i hate all this subscription based software, i know people that is still using their office 2010 copy because that's the one that they bought, and it works pretty ok, sometimes you need office software but you wont need it every day just sometimes, in that way, paying for a subscription is so much expensive.

reix2x:

i hate all this subscription based software, i know people that is still using their office 2010 copy because that's the one that they bought, and it works pretty ok, sometimes you need office software but you wont need it every day just sometimes, in that way, paying for a subscription is so much expensive.

Completely agree. I also have a super old Office that still serves me perfectly fine.

xnm33:

Valve is one of the pioneers of software theft with steam, before 2004 most games you got complete local applications before software started to be coded client server, games went first.

Although you don't own games anymore like you used to, little else has changed. You pay once (unless it's a monthly billed MMO) and it's yours to keep, at least as long as Valve doesn't go bankrupt. The whole small DLC and microtransaction scheme is the real thing that changed for the worse.

xnm33:

You literally don't own your windows 10 machine.

Literally? MS has no claim for your hardware. You can get rid of your Windows any day and install Linux if you want to. I paid once for my Win10 and I will use it for as long as Win11 or 12 comes out, if they are supposed to come out. If MS one day wants me to start paying 6.99 euros a month for Windows, I guess my gaming days will be over and I will be learning Linux. I might be willing to pay 10 euros a year, maybe even 15, if it comes down to it, but it wouldn't be much of a deal for MS.

xnm33:

We can blow the lid off this software theft by calling the FTC and telling them about the tech industries and game industries theft of software for the last 20 years. The game industry is a haven of theives. We all should have called the FTC when steam was being released in 2004 before it grew into the cancer it was today.

I don't want to drag foreign politics into anything, but you will likely need to wait another four years. One of the first things Trump did was to gut consumer protection. He's a former big businessman himself, so he loves big business and corporations. Just look at the FCC and that clown Ajit Pai placed there as a leader by Trump. Edit: Wrong word used.

I'm currently paying every year for 5 licenses of office, the 5 license pack is not expensive short term, but it is in long term and I'm the only one paying for it --> I just use Outlook, Word and Excel mainly. That being said. I would love to have open source office in the future. But the companies I work with use Office 365 and sometimes I just use it from my personal environment/Windows10 and I need this as well. Outlook meetings, shared calendar, out of office, synchronization with Skype for business or Teams, office microsoft documents are some examples of the closed ecosystem that jail me into this. This is like Apple Messages and many other things. On the bright side: Linux is every day much more popular. And many things that cost a lot of many, use Linux every day. I'd love to see games migrating to more OS. I think Vulkan could help a lot on this, if it gets popular

reix2x:

i hate all this subscription based software, i know people that is still using their office 2010 copy because that's the one that they bought, and it works pretty ok, sometimes you need office software but you wont need it every day just sometimes, in that way, paying for a subscription is so much expensive.

I pay for the Office 365 family pack not because of Office itself, but because of the 5x1 TB of OneDrive for 1.65 €/month per account... with free Office! No other company gives 1 TB for 1.65 €/month (VAT included).

heffeque:

I pay for the Office 365 family pack not because of Office itself, but because of the 5x1 TB of OneDrive for 1.65 €/month per account... with free Office! No other company gives 1 TB for 1.65 €/month (VAT included).

That's truly a good price

heffeque:

I pay for the Office 365 family pack not because of Office itself, but because of the 5x1 TB of OneDrive for 1.65 €/month per account... with free Office! No other company gives 1 TB for 1.65 €/month (VAT included).

I will rather keep using libre office and buy new 4tb drive every year instead of giving 100EUR for either sub/one drive space...

Crazy Serb:

I will rather keep using libre office and buy new 4tb drive every year instead of giving 100EUR for either sub/one drive space...

For my stuff I have offline backups too 😉 First of all: only relying in offline backups is a disaster waiting to happen. Second of all: I never said that all 5 accounts were in a single household, so your solution would require a full blown NAS. Third of all: I have tried lots of times to teach them to back up their data every once in a while... and it's literally impossible, so the best option is to have something automated that they don't have to plug in every once in a while, and that's where NAS or cloud backups come in. In my case I chose cloud backups. Edit: if I ever end up getting a NAS, it will surely be an AS5304T populated with "cheap/SATA" large capacity SSDs. Don't think that I haven't given NAS's a though!

reix2x:

i hate all this subscription based software, i know people that is still using their office 2010 copy because that's the one that they bought, and it works pretty ok, sometimes you need office software but you wont need it every day just sometimes, in that way, paying for a subscription is so much expensive.

