Comments on: Office subscription service ready to go

Circuit City will be the first to offer the $69 per-year service, which bundles Office Home and Student and Microsoft's OneCare antivirus software.

[MaLvaDo39]

Microsoft can't build a secure OS and then charges you for protecting it.

[timber2005]

You speak as if there is a secure OS in existance. Mac OS? *bbbzzztttt* wrong. Linux? *bbbzzzttt* wrong.

[Dalkorian]

Tinber2005, you're right in your assumption that there is no such thing as a "secure OS". But let's get real for a moment, compared to the swiss cheese mess that winblows is, OSX and Linux both are worlds better. Period. Arguing otherwise just shows ignorance (or downright stupidity, depending on age).

[rcrusoe]

$69 a year for products you can get for free? I'll stick with OpenOffice and AVG antivirus. They have worked well for me for many years. But based on P.T. Barum's teachings, I'm sure this will be a success for Microsoft. He said "There's a sucker born every minute".

[squirtlewa]

I like OpenOffice. I also think the MS Works suite that's pre-installed non-trial on most manufactured computers will work for a lot of people. It has Word processor, Excel-like spreadsheet, etc. It's just missing PowerPoint.

Additionally, many people have a way to get MS Office if they need it at less-than-retail price.

Academic discounts: All but one of the colleges I've attended/taught at had some kind of employee purchase option. Employers who want people to work (for free) at home may also provide licenses.

When you buy Office retail, it comes with 3 licenses. So grabbing your old DVDs makes sense.

The "add $20 to a $49 upsell" kind of approach will work fine at a place like Circuit City -- their commission-driven sales guys are well-practiced at turning a $600 computer sale into $1200. I don't imagine it working at retail outlets that don't feature high-pressure sales (eg Walmart).

[mdg1019]

You're right about Circuit City. The salespeople are really nice to you until you don't buy all of the extras. Then they treat you like dirt and make it obvious they're in a rush to get you out of the store.

[JCPayne]

Best time to switch to www.openoffice.org

[umbrae]

Open Office rocks. Not sure why anyone would use MS office: Let alone pay "YEARLY" for it. Maybe they should start bundling Office into Windows to justify the few hundred dollars it costs off the shelf.

[Tui Pohutukawa]

Just get a Mac. But that's probably too easy for some people.

[RazoGT]

That has no relevancy what so ever to this post. The best selling third party software on the mac is Office

[The_Decider]

One care is a protection racket. Only MS has the gall to produce an OS so vulnerable to malware and then tries to charge extra for a band-aid. Office 2007 can be had at any University bookstore for around $60. People going in for either are simply retarded. Of course, that is what MS always is betting on. It is more than a little sad that MS relies on ignorant people so much.

[pmfjoe]

So my question as a SMB partner is what happens on the SMB level? How am I supposed to tell a business owner with 15 machines they should buy an open license for $250+ per machine for office instead of just buying 5 packs of this? Sure it is good for only a year but how is MS going to shut down office after the subscription expires, and even then $350 for 1 year is much better than the $3,750 open license cost. Heck if the owner never upgraded office again after buying the open license licenses it would take 10 years of renewals to make the open license a better deal. Talk about giving the stuff away, if MS can afford to price this so cheaply for the home market why can't they do the same for the commercial market?

[cnetcensorssuck]

OpenOffice, Google Docs and AVG. Screw Microsoft.

[isthereonenotused]

Facts please.
Exactly how is a Mac easier, in relation to this article. It does not come with a word processor or spread sheet package straight out of the box either. You still have to buy iworks or MS office for Mac and install them. Bit to hard for a Mac Lover's to except that they are oh so close to that windows clone.

To clarify also all editions of office do not come with 3 licenses, only the home and student (or previously called student and teacher) does and you are not suppose to use it in a commercial environment.

"Free" alternatives like AVG Free and OpenOffice are great except most excluded you from using them in a commercial environment. (know this is true for AVG not sure about OpenOffice) So, by letter of the license you cannot use them in your business and generally people will want to use the same products at home, if they spend any amount of time on the computer at work.

Same comments goes for the "Academic" editions. Your license does not really cover you for commercial use. So, you really should not use it a business environment.

Now, how would MS know either way if you did use them in a commercial environment....
Shhh..... that is your little secret. But keep in mind that penalties for copyright violation are rather stiff and it is not just 1 fine. You're fined every time you have made an illegal use of the matterial. --- So do your on risk analysis.

Yeah everyone loves to bash MS, including me but have you actually ever reviewed any reports from true security experts which report on all operating systems vulnerabilities?

