MS Office 365 yearly and Office 365 Lifetime purchase

[jenny2017]

  I know that some members of this forum have also bought the MS Office 365 2016 from eBay. As far as I know is such a purchase a lifetime purchase.

 

      What's the difference to the version MS offers if there's any? 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

AFAIK, MS sells access to MS Office in two main methods:

--you buy a permanent license to a particular version of the software, just like you used to buy a DVD with the software on it that you basically could use forever. With the permanent license, you're only eligible for updates to that particular version.

Or

--you buy a one-year license that includes other stuff like use on multiple machines, 1 TB of MS OneDrive cloud storage, some Skype minutes, etc. With the one year license, you're eligible to any MS Office updates during the year.

[Crossy]

Seems to be a "Academic License", so if nothing else it's breaking the spirit of the conditions of use, much like those who sold on Technet activation codes and fouled it up for those of us who were legitimate Technet users.

 

For <300 Baht it has to be worth a punt.

[jenny2017]

4 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

AFAIK, MS sells access to MS Office in two main methods:

--you buy a permanent license to a particular version of the software, just like you used to buy a DVD with the software on it that you basically could use forever. With the permanent license, you're only eligible for updates to that particular version.

Or

--you buy a one-year license that includes other stuff like use on multiple machines, 1 TB of MS OneDrive cloud storage, some Skype minutes, etc. With the one year license, you're eligible to any MS Office updates during the year.

The 365 office from ebay also comes with 1 TB and Business skype. 

Edited April 7, 2018 by jenny2017

[Crossy]

I also note that the seller has Emporio Armani watches at significantly less than Amazon prices.

 

Please note, I'm not saying they're not genuine (they are not overly expensive watches anyway, likely aimed at the Indian market), just that he has them at very "competitive" prices.

[OneMoreFarang]

It advertises a "lifetime account" and not a one time payment for lifetime usage.

 

And lifetime is anyhow something very different in IT and in real life. I.e. some RAM modules are sold with lifetime warranty. I wonder what would happen if I would try to exchange my 128MB modules from a decade or two ago now (I don't remember how long ago 128MB was common).

[chrisinth]

5 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

It advertises a "lifetime account" and not a one time payment for lifetime usage.

 

And lifetime is anyhow something very different in IT and in real life. I.e. some RAM modules are sold with lifetime warranty. I wonder what would happen if I would try to exchange my 128MB modules from a decade or two ago now (I don't remember how long ago 128MB was common).

I think I still have some 32MB boards somewhere; that was from about 1997 or so. First laptop I got was ramped up to 64MB, the envy of a lot of people at the time...

 

Also had MS Office. Installed with the 21 x 1.44MB floppies. That was a joy to install. And a copy, even back then!!

Edited April 7, 2018 by chrisinth

[Pib]

Interesting.  First I heard of a Permanent subscription for Office 365 even for an Educational version.  Looked at the Ebay ad, then googled some to see where other folks had sold a similar item on other sites, and feedback from customers who bought.   

 

Below snapshot from someone who bought one (referred to as a voucher) is below.  If the post is credible, it appears the seller remains the "global" admin and retains some strings as to how long an individual buyer's subscription/account might really last which might not be a lifetime.    

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

This is what I was talking about when I mentioned a one-time, lifetime MS Office purchase. And as I said above, this purchase doesn't include the OneDrive cloud storage or the Skype use. It's a regular Office 2016 version purchase as opposed to Office365.

 

I'm not suggesting anyone buy it direct from MS at that list price. Just that this product may be available elsewhere at better prices, if someone isn't interested in the yearly renewal scheme.

 

 

https://products.office.com/en-us/compare-all-microsoft-office-products?tab=1

Edited April 7, 2018 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[jenny2017]

1 hour ago, chrisinth said:

I think I still have some 32MB boards somewhere; that was from about 1997 or so. First laptop I got was ramped up to 64MB, the envy of a lot of people at the time...

 

Also had MS Office. Installed with the 21 x 1.44MB floppies. That was a joy to install. And a copy, even back then!!

It's really weird that the Floppy Disc area wasn't that long ago. I just found my first used Floppy and had to laugh. 

[jenny2017]

47 minutes ago, Pib said:

Interesting.  First I heard of a Permanent subscription for Office 365 even for an Educational version.  Looked at the Ebay ad, then googled some to see where other folks had sold a similar item on other sites, and feedback from customers who bought.   

 

Below snapshot from someone who bought one (referred to as a voucher) is below.  If the post is credible, it appears the seller remains the "global" admin and retains some strings as to how long an individual buyer's subscription/account might really last which might not be a lifetime.    

 

Is it possible that it's only for the educational version? 

