Retail Copies of Office 2013 Are Tied To a Single Computer Forever 464
An anonymous reader writes "With the launch of Office 2013 Microsoft has seen fit to upgrade the terms of the license agreement, and it's not in favor of the end user. It seems installing a copy of the latest version of Microsoft's Office suite of apps ties it to a single machine. For life. On previous versions of Office it was a different story. The suite was associated with a 'Licensed Device' and could only be used on a single device. But there was nothing to stop you uninstalling Office and installing it on another machine perfectly legally. With that option removed, Office 2013 effectively becomes a much more expensive proposition for many."
Great News (Score:2, Insightful)
For users of Open Office or those who short Microsoft Stock
LibreOffice (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:3)
I wish it did, but it doesn't. There is nothing fundamentally wrong with libreoffice, but it is not completely compatible with MS office. If you work in a business that uses MS office you really can't get by with libreoffice - not unless you want to regularly tell you boss that you couldn't make the updates to the document he just sent you because you insist on using non-standard (for that business) software.
Re: (Score:3)
I did say standard (for that business). If my business used libreoffice, I would use it. It uses MS office so I use that. Yes, in principal I could ask the company to pay for my personal copy of MS office so I can work at home, but I'm a firm believer that one of the ways to be a good (eg successful) employee is to minimize the amount of effort your boss needs to spend supporting you.
There is also the issue that since I use MS office at work I am very familiar with it. Libreoffice is simliar, but the inter
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Problems arise when you're a power user of these products; The 0.1% who actually use those deep-down-and-buried features which the rest of us don't even know exists. LibreOffice is great for the 99.9% of us who write essa
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Unfortunately its a strong natural monopoly. If you already are using MS office you will find that Libreoffice isn't compatible enough: formatting differences in powerpoint, issues with pivot tables, problems with markup, etc. Even in the rare case that you are really starting from scratch you will find that people you hire are more likely to be familiar with MS office. Vendors and customers are more likely to be able to read and write MS office - you could use pdf, but that has its own issues.
The cost just
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You can haz open source solution with full MS Office compatibility...
No, no, no. LibreOffice would otherwise be quite perfect, but full MS Office compatibility is exactly what keeps it down. It needs more accuracy.
This doesn't show up when you update your resume or write a couple of letters at home, but when you go into school/business world there's all kinds of serious formatting errors.
No. (Score:5, Informative)
Re:No. (Score:5, Insightful)
Office account?
What the flying fuck are they doing?
Re:No. (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
All the offices require an account. You cant buy it it most stores and walk out with a disc of any type. All you are buying is a key to type in after you create your Microsoft account.
Re:No. (Score:5, Informative)
That's Office 365.
Re:No. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:No. (Score:4, Informative)
It's Office OEM pretty much (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3)
At home, I'm still on Windows for desktop work because a lot of my apps aren't so Linux friendly (I didn't upgrade to Win8 and don't plan to).
At work, some of our infastructure still depends on Windows, so this isn't an option us at the moment. But we've steadily started moving web stuff away from Windows 2008 R2 to CentOS and OpenBSD and desktops (not all, though) to Debian. I'd by lying if I said everyone was 100% comfortable at first, but like most things, a lot of it was just getting used to a new way o
What happens when the machine dies? (Score:5, Interesting)
In some countries, this stipulation would be against consumer laws I'm sure (maybe the EU, also NZ is quite possible)
Re: (Score:3)
I agree - this could be iffy with respect to consumer laws. However, freelancers are businesses and are unprotected by those laws, so I'm pretty sure small businesses are going to get shafted pretty hard on this one. The big problem is that freelancers often have to work from a laptop without acccess to a network, so the whole "cloud thingy" is not an option if your income depends on being online. But having the license tied to a single computer won't work for them either.
