Microsoft Caves, Allows Users to Transfer Office 2013

[ojas]

ok i don't understand this, Kevin keeps saying that earlier office licenses were limited to one PC and another "portable device", yet all the retail boxes i've ever seen/bought only say "3 PC license", for office home and student.

 

[thecolorblue]

[citation][nom]nolarrow[/nom]I read the above post in the voice of these kids: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2AlY17pLxoYou're most likely on linux, what other software were you going to use?/rantBack story: Tons of toms comments on how great linux is excited the tinkerer in me to try it out. Huuuuge waste of time. Pony up the $100 and scoop a copy of windows 7. At this point I might hate linux fan boys over apple fan boys, but its still up in the air.[/citation]
microsoft shill - aka idiot

 

[jerm1027]

[citation][nom]jezus53[/nom]Lol, that documentation you speak of is not at all helpful. The problem with linux is that if I install it on my laptop I lose nearly all of the functionality it has except for basic functions. Everything else like hot keys, the wifi card, touchpad drivers, ect. I need to dig around and find since each laptop is different. I would only use linux on a desktop because you don't have all of that to deal with. To be fair, I did put ubuntu on my laptop and it was able to get most of the basic functionality installed, but the wifi card, which I had to setup on my own. It's just too much of a hassle to be honest. It because a cost vs. benefit thing and since I can get win7 copies for free why would I even bother? And no, not through pirating.[/citation]
I've installed Linux on quite a few laptops, and have never had a driver-related touchpad issue. The only issue I've ever had is that GUI for touchpad settings didn't allow for both two-finger and side scrolling at the same time, which was easily corrected via terminal.
Wireless drivers are a pain, but it's a fairly uncommon issue, and one that is easily fixed if you have an ethernet connection. The last one I used was a Dell Inspiron 1150, and even the Dell sight had shody drivers that weren't easily identifiable. I put in one command, and the wireless was working. Driver issues are exponentially worse on Windows, especially without a direct internet connection. I did have an oddball issue with screen backlight on two laptops, both were fixed by a single boot parameter. I'd call more of a BIOS issue over a Linux issue though. For the most part, they will install without issue, though some of the lesser known issues can be found with solutions after digging through forums. Linux Mint works perfectly on my old gaming laptop (Intel Wireless), and Acer Netbook (Broadcom/Astheros). No additional drivers needed, no additional software needed for normal operation. As for hotkeys, you didn't even try. It's right in the keyboard settings. Ubuntu/Mint already works with the most common hotkeys, without any additional configuration, such as volume control, media, wifi on/off, sleep, etc. You can also configure various custom shortcuts, such as launching applications, run commands (I did one to rotate the screen to use netbook as e-book reader), and more.
With Linux Mint/Ubuntu, it takes me an hour, 2 tops if I have an oddball issue that I have dig around for, to set up. Windows can potentially take upwards of 6 hours between all the driver hunting, updates, software installs (Anti virus, media codecs, archiving/extracting tools, web browser that isn't IE, etc), downloading of said software/drivers/updates (have 6Mb connection), service managment, and all the fraking reboots. About the only real set up I have to do with Mint is add the TRIM option to my fstab file if I'm using a SSD and install proprietary GPU drivers, though it will work perfectly fine without them. It updates and installs media codecs during the install process.

 

[janetonly42]

" that's about to change thanks to customer feedback,"
More like, crap, we have only sold 2 copies of our bloatware, better ease up on the draconian DRM.

 

[rad666]

[citation][nom]sadsteve[/nom]At home, I don't need anywhere close to the features provided by Microsoft Office. The most complex document I've generated is a resume, I don't need to pay for MS Office to do that. Now if I was writing documents for work I'd probably end of getting MS Office, just for the compatibility.[/citation]

LibreOffice 4 is full compatible with Office 2011, and can do fairly complex documents. You'd be surprised.

 

[chiphead]

[citation][nom]sadsteve[/nom]At home, I don't need anywhere close to the features provided by Microsoft Office. The most complex document I've generated is a resume, I don't need to pay for MS Office to do that. Now if I was writing documents for work I'd probably end of getting MS Office, just for the compatibility.[/citation]

I guess you are right, all you need is "notepad". How's your Resume for McDonalds looking?