 

   But the MS Office Professional 2016 are forever and I can update them, it sometimes takes a few minutes to update. Would that be different updates than you get for MS Office 365? 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

It looks like Office these days is actually free for eligible students and faculty, at least in the U.S.:

 

https://products.office.com/en-us/student/office-in-education

[OneMoreFarang]

33 minutes ago, jenny2017 said:

It's really weird that the Floppy Disc area wasn't that long ago. I just found my first used Floppy and had to laugh. 

I am sure I still have a PC or two with floppy drive in my apartment - just in case you want to (try to) retrieve some data from that disk.

I remember DOS6.2 on 3 disks and Windows 3 on 7 disks. And the way I know myself probably I still have these disks somewhere...

[Pib]

Office 365 is nothing more than a subscription-based version of the most current  Office version, which is Office 2016 right now.    You still see Office 365 when looking at your version description but it's really identical to the latest non-subscription-based Office 20XX.   Kinda like two identical houses but putting a different color of paint on each, different street address, etc.

 

See the MS webpage as to how they describe the difference between Office 365 and Office 2016.

 

Now, let's say MS comes out with an Office 2019 (non-subscription) later this year which sites like ComputerWord indicate MS will.   Then your Office 365 should automatically update to Office 2019 although it will say it's Office 365.  

 

Like I have non-subscription Office 2016....and when I'm go to the View Updates in the menu area where I can check for the latest update it will actually takes me to an Office 365 page where it says "Applies to Office 2016....."   It tells you what the latest version of Office 365 is (which also applies to Office 2016).  And the version showing below matches my Office 2016 version number of version 1803 Build xxxx.   See snapshot below.   

 

Now once Office 2019 comes out my Office 2016 will not upgrade to Office 2019, but I will continue to get Office 2016 updates until Oct 2025 when MS lifecycle support ends for Office 2016.  

 

 

 

 

[Pib]

51 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

This is what I was talking about when I mentioned a one-time, lifetime MS Office purchase. And as I said above, this purchase doesn't include the OneDrive cloud storage or the Skype use. It's a regular Office 2016 version purchase as opposed to Office365.

 

I'm not suggesting anyone buy it direct from MS at that list price. Just that this product may be available elsewhere at better prices, if someone isn't interested in the yearly renewal scheme.

 

 

https://products.office.com/en-us/compare-all-microsoft-office-products?tab=1

 

Above one-time purchase Office Home & Student version is slimmed down version as it does not include Outlook (email) or Access (database).      For me, since Outlook is my main email client software on my computers I gotta have that....and if I was still working Access would be a must also (at least for me).

[jenny2017]

13 minutes ago, Pib said:

 

Above one-time purchase Office Home & Student version is slimmed down version as it does not include Outlook (email) or Access (database).      For me, since Outlook is my main email client software on my computers I gotta have that....and if I was still working Access would be a must also (at least for me).

Outlook is also my e-mail client and my Office Pro gets the same updates as the 365 version. They're trying to sell a VW as a Bentley. 

[Pib]

I keep saying Office 2016 but I really have Office 2016 Pro on my three 'puters.

[chubby]

offtopic  but  libreoffice  IMO

[bendejo]

6 hours ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

It looks like Office these days is actually free for eligible students and faculty, at least in the U.S.:

 

https://products.office.com/en-us/student/office-in-education

 

Interesting.  20 or so years ago it was possible to buy an educational version of MS Office for around US$20.  My guess is now there is competition from LibreOffice and such, and MS wants the kids to grow up as MS Office users; don't want them to become professionals saying things like "hey, LibreOffice is great, been using it for years, let's keep using it.  And let's cut them a donation check."

 

I went over to Libre when I got my present laptop with Win 10 pre-installed.  Before that I had an OEM version of MSOffice that came with a Gateway box years  before.  I only use the spreadsheet and wp, all that other stuff is just taking up disk space.

 

 

 

Edited April 7, 2018 by bendejo

[Pib]

Office has been available at greatly discounted rates or sometimes free for decades under special programs for educational organizations, government agencies, etc.  Or at least in the U.S. it has been that way.

 

Very common for an educational version for staff and students at a school to be offered greatly discounted rates for personal (home) use where procurement or activation requires use of their school email address.   Ditto for government organizations using a .gov, .mil, etc., type email address.  

 

My sister who works for a U.S. county school system gets to load MS Office on her home computer for personal use since she might need it sometimes for school related business.   When I was still in the U.S. military it was the same way. 

 

Or you could get a license for approx $10-$15 which required use of your .mil, .gov email address to process the license buy.   Basically during the license buy you had to be logged onto your .mil/.gov system, you got an email from MS to your .mil/.gov email address, you clicked on the validation link in that email, and your buy was approved/license issued for download/install.