All in all - it *is* time to take a
Re:What happens when the machine dies? (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
That contradicts their usual practice of activating the software (OEM Windows usually, but some OEM-like office packages in the past) in case of a hardware failure.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
If it's like any of the other Microsoft installation limits I've run into, you just call the support number, they ask you why you're installing multiple times, and you tell them you fixed the computer because you the repair shop replaced your motherboard and hard drive. They are pretty reasonable in practice.
Re:What happens when the machine dies? (Score:5, Funny)
If it's like any of the other Microsoft installation limits I've run into, you just call the support number, they ask you why you're installing multiple times, and you tell them you fixed the computer because you the repair shop replaced your motherboard and hard drive. They are pretty reasonable in practice.
The fact that people consider this reasonable still boggles my mind. If ford required you to phone them and re-activate your stereo every time you replaced your spark plugs, there would be a fucking media storm so big their stocks would drop faster than an f-150 driven off a cliff!
Re:What happens when the machine dies? (Score:5, Informative)
BTW, I've seen manufacturer's procedures for changing spark plugs call for disconnecting the battery. You'd literally have to phone them and re-activate your stereo every time you replaced your plugs. This has been going on since the 90s, and it is obvious you've never heard of it.
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It's always provided when you buy your car. For the brands I've bought new (Honda, Mitsubishi, Ford) it's part of the delivery checklist they run through to make sure you know the radio code is in the paperwork they give you. They often separate it from the manual now because, obviously, you don't want your anti-theft code sitting with your manual in the glovebox. Other times it will be on a metal tag with your spare key.
In any case, I'm sure most people lose it or don't pay attention, so they have to do
Re:What happens when the machine dies? (Score:5, Informative)
You do realize that most OEM car radio's require an activation code to be entered before they will work if power is lost? so you change the battery or it gets run down you have to put in the access code. Now the difference is in the original owners manual/paperwork there is a card with the code on it, most people lose this and are happy the can call a dealer and get it for free by giving the VIN# of the car.
GMC & some others take it a bit further with their ECU's on some of the higher end cars in that the first time they power up they talk to all the sensors on the buss and burn them into WORM memory (real worm or presented as worm) and are useless if moved to another car (i'm not quite sure how they handle single sensor changes vs multiple).
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In some countries, this stipulation would be against consumer laws I'm sure
Since when did that ever stop them trying to get away with it?
(maybe the EU, also NZ is quite possible)
<political rant> However, in New Zealand, they can probably just get a law change in their favour - Look to Warner Brothers </political rant>
Re:What happens when the machine dies? (Score:5, Insightful)
You do not own it... (Score:3)
... you have 'licensed it' from MS. There is a big difference.
Re: (Score:2)
Explain the situation on the phone and they'll activate it for you.
I had a similar experience the other day with a retail Home and Student 2010 license card, which, to my astonishment, ties the license to the machine, the motherboard specifically (like OEM Windows). I installed it on a nearly stillborn samsung tablet (should've waited the extra hours for it to definitely die) and couldn't activate Office on the replacement. So the person on the phone gave me the bad news and activated it for me.
Similar expe
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Well, in my mind that is still the same machine, as you just replaced some broken parts. I have no idea how MS sees it. But frankly, if they are going to tie it to the hardware, then they need to price it as a product that you are going to have to renew every 2 to 3 years. So make it $25, and I'll be happy to buy a new one when I get a new PC.
Compared to AppStore (Score:5, Informative)
One computer and can't move to a different computer? That's ridiculous. So if sell your computer and buy a better one, you have to re-buy the software? Or if your computer breaks? Or your computer is stolen? I wonder what your insurance company will say if your computer is stolen, they pay for a replacement, and then you say that instead of restoring your apps from your backup you want them to pay for new copies?
Why bother? (Score:5, Insightful)
I use Excel & Access 2003 on a daily basis (Access provides a simple front end to SQL databases). The only time I load up Excel 2010 is when the sheet has more then 256 columns (rare) or ~65k rows (more common now). The ribbon is a pain as I lose all my custom menu bars (and the after thought of a hack put into the ribbon for this sucks). What is there about 2013 that would appeal to a non-corporate end user? Saving to a cloud? We have Google Drive/DropBox folders for that.