If you're only interested in the base model office and only need it for one PC, then yes, subscription is too expensive. However, if you need the all the office programs, and need it for 6 PCs, that's $439.99 per PC, $2639.94 total. A $100 a year subscription to get equivalently the same thing (for the most part) doesn't seem like such a bad deal then, it'll take you 26 years to equate to the same cost. Plus, you'll get the updated programs rather than be stuck with the copy you bought one time. There is definitely a place for the subscription. I almost never recommend to anyone to get the subscription, but sometimes, it makes sense. It can even make sense, just not as long if all you need is the base program for 6 PCs, as that's $899.94 total, and would take you 9 years to equate to the same cost

Aura89:

If you're only interested in the base model office and only need it for one PC, then yes, subscription is too expensive. However, if you need the all the office programs, and need it for 6 PCs, that's $439.99 per PC, $2639.94 total. A $100 a year subscription to get equivalently the same thing (for the most part) doesn't seem like such a bad deal then, it'll take you 26 years to equate to the same cost. Plus, you'll get the updated programs rather than be stuck with the copy you bought one time. There is definitely a place for the subscription. I almost never recommend to anyone to get the subscription, but sometimes, it makes sense. It can even make sense, just not as long if all you need is the base program for 6 PCs, as that's $899.94 total, and would take you 9 years to equate to the same cost

man... i can totally use the same software for 26 years, i have been doing that with notepad haha, now being serious as you say it, it make sense

Will see how libre office is, I guess this freeware will suit my needs.

fantaskarsef:

Will see how libre office is, I guess this freeware will suit my needs.

If you don't use macros, etc. it's probably more than enough for almost anyone's use case scenario.

heffeque:

If you don't use macros, etc. it's probably more than enough for almost anyone's use case scenario.

Yeah I use word for the occasional letter and excel for simple tables and such, if I needed more I'd have the alternative to use my work laptop as I currently work from home. But I don't fancy taking it home and turning it on usually, I try to separate the two spheres of personal and business.

fantaskarsef:

Yeah I use word for the occasional letter and excel for simple tables and such, if I needed more I'd have the alternative to use my work laptop as I currently work from home. But I don't fancy taking it home and turning it on usually, I try to separate the two spheres of personal and business.

Then libre office is great for you!

heffeque:

Then libre office is great for you!

From what limited experience I have during the last week, I guess so too. 😉

Aura89:

If you're only interested in the base model office and only need it for one PC, then yes, subscription is too expensive. However, if you need the all the office programs, and need it for 6 PCs, that's $439.99 per PC, $2639.94 total. A $100 a year subscription to get equivalently the same thing (for the most part) doesn't seem like such a bad deal then, it'll take you 26 years to equate to the same cost. Plus, you'll get the updated programs rather than be stuck with the copy you bought one time. There is definitely a place for the subscription. I almost never recommend to anyone to get the subscription, but sometimes, it makes sense. It can even make sense, just not as long if all you need is the base program for 6 PCs, as that's $899.94 total, and would take you 9 years to equate to the same cost

Back in the Office 2010 days you could buy a pack of three licenses. It didn't cost that much more than an OEM single license (from a reputable store, like 150 euros vs 99 euros, or something). Such an option has only disappeared because MS wants everybody to switch to subscription. They only have the relatively expensive and limited 1 PC license left for the people who hate subscription services as much as MS hates those people. Btw, I'm still running Office 2010. I'll only update if I happen to come across a newer non-subscription license for much cheaper than what MS is asking for it. Not that I'd have been looking around.

Kaarme:

Back in the Office 2010 days you could buy a pack of three licenses. It didn't cost that much more than an OEM single license (from a reputable store, like 150 euros vs 99 euros, or something). Such an option has only disappeared because MS wants everybody to switch to subscription. They only have the relatively expensive and limited 1 PC license left for the people who hate subscription services as much as MS hates those people. Btw, I'm still running Office 2010. I'll only update if I happen to come across a newer non-subscription license for much cheaper than what MS is asking for it. Not that I'd have been looking around.

Office 365 subscription makes sense for 2 things: you need/want updated Office tools AND/OR you need/want 1 TB of OneDrive for very cheap. Any other case doesn't make sense.

