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Australian Students Can Get Office at 95% Off Retail

Posted by samzenpus on from the almost-free dept.

tora201 writes "Microsoft Australia is offering university students in that country Microsoft Office 2007 Ultimate Edition for just $75 Australian dollars, a 95% discount off the usual retail price. Alternatively students can buy a one year renewable license at just $25, or download a trial version that can be later activated. Eligibility is determined through a valid Australian university e-mail address with payment made via credit card."

10 of 246 comments (clear)

  1. But the sad thing is... by Max+Romantschuk · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Dupe or not, the sad thing is there are lots of students clueless enough to think that they need MS Office when 99% of them can do all they need with OpenOffice.org.

    --
    .: Max Romantschuk :: http://max.romantschuk.fi/
    1. Re:But the sad thing is... by W2k · · Score: 5, Insightful

      But the interface of Office 2007 is vastly different from that of OpenOffice. Those students may eventually be employed by someone who uses Office 2007 internally within their organization, and wants new employees to be familiar with it without any training, mandating prior experience. In this sense, the students being allowed to buy Office 2007 for cheap is a Good Thing for them.

      Now, perhaps most companies running Office 2003/2007 could also have managed with OpenOffice, but that argument is not going to help a job-seeking student...

      --
      Quality, performance, value; you get only two, and you don't always get to pick.
    2. Re:But the sad thing is... by Max+Romantschuk · · Score: 5, Insightful

      But the interface of Office 2007 is vastly different from that of OpenOffice. Those students may eventually be employed by someone who uses Office 2007 internally within their organization, and wants new employees to be familiar with it without any training, mandating prior experience.

      The vast majority of Office users never really use more than a very limited subset of the available features. A univeristy level student should be able to pick those up in a span of a few days, if familiar with Office applications in general.

      If you're aiming for a job which requires serious Office involvement it's a good thing to learn MS Office. But for writing papers, etc. buying it makes little sense. Spend a few hours every now and then in the uni computer lab and practice with MS Office instead.
      --
      .: Max Romantschuk :: http://max.romantschuk.fi/
    3. Re:But the sad thing is... by pandrijeczko · · Score: 4, Insightful
      It could be argued that if your CV (or resume) is that difficult to fill with interesting information about yourself that you have to mention "MS Office experience", then you probably need to go and spend some time getting some better skills.

      I accept that more complex skills in MS Office like Excel programming, data merges, etc. are probably in demand by many employers - but for someone who just creates simple documents in MS Office, OpenOffice would probably take no more than a couple of hours to adjust to.

      --
      Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
    4. Re:But the sad thing is... by W2k · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Lots of people have responded to my post same as you, "if you have to mention Office experience to fill your CV you suck", or "if your employer thinks you need retraining to switch Office versions they're daft", etc. That's beside the point. The point is that HR people will use "office 2007" as a search term when looking through the stack of digitized CV's they got in response for their latest job offering. HR people really are that clueless. And if you don't want to lie on your CV, it will serve you to be able to put "Office 2007" in there.

      Remember that I am talking about jobs that a student, in his last couple of years or just post graduation, might consider. NOT the most technically advanced positions, more like entry-level. In those, I've found, they only care about past positions.

      --
      Quality, performance, value; you get only two, and you don't always get to pick.
  2. $1500 ? by Zork+the+Almighty · · Score: 4, Insightful

    95% off ? Does Microsoft actually sell any single license for Office to anyone at ~$1500 US ?

    --

    In Soviet America the banks rob you!
  3. That's what it should cost. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    $75 sounds like a very reasonable price. That's what it should have cost in the first place!

  4. If the ultimate edition... by dragonquest · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If the Ultimate Edition is being given away so cheap to students, why the hell did they ever came up with the Student Edition minus the frills? Which notably, costs more than the discounted Ultimate Edition for students.

    --
    "Never try to tell everything you know. It may take too short a time."
  5. Limited installations by om3ga · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I thought I'd point out a few things that were mentioned on the article from a few days ago:

    - This ultimate edition thats available through this offer is limited to installation on one PC, vs installation on three PCs available to those who buy the student edition (around $249AU)
    - You don't get the CDs with the offer, but can download it, or get a disc from a participating university (I didn't check if it was just a burnt copy or a nicely labeled pressed disc). I'd pay $75 if OpenOffice came in such a fancy box!

    I was one button away from purchasing it, until I realized how unnecessary it is for me. I use OpenOffice for my university studies, it opens every word document and PowerPoint presentation thats given to us from the Lecturers. I'm not sure how it is for other things. But for those of you who think this is a good deal, please consider, or atleast try OpenOffice first!

  6. Re:The first one is free... by bmo · · Score: 3, Insightful

    "Honestly, I hate comments like yours. "

    The comments that are worse than that come from students pirating software saying that they're "sticking it to The Man." No, they're not sticking it to The Man. They're doing exactly what The Man wants, because....

    "As long as they are going to steal it, we want them to steal ours. They'll get sort of addicted, and then we'll somehow figure out how to collect sometime in the next decade." - Bill Gates, about Chinese software piracy. Thing is, that quote is also applicable to students, just end the sentence with "and then we will collect after they graduate"

    This "we're letting you license Office Ultimate for $25AU/year" is a price just slightly above outright software piracy, and maybe even cheaper than buying a burned set of disks from the "dorm software dealer." Hook 'em while they're young.

    --
    BMO