Tied to a single computer forever? (Score:5, Insightful)
You used to be able to install on desktop and lapt (Score:2)
You used to be able to install on desktop and laptop with one copy of office now they want you to have 1 copy for each system no locked to the systems death.
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What's even worse is that Home and Student is the same price but is only valid for a signle computer, instead of three.
They're really pushing Office 365, and I'm not sure I enjoy the idea.
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What's even worse is that Home and Student is the same price but is only valid for a signle computer, instead of three.
They're really pushing Office 365, and I'm not sure I enjoy the idea.
Interestingly Office 365 is restricted in where you can use it. For some countries they just won't let you buy it. Not 'axis of evil' countries either; some of them are on the State Departments list of 'countries we REALLY want US companies doing business with".
It's almost as if... (Score:5, Insightful)
...they'd rather see Home users use a different licensing model... something with more long term revenue for the company. One way to help such a new model would be to make the current purchase model less attractive.
nahh. That couldn't be.
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What is this licensed device? (Score:5, Interesting)
If I add a disk, is it the same device?
If I swap the disk, is the same device.
If I keep everything but swap the CPU, is it a new computer?
If I keep the CPU but swap the motherboard?
If I swap components incrementally, when do I need to buy a new license?
Does the software actually check?
Re:What is this licensed device? (Score:5, Insightful)
Theseus? Is that you? [wikipedia.org]
This is blatantly illegal (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Permitting the sale is a different thing than requiring software companies to allow for such sales.
Upgrade (Score:2)
Between this and the X-box (Score:2)
It's Bye-Bye MS. And Apple haters complain about "vendor lock in" -- Why do I get the feeling that if I were to buy a copy of office, it would be from the Chinese Pirates?
But not right away (Score:2)
people still buy microsoft's software? (Score:2)
I am surprised microsoft has not driven themselves out of business with their draconian & heavy handed methods of conducting business
Linux & LibreOffice does it all for me = the cost of freedom is eternal vigilance
Netcraft confirms it... (Score:5, Funny)
This *will* be the year of Linux on the Desktop!
purpose of story: to out the shills (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm waiting to see how the resident MS shills are going to positively spin this one. No unbiased person could be in favor of this.
Credit where it is due (Score:5, Informative)
The story linked from the Slashdot article mostly just summarizes Turner's already-concise (but still more-detailed) article, and wraps it in a different set of ads.
Ship-of-Theseus/Repairing-a-Fiat solution (Score:5, Interesting)
In Adam Turner's article [theage.com.au] (on which the blog post linked in the Slashdot summary is based) Microsoft declares that " If the customer has a system crash, they are allowed to reinstall Office on that same computer..." but with the caveat, "No, the customer cannot transfer the license from one PC to another PC." Sounds like I'm allowed to upgrade my computer, and I'm allowed to replace broken parts...I just can't "transfer" the license between PCs.
Who knows the way to fix an old Fiat?
Step 1: Raise hood.
Step 2: Turn the radiator cap counterclockwise until fully loosed.
Step 3: Lift radiator cap straight up, at least six inches.
Step 4: Remove old Fiat from under radiator cap. Replace with new Fiat.
Step 5: Screw radiator cap back in place.
Step 6: Close hood.
Clearly, the solution in this situation is similar. Disconnect your mouse. Replace the computer underneath. Plug in a new computer. The license, obviously, transferred with the Theseus-mouse.
I don't know whose the single computer will be... (Score:4, Funny)
Libre Office!! (Score:5, Interesting)
LaTex (Score:3)
Time to learn LaTex. Open Office is not suitable for complicated/large documents.
Microsoft On How To Shoot Yourself In The Foot (Score:5, Funny)
* Hey Steve! How's it going.
- Terrible, Bill, terrible. Nothing's going the way we expected. I mean, we tried our best with Zune - we made it brown even! - but it's no good. Some people even liked the Zune software.
