Office 13 Retail May Be Bound to One PC Forever

[dangerism]

Doesn't this go against the very concept of the Windows Store?

 

[virtualban]

[citation][nom]ingtar33[/nom]i'm still using 2003.never see the need to update it frankly.[/citation]
[citation][nom]loomis86[/nom]I hate office 2007 and everything that came after it. When office 2003 and windows 7 ceases to serve me well, I will leave microsoft for ever.[/citation]
I got a chance to upgrade to 2007, paid by my workplace. Refused it. Got the same chance for office 2010, installed it on a virtual machine instead.
Ribon, not for me.
Office 2003 will do till time ends or it works no longer. Office 2010 serves a purpose, fixing corrupted documents. And that it can do while out of my everyday eyes.

 

[ojas]

Previously Microsoft limited installation to the licensed device and an additional portable device (laptop), the latter of which must be used by the single primary user of the licensed device.

I'm pretty confused by this, and thus suspect the entire article. Office 2010 is usually available as a 3 PC license or more. No nonsense about two devices, one of which is portable. Also, afaik, the same terms govern Office as Windows, i.e. change your machine too much then just give M$ a call and they'll activate it.

Also, won't uninstalling automatically deactivate the Office copy?

Finally, the REAL problem with 2013 is that if you upgrade your existing Office 2010 copy (which you can do within a limited time frame, just like the Win 8 promotional) then your 3 PC (or more) office license gets converted into a single-PC license.

 

[wanderer11]

libre office really needs to add an equation editor. There would never be another reason to us MS office.

 

[Onus]

I despise models intended to keep people paying, and paying, and paying, ad infinitum; or that otherwise treat customers as an ongoing "resource" to be exploited (e.g. for "marketing purposes"). I want to buy something, have it in my hot little hands, and do with it as I please. Regardless of any alleged privacy policy, I would not EVER use any "cloud" storage for anything I do not expect, sooner or later, to become essentially public domain.

 

[wemakeourfuture]

[citation][nom]southernshark[/nom]I hope Google puts some work into Google Doc because with this restriction I won't be buying Office anymore, at least not unless the price drops drastically.[/citation]

Problem with Google Docs is their privacy for the free version. And lack of corporate penetration for the layperson to want to use it. Office is a skill set asked for on resumes, the average person knows what Office is, companies know what it is, they're not as familiar with Google Docs or other alternatives.

Microsoft makes 85-88% of their profits from Windows and Office so they think they can do whatever they want and retail customers and corporate will keep buying them to give them their 90% monopoly in both markets. Hopefully better alternatives will come as a result.

 

[teh_chem]

Sounds like licensing for the OEM versions of Windows. I'm sure if your computer catastrophically crashes, or you update components, MS will probably treat it the same way as they do their OEM windows versions; simply call up MS and they are pretty liberal with unlocking the registration and allow you to re-register it. But you can't transfer that license to any other machine ever--nothing new.

Wonder also if this is a way for them to convince people to choose Office 365 subscriptions instead. If you think of a family with a lot of computers, office 365 starts to look quite appealing. Not to me (frankly, google doc's and libreoffice satisfies 100% of my document requirements).

 

[rb420]

If I was unable to install purchased software, I would just strap on my eye patch, put my parrot on my shoulder and obtain a copy elsewhere where I CAN install it on the machine I purchased it for. DRM HURTS sales from people like me. I get that you are protecting your IP, but if it is at the cost of useability then it becomes counter productive.

 

[dgingeri]

That tears it. I guess I'm going with OpenOffice.

 

[Guest]

Microsoft's unethical greed knows no bounds. Fight back. Pirate it.

 

[coreym72]

The Office activation ties in to the same tokens.dat as the OS activation. I never have to reactivate on the same machine after fresh installs (reimage) but need to find a solution for additional machines.

 

[susyque747]

This and now the news of the draconian DRM Crapbox 720 too. Goodbye MS as a company.

 

[06yfz450ridr]

screw that use Open office, its 100% free and has everything MO has

 

[Guest]

I really want to bolt and use LibreOffice; problem is, a lot of office documents use visio diagrams, which LibreOffice can't read properly. Sigh...

 

[teodoreh]

[citation][nom]SteelCity1981[/nom]wow if this is the case microsoft is going to lose a lot of costumers for their office suite. Can you imagine spending 300 dollars on a office 2013 suite and your hard drive crashed and you had to go buy a new hard drive, just to find out you also had to buy another 300 dollar copy office 2013 suite again![/citation]

Same here, except from the fact that Office 2003 encryption sucks big time...

 

[ART-T]

How I read the single license, as written in the 2nd paragraph of this article is. 1 license (on 'a' machine) @ a time......

If they do switch it to the way this article writes. this would be horribile. But just as my experience with MS OS's and Office in the past: on activation, I would get a prompt that the license was used, and that I would need to call in and verify.

I would then either speak to a tech and state I only have 1 copy, and they would give me an authentication code.....

no problem

 

[dark_knight33]

The real problem? Profit growth. MSFT's office market is already saturated by people who are unwilling to upgrade their office versions every year for seemingly insignificant changes. Thus, their revenue stream is dwindling. They are still making cash hand over fist for their software, but that number is no longer 'growing' so it *must* be a problem. Absurd? IKR - keep reading.

The mindset that unless your profits are growing from year over year is what is killing everyone. Every company everywhere apparently needs to be making *more* money than last year or they are "failing". People only have so much money, with telecoms lowing services & jacking up prices, gas prices constantly inching higher, food & energy costs skyrocking, MSFT just can't seem to squeeze any more money out of people. It's a stupid cycle driven by mindless large investors, with the end result being: SAAS.

How can we guarantee a revenue stream from our customers and control year over year, our profits by raising prices after customers are locked in? RENT the SOFTWARE! That's right, we will offer (FORCE) our customers to pay monthly for software that they would have just purchased outright, so we can guarantee they will be paying for it every year: BRILLIANT! -- Already making millions? You get a raise, and an absurd bonus! It's ok, we can afford it now that everyone else making $50k/year has to pay us, (as well as their schools & local Gov'ts).

Sound ridiculous? Not really, it's already happening. http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2012/08/07/microsoft_office_365_fees/

Google docs & OO are a poor substitute (particularly excel clones) for a very well featured office suite by MSFT, but I've already switched to GD for the simple reason that I refuse to drink MSFTs kool-aid on 365. If I have to use an office software suite that is online only, meaning you can't use it if MSFT servers are down : http://www.thewhir.com/web-hosting-news/microsoft-office-365-outages-create-customer-win-opportunity-for-hosted-email-providers

I'd rather stick with something that at least I don't have to pay for every month. 😉 short of MMOs I will *never* pay for SAAS. I'm not a business, and I don't like to rent IP so some douche in an office somewhere, already making too much money can make more. For that matter, if you work in an office making 6 figures and don't like my opinion, F**K you, get a real job. You should be working instead of browsing the internet anyway.

 

[halcyon]

Solution: Office 2010

 

[Guest]

I do now have Windows 8, just got it. Now want to install the latest MS Office. Now this XXXX stuff?
I did find online the lead to not having the MS Office JUST on your desktop/laptop but the dumb Cloud Computing. For me NO WAY. There are 2 verisions of the CLOUD -- internal or external. Yikes I view the external as an invition to the folks who would like to come in and kill your content. NOT me!
My question is if you install on your main device but do have that linked to a SECURE wireless network can you open it up to be shared?