 

[bunz_of_steel]

LibreOffice not for 260511 and nolarrow, you both are clowns and noobs. If my wife and grandparents can use Linux & LibreOffice but you guys can't?...... whats yer problem? Agreed that Linux is NOT as brainless to work as Windoze, you will have to use some logic or brain work. However .... IT'S FREE!! So don't knock it cuz you don't understand how or why something isn't working. If it's not working FIX it. What do you do when you when something breaks or doesn't work in the house? Do you blame the plumber, the company that made the light switch or do you try and fix it. PC with Windowz or Linux no different.

 

[nordlead]

[citation][nom]jerm1027[/nom]Correction, that's $300 a license, since Microsoft does NOT consider the Do-It-Yourself-er a "system builder" as described in the OEM license agreement. And don't forget the anti-virus software, and Office. Yeah, that's over $500 in software alone, the same price I can build an entry-level gaming machine for, so excuse me for being excited that there is a tool that offers similar functionality for FREE, that I can also modify, if I so desired.If you lack the competence to use such a tool, despite extensive documentation/forums/other help, that does NOT mean the tool sucks and the users are annoying fanboys.[/citation]

A Windows 7 Home Retail license costs $200, and does everything you need unless you need some of the fringe benefits of pro (like 64GB of RAM). Antivirus software is included or you can pick up free antivirus. And Office 2013 only costs $140 (or $10 if you are lucky like me and your company/university participates in MSDN). So, $340 in software. So, yes software is expensive, but artificially inflating the numbers to prove a point only hurt your argument.

As for "free", open source software may not cost $, but it does cost time. I happen to enjoy tinkering with my PCs, laptops, and servers and don't mind investing hours setting them and up and tweaking them. Not everyone is into that though. I tried setting up Ubuntu on a PC I built for my parents and it wasn't worth it. Wasted more time trying to support them than it was worth, so an OEM version of Windows 7 went on the machine.

The stupid thing is, prior to windows 7 Microsoft actually allowed PC builders to install OEM System Builder software on their own custom built PC (at least they used to have documents on their website saying so), and with Windows 8 they have a "personal license" which seems to allow the same thing. To make things more complicated, Microsoft's forums answers mostly indicate you can use Windows 7 OEM for home built PCs, so the Microsoft MVPs/Moderators are spreading misinformation.

So, what you should really do is buy the OEM version and "sell" it to your wife so you meet every aspect of the licensing agreement. So your grand total software cost is $240.

 

[canadianvice]

Linux is seriously overrated. Linux fanboys always call out anyone who hates Linux as an "idiot" or a "Microsoft shill". Some of us are perfectly capable of using Linux, but have the sense not to - I gave up on Linux when I had to recompile Chrome for my distro.

Let's look at this realistically, on Windows, it takes a double-click. On Linux, it takes a heck of a lot more (One can certainly do it, but it is definitely more effort).

If my computing can be made easy for common tasks - it only makes sense I would use it. Linux makes what is a simple process for most other operating systems much more complex than it really has to be.

That, and *climbs ladder* GAMING!! *climbs back down*. Honestly, I might accept Linux's other flaws if I could just run my games without issue on it. WineHQ will only get you so far...

As for MS's concession, I'm happy about that. I have absolutely no qualms pirating on DRM-lockdown software, and OEM-style lockdowns on non-OS software is blatantly excessive and abusive.

 

[Non-Euclidean]

[citation]A Windows 7 Home Retail license costs $200, and does everything you need unless you need some of the fringe benefits of pro (like 64GB of RAM). [/citation]

Err, you need pro to use more than 16G of RAM

Try again.

 

[jerm1027]

[quotemsg=10442728,36,540804]A Windows 7 Home Retail license costs $200, and does everything you need unless you need some of the fringe benefits of pro (like 64GB of RAM). Antivirus software is included or you can pick up free antivirus. And Office 2013 only costs $140 (or $10 if you are lucky like me and your company/university participates in MSDN). So, $340 in software. So, yes software is expensive, but artificially inflating the numbers to prove a point only hurt your argument.

As for "free", open source software may not cost $, but it does cost time. I happen to enjoy tinkering with my PCs, laptops, and servers and don't mind investing hours setting them and up and tweaking them. Not everyone is into that though. I tried setting up Ubuntu on a PC I built for my parents and it wasn't worth it. Wasted more time trying to support them than it was worth, so an OEM version of Windows 7 went on the machine.

The stupid thing is, prior to windows 7 Microsoft actually allowed PC builders to install OEM System Builder software on their own custom built PC (at least they used to have documents on their website saying so), and with Windows 8 they have a "personal license" which seems to allow the same thing. To make things more complicated, Microsoft's forums answers mostly indicate you can use Windows 7 OEM for home built PCs, so the Microsoft MVPs/Moderators are spreading misinformation.