* I see. What else have you tried?
- Well, we replaced the toolbar in Office with - get this - a ribbon. We told everybody it would improve their workflow.
* Bet that shook things up!
- No, people kept buying Office. The ribbon even had fans! They wanted it extended to other apps! But then I thought... XBox!
* XBox?
- Yeah... we'll put ads all over the thing! There'll be a tiny button in the corner to start the game and everywhere else... ads!
* Yes!!!
- No! People complained, but XBox Lives subscriptions are up and game sales are through the roof! Hell, we even canned Bungie and sold more Halo games than ever!
* Oh dear.
- Then I'm sure you heard about Windows 8 and Metro.
* Oh yes, terrific job there. And you tied it to Surface and Windows Phone too!
- Yes, we're all very proud of that. And now this thing with Office 2013; we're tying it to a single computer. No reinstalls. If your motherboard craps out, well, you'll just have to buy a new license!
* Surely that will work. No one will be able to ignore the message we're sending now.
- I don't know, Bill. I don't know. People liked the whole Office365 subscription thing, after all. They'll probably like this too. You know and I know that Windows and the Microsoft ecosystem is an abortion and a disaster, and that we've been striving desperately to get people to leave it for greater and better things - I can't help but remember the excellent work you did with "The Road Ahead" and leaving out the Internet entirely; you'd have thought that might have clued them in that we're just hacks - but it's just not working. But look, what if I try this next: security updates only available to people who have a paid subscription. Yeah, that might do it, don't you think?
* Never give up hope, Steve, never give up hope. I can't think of anyone better for this job. And here, toss a chair. It'll make you feel better.
The only part of Office I really Use is OneNote (Score:4, Interesting)
and until I find a usable replacement for the features it has, I'm stuck with Office 2007. Sure it works but I'd like something that's open source instead and using a Wiki setup just doesn't cut it for me as it means installing to much additional software.
Now if I can find something that gives me 90 percent of the features (individual notebooks, insert media, text and such), I'd be able to move back to open source as my only online game now has a link to setting things up in Wine along with links to doing so in RH/Deb/Suse and others.
Re:just use virtual machines (Score:5, Insightful)
This is so not the point.
Re:just use virtual machines (Score:5, Informative)
I'm not sure how true the summary is tbh.
I bought Office 2013 Pro Plus through my university's website and it said it was quite clearly licensed for a maximum of 2 machines at once.
That implies that at very least the license can work on two computers and I honestly don't think there's anything magical about the copy and license I purchased even if I did get a student discount (there are perks to remaining a student for life, even alongside working full time!) - certainly the media I received looks like any other copy of Pro Plus and there is no mention of "Super special student offer that magically allows you to run it on two machines at once" though that doesn't of course mean that there aren't regional/license differences - perhaps bundled OEM copies with new machines have the restriction mentioned in TFA rather than retail versions which I presumably received?
Further, the wording "maximum of two at once" almost seems to imply that you can change the machine it's on, just as long as you don't exceed the maximum.
But in my case I was actually pleased to see Microsoft had explicitly decided to authorise you running one copy on multiple machines, if anything this is a step forward - an explicit recognition from Microsoft that people do have multiple machines and expect to not buy a copy per machine, and expect their license to work on multiple computers as mine does.
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And further, people upgrade machines. People replace motherboards... or entire computers. They shouldn't have to repurchase software.
To avoid license breaches, I even run older versions of MS Office on my less important machines. I run a two-version-old version on my netbook as it is more than adequate for the airplane-based Word document editing and the PowerPoint presentations I use in my seminars.
Still, I'm starting to think that migrating to using LibreOffice might be the safest approach since I can
Re:just use virtual machines (Score:4, Insightful)
not if it phones home
Re:just use virtual machines (Score:4, Informative)
How would it phoning home make things different? All the software sees is the inside of the VM, which remains the same.