 

Now MS is still making big money off these govt/educational organizations because those entities did buy a volume license,  but also had provisions in the volume license contract for their staff/students/employees to also install MS Office on their home computers for free or low cost under certain provisions which pretty much just required the staff/students/employees to be part of that entity and the license was for home personal use only. 

 

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

13 hours ago, jenny2017 said:

Outlook is also my e-mail client and my Office Pro gets the same updates as the 365 version. They're trying to sell a VW as a Bentley. 

 

Haven't used a PC software email client for probably more than a decade. Outlook.com and Gmail work perfectly fine for me, so I really could care less whether or not any version of Office includes the Outlook software component.

[OneMoreFarang]

19 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

Haven't used a PC software email client for probably more than a decade. Outlook.com and Gmail work perfectly fine for me, so I really could care less whether or not any version of Office includes the Outlook software component.

Maybe you should try it one of these days. I know lots of users who tried Outlook.com or OWA and as far as I see all of them prefer the "real" Outlook installed on their PCs.

[Pib]

25 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

Haven't used a PC software email client for probably more than a decade. Outlook.com and Gmail work perfectly fine for me, so I really could care less whether or not any version of Office includes the Outlook software component.

For me the online Outlook.com, Gmail.com, etc., type email interfaces are limited, primitive-like compared to the capabilities of an PC Email client like Outlook.  But the online emailclients are fine for quick-read, type-out short emails, type stuff...and I do use them all the time for that on my Android devices.  

[Pib]

As FYI, below are some 2017 stats on how people access their email.  Either either by Mobile app like accessing your gmail account by using the Gmail or similar mobile app.... via web browser/webmail on your desktop or mobile, ....or via desktop email client like using Outlook. 

 

For me the majority of my stats would fall mostly in the Mobile and Desktop stats with a small portion via webmail access.    But as mentioned earlier when I use a mobile (or webmail) client it feels kid-like in comparison to a desktop client....but as also mentioned for me mobile/webmail is fine for simple and quick email use...and that's how I use them.  IMO it's kinda like driving your small economy car when you don't want to drive your full size luxury car.  

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

1 hour ago, Pib said:

For me the online Outlook.com, Gmail.com, etc., type email interfaces are limited, primitive-like compared to the capabilities of an PC Email client like Outlook.  But the online emailclients are fine for quick-read, type-out short emails, type stuff...and I do use them all the time for that on my Android devices.  

 

Is there something particular you need to typically do with email that you can only do via the desktop version of Outlook, that you can't do via the web version of Outlook?  I haven't come across anything that fits into that category for my email use.

 

[JSixpack]

10 hours ago, chubby said:

offtopic  but  libreoffice  IMO

 

+1. Always to be considered. I use it most of the time now. But recently I started writing a primer on TVF Poster Economics for noobs to collect its arcane principles and methods until our ace economists finally publish their secrets in a definitive tome. And Word's outline mode just blows away LibreOffice's, so I'm using Word. But I did install a classic menus add on to make the interface more bearable.

[OneMoreFarang]

1 hour ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

Is there something particular you need to typically do with email that you can only do via the desktop version of Outlook, that you can't do via the web version of Outlook?  I haven't come across anything that fits into that category for my email use.

 

There is no "right-click". And many desktop users are used to that. Probably there are ways you can do something with the same result, but likely the way to do it is more complicated.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

15 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

There is no "right-click". And many desktop users are used to that. Probably there are ways you can do something with the same result, but likely the way to do it is more complicated.

 

For me, the drop down menu across the top of Outlook.com pretty much handles everything on the desktop cloud version:

 

 

But just for sorting, moving, deleting incoming email, the Android app of Outlook is really nice. I just have the right swipe configured for delete. And the left swipe configured for move/file, and that allows the managing of one's email in pretty quick order. Though I don't do much writing in the Android app, writing pretty much reserved for the desktop cloud version where I have a regular PC keyboard.

 

[Pib]

3 hours ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

Is there something particular you need to typically do with email that you can only do via the desktop version of Outlook, that you can't do via the web version of Outlook?  I haven't come across anything that fits into that category for my email use.

 

There is just so much more capability in Outlook compared to simple online mail apps.   A person really needs to have used Outlook for a while to appreciate all its features/capabilities.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

7 minutes ago, Pib said:

There is just so much more capability in Outlook compared to simple online mail apps.   A person really needs to have used Outlook for a while to appreciate all its features/capabilities.

 So apparently, the answer to my question above (what are you actually routinely doing in desktop Outlook that you can't do in cloud Outlook via a desktop browser) is nothing?

 

I have used Outlook and other desktop email apps for many years, up till going to the cloud about a decade ago. Haven't found myself missing anything.

 

Edited April 8, 2018 by TallGuyJohninBKK