[ittesi259]

OpenOffice can be used in commercial environments. Though I do have Office for my Mac (it was a gift) OpenOffice and AVG are great alternatives for any Windows user. My father is in the process of replacing his PC and I'm recommending he turn to those alternatives instead of buying Office or subscribing to Norton.

[Perry_Clease]

Mac come with a word processor called TextEdit. For sure it is not as full featured as some others, but you can do a lot with it include add graphics. If you need, with the emphasis on NEED, more features Apple's iWork with its word processor, page layout, and spreadsheet can read/write to Office files and is $79 for a single license or $99 for five user family pack http://www.apple.com/iwork/. Apple's Preview can do a lot of thing with PDF that would normally require a full version of Acrobat and it can do some basic graphic editing. I could go on, but it is dinnertime.

[Imalittleteapot]

Well, here is Microsoft?s problem. Any MS fan boy will tell you how secure Vista is. It?s impenetrable they say. Ok well, they don?t say that, but they try to convince you of that even though you still need a firewall, antispyware, and antivirus that somehow, whatever the latest version of Windows is, it?s still really really secure. It was the same line with Windows XP when it came out and so on. If you really believed Microsoft you wouldn?t buy any protection from them because you wouldn?t need it right? Windows is super super secure right? Now Microsoft says, well no, you still need protection because it?s not really that secure. Oh, so you were lying about how secure it was? Well why would I buy protection from liars? They can?t honestly sell it either way now. Windows already comes with firewall and defender right? Isn?t that basically saying, sorry people, those things don?t really work. Now you?re gonna need a subscription. Besides, why even focus on security. If people really wanted security they?d just use Linux. That?s all the Linux people talk about is secure secure secure right? Meanwhile the home user?s actual priorities are games, web browsing, email, movies, music, word processing, and then security. Sure, when you can download something for free that probably won?t actually kick in until long after the virus has trashed your system, but it makes you feel safe, then why not? It?s just an extra. But it?s really the last thing on their mind. Most people certainly don?t feel the need to actually switch to an operating system that is actually concerned with security. Want to play family feud? Number one reason put on message boards why they can?t use Linux? SURVEY SAYS! GAMES! That?s right. It?s always some teenager talking about how he can?t play his games. Security isn?t even close to top priority so good luck getting monthly subscriptions out of people that aren?t completely clueless. Even if they do the fear soon wears off. Most people that buy security software do it when they buy a new computer or right after they?ve gotten a virus. That soon wears thin after they realize they have to update new definitions every day or week, or the actual virus scan from a crappy product can slow your system down more than if you had just left the virus on the system. Plus Windows is so insecure you can still get hosed even if you have all your protection in place. I sense a lot of cancelled subscriptions from angry customers on this one.

[KTLA_knew]

Imalittleteapot, that's called a strawman argument. I'm surprised you spent so much typing on such a poorly disguised logical fallacy. Really, when you have to spend the whole front half of your point saing "but it is " and "they say it's ", it should be a key right there when none of them are true.

"If you really believed Microsoft you wouldn?t buy any protection from them because you wouldn?t need it right?"

I mean come on. Even before One Care was out, MS had whole site set up to help make sure you were secure, including buiding in a warning in the operating system that told you if you weren't running up to date AV or malware software. You were pointed to solutions by other vendors.

If you have to invent your opponent's position to gain any advantage, you look like you've already admitted defeat.

Try this site, it's been up since LONG before Vista or One Care were ever around: http://www.microsoft.com/security

[Imalittleteapot]

No, it is called, no operating system is secure. The strawman argument is actually a. That one operating system can be more secure than another because all operating systems have at least one hole and the hacker only needs one, or b. home users actually care about security. You take all the security products in the world and set an inexperienced user down in front of the system and they'll get hacked anyway. It's the user. Not the OS. Not the software.

[Imalittleteapot]

Then I read your reply again and just realized that you just argued that Microsoft doesn't claim that Windows is secure. That I made the strawman argument that Microsoft and MS fan boys claim Windows is secure and you said none of that is true. Because that?s the argument that I was trying to setup you know? How secure Microsoft says Windows is. Do they not claim that anymore? Now either it is secure and you don't need all this junk or it isn't secure and you need extra protection. It can?t be both. If it isn?t secure and you need all this protection then how is Microsoft not lying when they say Windows is secure? You can either hack it or you can?t right? If Windows is secure then what do I need this subscription for? Will you be buying this subscription?