Phoning home could prevent two different copies of the VM running at the same time - which is not the point. If my computer dies, I should be able to transfer legally acquired software from the old, dead machine to the new one. By running Office inside a VM, the user can do that - and Microsoft would not be able to tell, no matter how often it phones home.
Microsoft is misunderstood. (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Microsoft is misunderstood. (Score:5, Funny)
IMO, MS is not a software company. It is an abuse company that uses selling software as a way of delivering abuse.
MS is an abuse company? But I was looking for an argument.
Re:just use virtual machines (Score:4, Insightful)
install to virtual machine, then make copies of that virtual machine. problem solved.
I do not think that this "solution" will work for a typical user. VM machines are not simple to setup and use for the masses as they are for /. users.
As a matter of fact I do not think this will impact the majority of users at all. Most people buy their software with their computer system and are not adverse to having to buy a new version when they get a new machine.
Re:just use virtual machines (Score:5, Insightful)
install to virtual machine, then make copies of that virtual machine. problem solved.
I do not think that this "solution" will work for a typical user. VM machines are not simple to setup and use for the masses as they are for /. users.
As a matter of fact I do not think this will impact the majority of users at all. Most people buy their software with their computer system and are not adverse to having to buy a new version when they get a new machine.
Ok, let's expand a bit. It should be relatively straightforward for a knowledgeable person to create a self-contained virtual appliance with a copy of Window Du jour plus a copy of Office 20-whatever with all the common options (or every option) and require the user to only input the license key for the OS and the license key for Office. Install procedure would be to insert disk, run Setup, get prompted for the required license keys, and get an icon on your desktop that when invoked, brings up Office in a virtual box.
This is, of course, non-trivial to create. But all it takes is a single (not inconsiderable) effort, the results of which are replicated endlessly.
Or, we could all stick with a previous version of Office, and Microsoft can go screw. I'm still using Office 2000. Works fine on Windows 7.
Re: (Score:2)
Add a backup feature that burns the virtual machine onto a DVD, so you can bring it up on a new physical machine at a future date.
Re:just use virtual machines (Score:5, Insightful)
Or, we could all stick with a previous version of Office, and Microsoft can go screw. I'm still using Office 2000. Works fine on Windows 7.
This is the correct answer.
I am still using Office 2003 because (a) It works just fine and does what I need. Newer versions contain absolutely nothing of benefit to me. (b) No "activation" or other bullshit required, which means I can easily transfer it to another computer when needed. (c) It doesn't have the god awful ribbon that was introduced with Office 2007 and rendered the program unusable.
Re:just use virtual machines (Score:5, Insightful)
I am still using Office 2003 because (a) It works just fine and does what I need. Newer versions contain absolutely nothing of benefit to me. (b) No "activation" or other bullshit required, which means I can easily transfer it to another computer when needed. (c) It doesn't have the god awful ribbon that was introduced with Office 2007 and rendered the program unusable.
And I'll continue to use Libre Office :) No activation, no ribbon, works fine and does what I need.
There will be the inevitable response: I need feature X that only MS Office has. This will not get an argument from me. If you need MS Office, go for it. Do what you have to do. I'm just happy that I don't need it myself and don't have to deal with all this nonsense.
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I'd switch, but the horrid VBA in Excel is still far better-documented and easier to develop for than any of the OO.org macro solutions.
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Puh-leeeeze... this whole site is written in Perl!
Re:just use virtual machines (Score:5, Informative)
And I'll continue to use Libre Office :) No activation, no ribbon, works fine and does what I need.
Another nice drop-in replacement is Kingsoft Office [kingsoftstore.com], a pretty full MS office clone without all the post-2007 braindamage the Microsoft added. I've been installing it for friends and family who need to work with Office documents but don't (or can't) want to pay MS's Office price (don't even get me started about Office 365, from the folks who also brought you Win8). Oh, and the whole suite is a 39MB download, compared to a DVD's-worth for MS Office. Even if you want the full-on commercial version rather than the free one (which only adds VBA and macros) that's all of $49.95.
