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MS Office 2013 Pushing Home Users Toward Subscriptions
An anonymous reader writes "Ars reports that Microsoft has announced pricing plans for Office 2013 that include a subscription-based model for home users. There will be a $100/year Home version that can be shared by up to 5 users and a $150/year Small Business version. 'Subscription software of one form or another has proven popular in the enterprise (whether it be cloud services, like Office 365, or subscriptions to desktop software, such as Microsoft's Software Assurance scheme). But so far it's a rarity in the consumer space. Anti-virus software has tried to bully and cajole users into getting aboard the subscription train, but the large number of users with out-of-date anti-viral protection suggests users are resisting. ... As another incentive to subscribe, and one that might leave a bad taste in the mouth, the company says that subscribers will be given unspecified "updates" to add new features and capabilities over the life of their subscription. Perpetual licensees will only get bug fixes and security updates.'"
Dad: Merry Christmas kids!!!!
Kids: What did you get us?
Dad: We now have a 1 year family subscription for a web-based word processor!
Kids: YAAAAAAAY!!!!!!
Better known as 318230.
And fortunately you need go no further than TFM to find out that you don't have to. Subscription is just an option. You can still buy outright if you want.
Word 2003 still works just fine...
Most home users barely use many of the features of these tools to begin with, they won't see the value of paying $100 a year for this. That's a lot of money to many people.
It is kind of funny how the marketing departments of big software companies think we actually look forward to 'updates' which annoy us and waste our time. Now I actually breath a sigh of relief when my BlueRay player gets past the moment where it may insist I have to spend 5 minutes 'updating' before I can watch my movie. I can't imagine wanting to pay $100 in return for being hassled with updates I don't care about. Apparently, they haven't figured out that people very well might pay $100 to never be bothered with them.
You're already leasing it. It's called licensing. The only difference is that you had a one-time payment before, and now they want you to pay continuously.
They say they're going to add new features, but I don't see how they can add $100 worth of new features every year. Heck, office 2004 still gets my jobs done. I don't see what features they could possibly have added over the last 8 years that would be worth $800.
The whole pricing thing for apps like this I think is going to do a bubble burst shortly anyway. Who's going to pay $100/yr to lease an app that a cloud app will do for you for $15/yr? I've used Google Docs recently, and while it's not a perfect replacement yet, it's sure a lot cheaper!
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
Let me know when Libre Office doesn't horribly mangle my PPTX files.
I believe that any MS file format that contains an 'X' in the extension is experimental and that is most likely why Libre Office has a problem. Use another file format and you probably won't have any problems.
Since when is "public safety" the root password to the Constitution?
In real work we use Libre Office to convert old WordPerfect and Microsoft Office files to a newer version. It handles old Microsoft Office files better than the recent versions of Microsoft Office.
( I work as digital archivist / documentalist )
That, ladies and gentlemen, is pretty much a textbook example of sour grapes.
Slashdotter #1: "My software can do everything your software can do."
Slashdotter #2: "Your software can't do x."
Slashdotter #1: "Yeah, but... but... doing x is stupid anyway, and only for losers!"
#DeleteChrome
Several years down the road LibreOffice will probably remain an option. Let tomorrow worry about tomorrow.