Kaarme:

Back in the Office 2010 days you could buy a pack of three licenses. It didn't cost that much more than an OEM single license (from a reputable store, like 150 euros vs 99 euros, or something). Such an option has only disappeared because MS wants everybody to switch to subscription. They only have the relatively expensive and limited 1 PC license left for the people who hate subscription services as much as MS hates those people. Btw, I'm still running Office 2010. I'll only update if I happen to come across a newer non-subscription license for much cheaper than what MS is asking for it. Not that I'd have been looking around.

Again, you're buying for one PC. Also, Office 2010 prices were: Office Professional is $499, Home & Business is $279.95, and Home & Student is $149.95, so if you found packs, or a deal, that was cheaper, that's great! But the MSRP of office hasn't really changed much over the years (it's actually gotten cheaper on the highest end office). I can find copies of Home & Student for $50 off even now, it's still possible to get deals, but my point was not "which deal you can get" but rather when a subscription model can make sense. Of my years in this field, sales wise, i have not seen a massive difference in prices for office as you suggest, nor did i see a change when subscriptions came about really at all. What i have seen is a lack of PCs/Laptops that come with Office, and if they do, it's a 1 year subscription now. That's really the only difference from my personal experience that i have seen. Also, physical copies of the programs don't really exist anymore, so the only sales you get now are microsoft-backed sales as all copies of the program are sold like giftcards (cards that get activated at the register). So i can see the local-store "super" discounts no longer existing (for instance your 3 pack deal was, i am assuming, a physical copy, not directly from microsoft, and could have been the business trying to blow them out) But that has less to do with a subscription and a whole lot more to do with going to activation cards in retail. You're effectively always buying directly from microsoft now, and stores hold no value to those cards and couldn't care less how long they sit on the shelves. https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41qoM-US8tL._AC_SY400_.jpg I will say however, how many computers the program can be installed on has changed. Office 2010 to my knowledge for instance could be installed on 2 PCs.

Aura89:

(for instance your 3 pack deal was, i am assuming, a physical copy, not directly from microsoft, and could have been the business trying to blow them out) But that has less to do with a subscription and a whole lot more to do with going to activation cards in retail. You're effectively always buying directly from microsoft now, and stores hold no value to those cards and couldn't care less how long they sit on the shelves.

The three license pack did indeed come with a DVD, but it was an official MS affair. In fact back then if you needed to make the phone call to MS for activation, the robot asked you if the license was for 3 PCs (or some other options I didn't listen to). There wasn't an option for 1 PC. That's why when I decided to try to reactivate OEM Office 2010 on a new PC, I had to select the 3 PCs option. It worked. I'm not actually trying to argue against you in any sense since your calculations must be correct. However, I merely wanted to point out that while now (and already back with Office 2016) MS only offered the permanent licenses for 1 PC (at least for regular home users), earlier you could get them for 3 PCs in retail packs for a price that wasn't out of this world. Perhaps you could have also got them directly, digitally, from the Microsoft store, I don't know, since I got all of my Offices from brick and mortar. Also, lots of people actually have 2 PCs: desktop and laptop. MS is kind of flipping the bird at people with the 1 PC limit, not even 2. But that's just my opinion.

Kaarme:

The three license pack did indeed come with a DVD, but it was an official MS affair. In fact back then if you needed to make the phone call to MS for activation, the robot asked you if the license was for 3 PCs (or some other options I didn't listen to). There wasn't an option for 1 PC. That's why when I decided to try to reactivate OEM Office 2010 on a new PC, I had to select the 3 PCs option. It worked. I'm not actually trying to argue against you in any sense since your calculations must be correct. However, I merely wanted to point out that while now (and already back with Office 2016) MS only offered the permanent licenses for 1 PC (at least for regular home users), earlier you could get them for 3 PCs in retail packs for a price that wasn't out of this world. Perhaps you could have also got them directly, digitally, from the Microsoft store, I don't know, since I got all of my Offices from brick and mortar. Also, lots of people actually have 2 PCs: desktop and laptop. MS is kind of flipping the bird at people with the 1 PC limit, not even 2. But that's just my opinion.

Well... 99% of households don't actually need anything that LibreOffice doesn't offer, and it's 100% free, so... there are a ton of different reasons as for why something is best for someone and not for another. We can't really judge on our own particular needs/opinions.