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Advice on Microsoft software

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Ole Juul

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Aug 15, 2008
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Coalmont, BC, Canada
I'm going to get a small portable for my sweetheart. Since she has a grownup computer with a nice big screen it does not need to be a full size laptop. I've pretty much decided on this one.

Size and weight are a just right, it's got an SSD, and it comes with Windows 7. Ha! Yes, I said that. She's got a hankering for a Windows OS and from what everybody is saying these days Win7 is the better choice. Now this is where I start to need some help. When it turns out that MS-Office is not included, she said that "Microsoft is Office" and if it comes without then I might as well just reformat it an give her Linux or FreeBSD, both of which she's used to. Fine, but I'd still like to come up with her original wish. It turns out that MS-Office is obsenely expensive for what if does. The best price I can find on the net is about $90 for Office2010. What are the options here? Are there different versions, and which ones would work on Win7 and the above portable? Help please ... I know some of you guys are experts at finding the good deals with this stuff. :)
 
There are several different version of Office that work well on Windows 7: 2007, 2010, and 2013. Office 365 is Office 2013 with a monthly or annual subscription charge; tis evil and the annual charge is often greater than the one-time price for regular Office.

2007 is the first Ribbon version and is kinda clunky. 2010 improves the Ribbon a bunch but otherwise little changed. 2013 made a bunch of interface changes that often put one into Windows 8 Metro tile looking dialogs. I don't like 2013; for some reason changing the screen to look like Metro is slow. 2013 does do a bunch of web publishing features better.

Home and Student tends to be the best value for 2007 and 2010 since it supports 3 installs. My quick search suggests it may be possible to find legimate boxed copies for about $50-$70. Standard is more expensive commercial license with Outlook. Professional is Standard plus Access but Professional is often cheaper than Standard. There are some very, very cheap options if working for certain companies ($10 to get a home copy of Office same as work) or college student or teacher.

If still too expensive, try OpenOffice/LibreOffice. Softmaker Office feels really old but often has sales dropping the price to $10; normal pricing is about the same as MS Office. WordPerfect Office depends on how much the user likes WordPerfect from 20 years ago. It has changed little since then except for importing and exporting to MS's latest standard. The spreadsheet and presentation software in WordPerfect Office are poor.
 
It's not for the functionality. We've got that covered. She's got a fast modern machine with a 27" screen and running FreeBSD with KDE. Open/Libre Office are just great and she uses them all the time. The reason for MS-Office is just to have a bit more familiarity for possible job applications. In the end she's the one that people end up asking about their Windows problems in the office because she "gets" computing fundamentals and just figures it out when needed, but it would be nice to have an actual installation at home so she could "claim" that expertise. Saying she has decent FreeBSD/Linux skills, hacks Wordpress code, and is familiar with the use of shared hosting, just falls on deaf ears to office folk who are more interested in how much time you've wasted going to courses where they take a week to do the one hour tutorial that comes with the program. So, it has to be MS.

Anyway, so you're suggesting that Professional might be cheaper than Standard, and they both sound OK. Perhaps 2010 is the best choice? The number of installs is not going to be important here since it's unlikely to migrate more than once - if that. I'd pay $50 bucks, but I think $100 is unreasonable. We could get a pretty nice piece of hardware for that kind of money and we're happy with Open/Libre for real world office functionality. The idea that there might be some company deals is worth persuing. I'll ask around.

If anybody here has an old copy, or knows of a deal, please let me kmow. It has to work with Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit.
 
So maybe this post won't win any prizes for popularity but it all comes down to relative values

Since this is the vintage computer forum I'd like to confess that over 20 years ago my first single sided floppy disk drive cost me about 300 GBP (about 500 US dollars). So in todays terms a lot more. And don't ask me what I paid for my first ST506 hard disk.

Today, our weekly (non extravagant) bare bones food shopping bill for 2 people (in Switzerland) is over 300 US dollars (translation).

So to me, 100 USD for MS office, something that you can use every day , say for a couple of years, is not too bad a value

I suppose in the hierarchy of costs

a) Pay full retail
b) look for a bargain
c) Buy a slightly older office (say 2010 version)
d) make ebay search and buy a used copy (cost not much, just your time)
e) Torrent a copy in about 90 seconds (cost zero, legality questionable)
c2) If you are working your employer might have a corporate deal to give you office for next to nothing (at home)

I note that you already use Free Open Source software.
 
Office 2013 has a bunch of Metro bullcrap in the interface. If she wants Windows 7, 2010 would be a much better choice.

Personally, I think it's all been downhill after 2003.
 
Perhaps find a copy of Office 2003 on eBay? Are there any known issues running that on Windows 7?

2003 has normal sane menus and none of that ribbon crap. Haven't even used newer versions of office since that. Didn't know they destroyed 2013 with metro-ish crap. It's long past time to sell Microsoft stock if you have it...

Too bad you didn't get a Mac. Apple rightly forces Microsoft to continue to use a proper menu bar on that version. I've heard 2010 for Mac isn't too bad.
 
Official support for Office 2003 ended lasted April. MS no longer sells 2010 which has caused the prices to sky rocket. If it was me, I'd get chummy with a student and get what I needed from the book store.
 
Last edited:
SomeGuy said:
Perhaps find a copy of Office 2003 on eBay? Are there any known issues running that on Windows 7?
Click to expand...
Support ended, so new security holes may appear, however I can state definitively that it works quite well with both Win7 and Win8/8.1 - I use it with these OS's daily. Just make sure to install the SP2/3 updates, which I believe are still downloadable, and the 2007/10 compatibility pack, which I know is still downloadable.

Another option for Office would be a Technet subscription - though these subscriptions aren't meant to be more than for testing, M$ knows that the vast majority of individual TechNet subscriptions are just to get its software at a discount. Legality questionable, of course.
 
Agent Orange said:
Official support for Office 2003 ended lasted April. MS no longer sells 2010 which has caused the prices to sky rocket. If it was me, I'd get chummy with a student and get what I needed from the book store.
Click to expand...

Oh yes, the university of Coalmont. I already inquired about getting an opera house, but was told that they're still saving up for a new stop sign. ;)

Seriously, this is all interesting. After doing some more research my head is spinning with all the program names. Between outlookpublisher access path and one note project groove, etc., etc., I'm starting to think that the Linux guys have it easy when it comes to understandable program names. ;) It also looks like I'll have to get a law degree - I'll be right back ....

Ok, I'm back. I decided against the law degree, and am just going to defer to other people regarding what is legally the best way forward here. In the case of 2010, which sounds like the best choice, the price doesn't look like it is going to be suitable for this particular project. 2007 is possibly doable, but I'd have to do some serious research to avoid scammy copies. I'm not very experienced with that kind of thing which apparently is common in that world. Lots of stuff to learn.

Stone, your offer looks good but I'd like to check out some more ideas in the next couple of days.

Thanks everybody for your input. It's been really useful.
 
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