MS Office- Stand Alone or Subscription Based? What to choose....Chime in

Viper69 · Nov 23, 2015

I need to get MS Office. I only own my PC, and a likely a laptop at some point, MAYBE a tablet (example Surface Pro) at some point.

What is the better deal money wise, getting the stand alone MS Office (MS Word, Excel, Powerpoint, OneNote-- These are all I need, don't need Outlook), or shelling out $99/yr for a subscription?

Unrelated, but many years ago ACER used to be a brand low prices and low quality. Has that changed?

Thanks.

c627627 · Nov 25, 2015

I personally want to buy and own forever and not be limited by renting software. Other people want to rent so they can have the newest-latest office feature.

Which 2016 office feature not present in Office 2013 can you not do without?

When it comes to brands, things vary from model to model. From deal to deal.

OfficeMax / Office Depot have the best laptop deals, many other places have them this week for black Friday. Other items, it all varies from deal to deal, it just depends on item, budget, and a hot deal active at the time...

mimart7 · Nov 25, 2015

The one good thing about using Office 365, is that you can login, and edit documents from any computer. The downside is that if you don't pay, your files are held hostage until you do pay.

We are rolling it out here at work, and the one thing is that users cannot complain about missing .pst files for Outlook. This makes it easier when a user's desktop needs to be replaced.

Eventually we will be rolling out VDI, so application installs will be a thing of the past.

Kenrou · Nov 25, 2015

Can i suggest a free alternative that does relatively the same job ?

https://www.openoffice.org/

Viper69 · Nov 25, 2015

c627627 said:
I personally want to buy and own forever and not be limited by renting software. Other people want to rent so they can have the newest-latest office feature.

Which 2016 office feature not present in Office 2013 can you not do without?

When it comes to brands, things vary from model to model. From deal to deal.

OfficeMax / Office Depot have the best laptop deals, many other places have them this week for black Friday. Other items, it all varies from deal to deal, it just depends on item, budget, and a hot deal active at the time...

Hey C6 glad to see you are still around! I agree on owning forever, I am NOT a fan of renting software. However I recognize why MS is doing it from Bill Gates talks I believe over a decade ago, I wasn't happy then either.

2013 works fine for my needs. I was thinking about purchasing a laptop for someone, and they may not want 2013, so I was asking in advance.

I just remember Acer not being a very good brand, I'm not referring to specific pricing.

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Kenrou said:
Can i suggest a free alternative that does relatively the same job ?

https://www.openoffice.org/

Thanks, I've used it on and off for well over decade, and there was always a need it didn't meet unfortunately. I still hold out hope for it!

- - - Updated - - -

mimart7 said:
The one good thing about using Office 365, is that you can login, and edit documents from any computer. The downside is that if you don't pay, your files are held hostage until you do pay.

We are rolling it out here at work, and the one thing is that users cannot complain about missing .pst files for Outlook. This makes it easier when a user's desktop needs to be replaced.

Eventually we will be rolling out VDI, so application installs will be a thing of the past.

Yeah I heard that, but I don't put anything in another company's server, I never have, and never will.

RollingThunder · Nov 25, 2015

I too am looking to buy MS Office 2016 for Home and Business retail. There is no way I'm renting their software
and I use it for as long as I can. Still using MS Office 2003 after 12 years until a new build is completed. If you
plan to use MS Office for more than two years then buy it and be done with it.

C6, is it true that MS Office 2016 cannot be installed selectively? It installs itself completely?

mimart7 · Nov 25, 2015

RollingThunder said:
I too am looking to buy MS Office 2016 for Home and Business retail. There is no way I'm renting their software
and I use it for as long as I can. Still using MS Office 2003 after 12 years until a new build is completed. If you
plan to use MS Office for more than two years then buy it and be done with it.

C6, is it true that MS Office 2016 cannot be installed selectively? It installs itself completely?

See this, https://blogs.office.com/2015/10/01/your-top-questions-about-office-2016-answered/

Apparently you cannot install the apps that you want. If you purchase a Pro version, you are stuck installing Skye for Business (Lync) Publisher, etc. Too bad that in this version of Office, MS took the ability to decide what you want to install away from the user. How many "regular" users need Access, etc?

Kenrou · Nov 25, 2015

Stuff like this makes me want to go Linux...

RollingThunder · Nov 25, 2015

Kenrou said:
Stuff like this makes me want to go Linux...

Yep and they wonder why the EULA is abused. Now I wonder whether one can
uninstall what they don't want after the mandatory full install. I personally don't
use Powerpoint or Publisher.

c627627 · Nov 25, 2015

Viper69 said:
I was thinking about purchasing a laptop for someone, and they may not want 2013, so I was asking in advance.

Well when it comes to laptops, as a general rule, the processor is the first thing you look at.
Intel is better than AMD.
i3 or i5 or i7 are (much) better than Pentium or Celeron.

And then you look at generations. Latest sixth generation Intel, codename Skylake is a quantum leap over previous generation versions i3, i5, i7 processors. Much better battery life and quite a bit faster.
Lots of sales this Black Friday on laptops!

RollingThunder, I would like to know all that myself.
Here is my old link to Office 2013 official Microsoft ISO
http://care.dlservice.microsoft.com...786570A1/OfficeProfessionalPlus_x86_en-us.img

Where is the equivalent for version 2016, if anyone knows, please post?

RollingThunder · Dec 1, 2015

I am assuming you can only download to the computer you're going to install it on
since you don't have a choice about when or what you want to install. In other words if
you want to make MS Office Home and Business a gift then you buy the card key and give
that to the person the gift is for because there is no hard copy and box from Microsoft.

Correct?

BugFreak · Dec 2, 2015

I just purchased 2016 Pro Plus through my work and I'm pretty sure I was able to uncheck Skype but Skype for Business is sure on the pc when I look at the program list. I guess the check box didn't do anything. For $9.99 I'll let it be though. :shrug:

Automata · Dec 2, 2015

mimart7 said:
if you don't pay, your files are held hostage until you do pay.

This is flat out wrong. You can't edit files if you don't renew your subscription, but you can view anything you have created or downloaded.

MS Office- Stand Alone or Subscription Based? What to choose....Chime in

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