[eferron]

Defense in depth - Is Linux and Mac really any more secure? AV, Firewall, and AS simply protect you until updates are made available to cover the security hole discovered. Linux and Mac put out just as many OS level patches as Windows and while you are waiting for those patches to come out you are vulnerable to attack. So what do you do? Place your bets or do you go and get something that will provide you with a couple of layers of extra protection. Now this begs the chicken and the egg question. Do I patch my software first or update my AV/AS definitions or Firewall policy? Do you really think the AV/AS guys are in Redmond yelling across the cubicle to the OS guys saying, "don't check your fix in, we are going to send marketing out to sell a few more copies of OneCare first". If so then you don't have a good handle on reality. Windows is the mostly widely deployed business and consumer operating system in the world. When Linux and Mac get past 20% deployment across the world let me know how well sitting on your hands waiting for an OS patch works for you. In addition let me know how many bugs we can file against your secure software as well being used by people across the globe. No doubt there are a few software engineers writing some pretty big projects on this forum and understand the complexity in writing software for a global marketing where people are doing everything from playing games to saving lives. You could make the argument that you should have separate code bases for Windows that do not have any intersection, then you create another whole set of challenges. All in all Mac and Linux users please stop pretending we do not have issues, crashes, and security vulnerabilities in the OS's we use. Yes, I use a MAC and a PC for work, play and graphic/video editing and they both have pros/cons, neither has a clear edge IMHO, when it comes to security.

Ed

[MaLvaDo39]

"Windows is the mostly widely deployed business and consumer operating system in the world."

Quantity does not mean quality. The PC world has been a race to the bottom offering absolute crap in windows and in hardware. Now your TCO including hiring a bunch of techs to support it has made your investment a big mistake.

You've been in the dark ages of computing. The Mac will thin out the tech department cost and offer superior value over the life cycle and bring you into the future of what's to come.

[ittesi259]

While their is a push to max sales and accesories on all sales, your argument is flawed that this is "commission driven" I was working at Circuit City when they eliminated commissions and all workers are now paid an hourly wage (and that isn't new, that was 4 years ago). As for employees treating customers like dirt.....thats probably because the good employees who actually knew what customer service was all got fired to be replaced with punk kids who were cheap labor. Glad I left 4 years ago.

[S R]

Let's say you are at a University and the professor teaches bad in class, specifically so that you can attend his out-of-school tuition class for additional fee? Is that right?

[Dragon_Myr]

I don't see why anyone would want to subscribe to Microsoft Office. The free alternatives, such as Open Office and Google Docs, are just as good if not better than Office 2007. Open Office in particular is so much easier to use than Office 2007. For a while they were practically giving away Office 2007 and people still didn't want it. Microsoft needs to wake up and start giving people what they want, not completely changing things because of what Apple and Google are up to.

[masterz13]

Ripoff. Newegg has Office Home and Student Edition for like 89 bucks new. Microsoft is just a greedy company to begin with.

[lavern]

People on this board are really crazy. They complain about how greedy MS is??!?! Fellas its called having a product that has no real competition. It allows you to charge a premium. Whether you choose to pay it or not is your choice but don't complain about it....Lets be real there really isn't an easier to use, more comprehensive solution then office.

[Imalittleteapot]

This wasn't even about Office. It was about this subscription package they're offering. You may very well like Office and use it everyday but still think selling it as a subscription with a security package is just not needed. My work just set me up with an Office 2007 at work and a home license. I just installed it at home and think the new UI changes are pretty neat. I know other people can't stand them, but I think a little different than most people do anyway. The only problem I had was the smart quote feature messed up an eariler post of mine. I'm really not a power Office user so OO works just fine for me though, but I thought I'd try 07 anyway. That really isn't the point. If you like Office just go buy it. The home versions are cheap enough that a subscription is really just a ripoff. Plus buying protection software from the same company that made the insecure OS in the first place seems like a mafia setup to some people. I really don't like anti-virus anti-spyware stuff anyway. We need a new plan. That stuff just isn't working like we thought. Everyone I know including myself uses antivirus, but we've all had at least one virus over the years anyway. You shouldn't have to pay every month for protection that really just lets you down in the end anyway. It's just taking advantage of people that don't know any better. It's a broader problem of Microsoft thinking they can go to a monthly subscription business model for all their software. With open source alternatives out there nobody really sees that working even though Microsoft has tried it over and over through the years. I think MS has just lost touch with what their customers want. I think it is the reason for all their bad press. To me it seems they are constantly offering products people don't even want.

[blabtech]

Open office is a good source, I agree..

http://blabtech.blogspot.com