So, what you should really do is buy the OEM version and "sell" it to your wife so you meet every aspect of the licensing agreement. So your grand total software cost is $240.[/quotemsg]

*headdesk* Do you know how many hours I've pissed away installing updates, *decent* AV, drivers, and other essential software? A single Windows 7 install can take me up to 6 hours to properly set up, though typically in the neighborhood of 4. Linux Mint 1 hour. I've also set up Linux Mint on all 3 machines at a non-profit, run by 3 volunteers who happen to be elderly women. They have little to no trouble adapting coming from Windows XP. And don't forget the time you're going to need spend on the phone to migrate your install should you upgrade your computer, or it fail, with an OEM install. Again, linux, not a problem.

[quotemsg=10442769,37,884511]Linux is seriously overrated. Linux fanboys always call out anyone who hates Linux as an "idiot" or a "Microsoft shill". Some of us are perfectly capable of using Linux, but have the sense not to - I gave up on Linux when I had to recompile Chrome for my distro.

Let's look at this realistically, on Windows, it takes a double-click. On Linux, it takes a heck of a lot more (One can certainly do it, but it is definitely more effort).

If my computing can be made easy for common tasks - it only makes sense I would use it. Linux makes what is a simple process for most other operating systems much more complex than it really has to be.

That, and *climbs ladder* GAMING!! *climbs back down*. Honestly, I might accept Linux's other flaws if I could just run my games without issue on it. WineHQ will only get you so far...

As for MS's concession, I'm happy about that. I have absolutely no qualms pirating on DRM-lockdown software, and OEM-style lockdowns on non-OS software is blatantly excessive and abusive.[/quotemsg]
You do realize that Chromium (Open source Chrome) is in the repos and can be installed via software center (few clicks at most), or the terminal (no clicks required). The actual Chrome browser comes in a .deb which can also be installed in a similar fashion to an .exe. You can also install a deb via terminal, which again, no clicking required. If you have to compile it from source, you're probably doing it wrong.
If Linux really made simple tasks more difficult than they should be, it wouldn't be dominating the server market. Its legendary stability comes from simple, clean, code. If you're complaining about the interface, there are many more out there. Generally, tasks in linux are only as hard as you want them to be.

 

[bunz_of_steel]

Sorry but have to disagree with you Canadianvice & norlead. The Linux OS itself really does rock for a free OS. Gaming prob the sweet spot for ya there. Once you learn Linux it's really no harder than using Windows imho. I have had to work on Windows issues as well as Linux issues both require an effort. For me it comes down to the $$$. I think it boils down to whether or not a developers has written good code for their app. Poorly coded it would suck on whichever OS. I need windows for gaming or my video editing suite (Sony Vegas).

 

[catfishtx]

Although this is good news, I am still not upgrading from Office 2007, Microsoft. To be completely honest, I don't know what functions or capabilities you have added since Office 2007 since I am not a power user of Office in any form.

 

[Jim_L9]

Linux is great, but it does take a lot more work to get many things working right. I setup Linux for the express purpose of launching a web-based management console interface. It worked great at first, but after a reboot the screen saver started kicking in despite having it set to off. I found that a "xset -s off" from a command prompt fixed the problem. Should we expect average computer users to figure that out. I have used Linux on and off for many years and even compiled a few kernels in the days where drivers weren't automatically loaded. I think many people also have GPU driver issues.

 

[ubwa]

If Office 365/13 had even been decent, MS might have gotten away with their new license. But it's embarrassing garbage, piled on top of Win8's Apple-esque "Our way or the highway" when, the "Our Way" didn't involve coding functionality but destroying the functionality everyone was used to and no one was clamoring to change piled on the new SQL Server and SQL Express featuring massive bloat and punch-drunk response times piled on Sharepoint Server 2013 which is, in all likely hood, the piece of software that will dethrone MS Bob as the "Worst Thing Since....Ever Written for a Computer".

Piled on Win Server 2012 which................is actually nice if you ignore the urine smell from the gang of drunks who screwed up of the UI.

But, everything you're seeing come from MS right now, is what happens when a successful company is over-run with penny-pinchers who understand nothing about what's in the interest of the company: you get a smaller, full time staff managing a loose Federation of Contractors working with a small city's worth of foreign nationals having never been immersed in the culture they're programming for.

Microsoft has made it embarrassing to live in the same state and work in the same industry as them.