.microsoft.com/office/editions/prodinfo/students/doyouqualify.mspx

•You must be a qualified educational user or a household member of a qualified user when you acquire this product.
•You're restricted to using this product for non-commercial (non-revenue-generating) use.

Gorgeous_George

Have you checked out eBay?



GG

lipidicman

If microsoft want you to have something for less money (or free) then they will let you know. I have the MS visual studio express freebie ISO downloads on my hard drive.

OK, MS probably wont come around or set the lawyers on you. However they probably wouldn't do this for most stolen copies. The point is having no licence or an invalid licence is the same thing. You cant say 'don't spend £400, spend £100' as I can come along and say 'You might as well get it for free as the £100 licence is invalid'. You are still on dodgy ground and you are £100 worse off.

I probably agree with you on the Record Industry. There is a funny thing going on at the moment. 'Official' Leaks - ie giving the record away FOR FREE early to build hype and push sales (often with artificial poor quality). I bet a lot of people buying Office today (for themselves or their businesses) have previously used a pirate version, so perhaps this is part of the reason microsoft don't make examples of people. Someone getting comfortable with a copied version could be a sucker for life still!