(Not affiliated with Kingsoft in any way, just happy to have something I can drop on people's machines when they need to occasionally work with Office documents).
Re:just use virtual machines (Score:5, Insightful)
and that's exactly the reason I don't send docs in Office format, instead I use PDF.
Re: (Score:3)
and that's exactly the reason I don't send docs in Office format, instead I use PDF.
That's fine until someone says you have to submit docs in Office format or you won't get the job/contract/new kidney for your child.
The fact that it's wrong doesn't mean you won't suffer by not playing by their rules.
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You are not allowed to redistribute any of the files that come with your Office 2013 (or Win8) distribution without explicit permission from Microsoft. Which means this scheme has zero chance of success. What you _could_ do is package the whole system so that it fires up, asks for an Office 2013 install source, and then loads that onto your VM, creating the necessary shortcuts in the process. That would require constant updates based on how Microsoft packages their DVDs, and be an overall mess fo
Re:just use virtual machines (Score:5, Funny)
Virtual machine machines might not be simple, but virtual machines can be.
Re:just use virtual machines (Score:5, Interesting)
Yes and no.
I did a bit of IT consulting a while back for a small company owned by a friend of mine that upgraded one of their (dead) machines to Win7 from XP. One of their pieces of software (that isn't supported by the vendor anymore, natch) had some copy protection on it that ABSOLUTELY REFUSED to run on Win7. As in "every single post I could find about it on Google said 'don't bother'" and no amount of backwards-compatibility junk would get Win7 to make it work, period (though admittedly this was Win7 Home Prem, so no built-in VM stuff).
The solution: VirtualBox, running a spare XP license, and just this one application. With the VBox tools installed, I set it to resize the desktop automatically when the window's resized, put the taskbar on autohide, and it works great (nice and snappy for an office-type app). When you click the close box on the window, VBox suspends the VM. When you open it back up again, it un-suspends. Plus you get snapshotting and portability of the environment.
They were not sophisticated enough to pull this off, but their local IT guy (me) was, and this is a little 5-person extermination company...
Re:just use virtual machines (Score:4, Insightful)
Honestly, virtual machines made a BIG mess out of Microsoft licensing across pretty much their whole product line. It's likely the reason they went from being the "bad guy" to the "good guy" with their friendliness towards running VMs in a flexible manner on their server products in the last couple years. (Unless they made some drastic changes, their licensing would become pretty much a joke in the world of corporate I.T. with virtual machines.)
It's still really complicated and I'm pretty sure most people don't even really understand all of it, or license their purchased MS products correctly.
For example, do you know when it's economically feasible to purchase Windows Server "Datacenter edition" (despite it's massive cost) vs. "Enterprise edition", or Enterprise vs. "Standard"? In most real-world scenarios today, everyone would be just fine buying copies of "Standard" if they wanted a Windows Server license, EXCEPT for the virtualization rules. (With "Standard", you're allowed to run 1 virtual copy as well as 1 physical installation of the product, but your virtual copy *must* be on the SAME box you installed the physical copy on. So basically, you pay for the rights to install the product on a single machine and it gives you the right to run Microsoft's "Hyper V" virtual machine solution on top of it. When you shell out about 4x the price for an Enterprise edition of the same server product? You're actually granted 4 virtual machine installations, AND they're "stackable". So if you have a big, multi-processor, powerful server and you want to fire up 8 virtual servers on the thing? You can do it by buying 2 of the Windows Enterprise edition licenses, and you'll still have a license left over to install another physical Windows server on some other box (but not with a VM running on top of it).
All fine and good, but as you can probably see -- keeping track of this stuff in a corporate setting quickly gets kind of insane. "How is this server here legally licensed?" "Well.... I have this license I purchased here for this other box, and it gave me a spare license to use on THIS one -- but you can't add X or Y to THIS box now without buying an additional license that lets you do that to it....." And we haven't even STARTED talking about Microsoft's CALs yet ("Client access licenses", which you also have to buy based on how many people are going to CONNECT to a given server!)
Frankly, I think the best bet is to flat out AVOID their products, if you care at all about remaining provably legal on your purchases. The claim that typing one of their products to a specific PC "won't affect most users at all" is dead wrong, IMO. I've seen far more times than I can count where someone called a PC service place for a computer repair, had a new motherboard installed, and now the software considers it a different PC. Only reason this didn't cause rioting in the streets YEARS ago is Microsoft's leniency in letting someone basically break their licensing rules on demand. The license key for Windows/Office/whatever complains it's not properly licensed (since it was an OEM version). Tech knows user won't pay for ANOTHER copy of the product, so he takes advantage of having access to some "not for resale/personal use only" type license keys that came with his "Microsoft Action Pack" subscription or TechNet or what-not and enters one of those. Product works again and customer is none the wiser..... But it ain't legal.
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what about the 99.5% of people who have no clue what that means?
there's no reason to shift any of the blame onto consumers for this. fuck microsoft.
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Re:just use virtual machines (Score:5, Insightful)
Fire up a virtual machine every time someone emails you a document, and then move that document over to the virtual machine (after it books), open up your Office suite, and then move the document back.
Man, that is sure convenient.
It is almost like Microsoft is trying to encourage people to move over to the perpetual subscription method by making the traditional way of purchasing 2013 a pain in the ass.
Re:just use virtual machines (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:just use virtual machines (Score:5, Interesting)
Fire up a virtual machine every time someone emails you a document, and then move that document over to the virtual machine (after it books), open up your Office suite, and then move the document back.
Man, that is sure convenient.
Why would you do it that way? When I read the VM suggestion, I thought it basically meant live in the VM full time. There is a post above where a person used an XP VM in Win7 for a legacy app that wouldn't run in his Win7 set up. But that was one app, not an office suite.
If you're using MS Office for everything, including Outlook for email, and you're using a VM so you can change hardware by moving the VM instead of reinstalling Office, why not fire up the VM as soon as Windows boots and put all your apps in there?
I mean, 1) you're going to spend so much time in the VM, you might as well stay in, and 2) you've done the work of making your system easy to restore to get around reinstalling Office, why not take advantage and make all your software as easy to restore?
Moving files between levels of virtualization wouldn't be an issue. You pay a price at start up, as the OS and VM boot, but a small price. And I'm in the minority as someone who still shuts down PCs. Don't most folk use sleep or hibernate, or for a desktop, just leave it one all the time?
I've only used VMs on beefy servers, never on consumer desktop or laptop hardware. Is there a performance reason you wouldn't live in the VM full time? The top level OS could be light; the only thing it is doing is handling the VM (and passing off messages between the VM and outside world? I don't know where VMs live on your OSI model.).
Anyway, I just had an issue with MS Office 2010 where my wife's HD crashed, I reinstalled (I just back up data, because you can always reinstall software, right?), then her MB went, and when reinstalling on a new machine and trying to register, it got denied as too many installs. This is legal, paid for, copy of Office.
So I downloaded a crack.
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I mean, 1) you're going to spend so much time in the VM, you might as well stay in, and 2) you've done the work of making your system easy to restore to get around reinstalling Office, why not take advantage and make all your software as easy to restore?
My boss is a bit of a mac fan, and osx has been breeding at various high levels, so I ended up with a 27" imac as my own machine to replace my old q6600-based pc, theoretically so I could get more familiar with OSX and support it better. The biggest issue I'
Re:just use virtual machines (Score:5, Insightful)
install to virtual machine, then make copies of that virtual machine. problem solved.
This is why most "normal" people don't understand nerds. Every problem always has a technical solution. Always. Even if that problem isn't technical in nature and the solution completely misses the point. The issue isn't that it's physically impossible to install to multiple computers, as a hack will be around shortly to eliminate that limitation. The problem is in the license that's trying to bleed more money out of the user. The solution to that problem is to not buy the new version of Office. Either use an older version or switch to something more open.
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Re:just use virtual machines (Score:4, Insightful)
You know, I think I know a better solution. Tell the whole world about this abrogation of natural rights. Tell your friends. Spread the MS hate. Go post it to Facebook, twitter or whatever. Do it now.
Re:just use virtual machines (Score:4, Informative)
I just posted this on my facebook account. Feel free to post it everywhere.
Microsoft has just raised the bar on greed. MS Office 2013 has a non-transferable license, it can only be installed on 1 computer. So, you lose this computer or it dies or you upgrade, you lose your license to MS Office 2013. See http://www.geek.com/articles/geek-pick/retail-copies-of-office-2013-are-tied-to-a-single-computer-forever-20130213/ [geek.com] for moredetails.
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install it in a virtual machine, run it from there, this is lame.
I am guessing they will be providing a license that allows you to do that. For a premium of course.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Advice? (Score:5, Interesting)
Or just use the pirated version of office 2013 that will come out 3 months before the official release, have no such limitations, will be much more configurable, and, of course, is free...
Re:Advice? (Score:5, Insightful)
"install it in a virtual machine, run it from there, this is lame."
I would be inclined to go with one of 2 "solutions":
(A) Use a software crack. What the hell. I paid for it, it's mine, I'll do what I want with it.
(B) The choice I would more likely make: go with Open Office or Libre Office.
It's really not much of a contest, is it? I've been using Open Office and Libre Office for more than 10 years now, precisely because of this kind of horseshit from Microsoft.
Can you read the summary? (Score:2)
Apparently not.
Re:Can I re-install on another computer? (Score:4, Informative)
But there was nothing to stop you uninstalling Office and installing it on another machine perfectly legally. With that option removed, Office 2013 effectively becomes a much more expensive proposition for many
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Microsoft is doing their damndest to make me not want to use Windows anymore. Everything about Windows 8 sounds like an anti-consumer nuisance, they've spent 6 years turning the Xbox dashboard into the worst piece of clumsy advertising software as opposed to a valid gaming console OS, and now this crap.
Yep, you're days are numbered Microsoft. Have fun burning what little bit of good will still exists for you.
Microsoft isn't -- anti-Microsoft bloggers looking for ad views without any supporting information are doing their damnedest to make you not want to use Windows anymore, specifically by targeting the anti-Microsoft bias that a specific subset of people seem to have. A second article that got all of its information purely from the first is not a confirmation, either.
An empirical test, though -- I've, in fact, moved a 2013 license between systems without any problem. YMMV, and I didn't read the license agreem
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I use Office 2012 at work, albeit not as my main tool. After a bit over a year I was at the point where I was reasonably familiar with the ribbon and started to prefer it over Office 2000 (which I used before). So I think there is a bit of an advantage to the new UI, but it is a small one and requires a lot of time to learn the new ways of interacting with the program. Probably not worth it from a usability point of view.
Office 2012 crashes a lot less than Office 2000 though, so it was good to get the new v
Re:Who cares? Anyone like Office anymore? (Score:5, Informative)
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You prefer boxes with symbols instead of an alphabetical list?
Lets see, number of menu options in Word 2003 top menu:
File, Edit, View, Insert, Format, Table, Window, Help
Number of tabs to open new ribbons in Office 2013:
File, Home, Insert, Page Layout, References, Mailings, Review, View. Of course there is still the Help button cleverly hidden in the upper right corner.
How is this helping again? Oh, right! The tools we commonly use are on the 'Home' ribbon... where more than half of the UI is taken up by 'S
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Re:Anything MS can do Apple can do Eviler.... (Score:4, Informative)
In fact my $20 upgrade to Mountain Lion travels with my Apple ID. I sold an older MacBook and bought a new(er) one that had Lion on it. After I signed into the AppStore my Mountain Lion install worked fine...
Or the $20 Pages or $20 Numbers applications I bought.. once... that work on any Macs I own... at the same time.