Microsoft battles piracy... sort of
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http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN0ME06A20150318?irpc=932
Not sure what to think. You think that gives a bad message?
Not sure what to think. You think that gives a bad message?
I don't think it sends a bad message per-se, but neither does it accomplish anything to benefit Microsoft. The idea of making up for the lost revenue by "... selling services such as Office over the Internet." is the dumbest thing I've read today, that's for certain. Wikipedia puts the Chinese per capita purchasing power at < $12K so I can't imagine that there is much disposable income left over for that kind of stuff in most house holds.
It would be interesting to see where they plan on going with this.
It would be interesting to see where they plan on going with this.
So, I can get an illegitimate Windows 7 key right now, and in a few months upgrade for free to legit Windows 10?
Win7 too: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2873214/windows-10-will-be-a-free-upgrade-for-windows-7-and-8-users.html
| current users of Windows 7, Windows 8.1, and Windows Phone 8.1 will be able to upgrade to Windows 10 for free for one year after the operating system launches—even if your version of Windows is pirated. |
| Wikipedia puts the Chinese per capita purchasing power at < $12K so I can't imagine that there is much disposable income left over for that kind of stuff in most house holds. |
What? Office 365 only costs $5 a month. If that is still too high they can just sell it for less in China. There are so many people there that it won't matter.
| It would be interesting to see where they plan on going with this. |
Where could it be going that would make it interesting? It just means they have potentially found a better way to make money, which usually means a worse deal for us.
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Yes, $5 a month is too high.
As a university student, my scholarship for being an A level student was about 30$ per month. That was my total income as student (country was Bulgaria, which is still considered per-capita-richer than China). 5$ would had been 16% of income.
Since google docs is free, and I would presume much better (I can't really compare because office 365 isn't free, but by default a google product is better than a microsoft one), the only price that is reasonable is free.
As a university student, my scholarship for being an A level student was about 30$ per month. That was my total income as student (country was Bulgaria, which is still considered per-capita-richer than China). 5$ would had been 16% of income.
Since google docs is free, and I would presume much better (I can't really compare because office 365 isn't free, but by default a google product is better than a microsoft one), the only price that is reasonable is free.
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$5/month does sound cheap, and that is the selling point. I'm currently using office 2010 which is roughly 5 years old. @ $5/month that adds up to 60 * 5 = 300. The fact that I got it free from school is irrelevant, just as it is that I have only had it for 3 years. It works just fine and I see no reason to "buy" a newer version (even if it was just as free). I see no reason I shouldn't be able to use it without any problems for another 10 years either. 180 * 5 = 900, if I continue to use it only to that point. I do not know what the original cost would have been, but it is clear what the motivation is.
Agreed. I also got my copy of Office 2010 for free, and have no intention on buying another copy later on. If all else, just use LibreOffice on Ubuntu if you want the Word feeling without having to connect to the Internet.
Well here is an interesting development. I can confidently say that I don't think anyone in China will be paying for MS Office 365 for their personal home use: https://msdn.microsoft.com/office/office365/APi/o365-china-endpoints
Not to be a conspiracy nut here, but why would China need separate API documentation? I have doubts about a language barrier issue being the reason. I wonder if MS is receiving any incentives for doing this.
Not to be a conspiracy nut here, but why would China need separate API documentation? I have doubts about a language barrier issue being the reason. I wonder if MS is receiving any incentives for doing this.
| admkrk wrote: |
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| $5/month does sound cheap, and that is the selling point. |
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| As a university student, my scholarship for being an A level student was about 30$ per month. That was my total income as student (country was Bulgaria, which is still considered per-capita-richer than China). 5$ would had been 16% of income. |
It's free for university students (idk if it applies for your university). You get paid to be a student? That must be nice. I have 0 income unless i get a job on the side while also doing schoolwork. Otherwise any money i get is loans that i'll have to pay off with interest.
| I see no reason I shouldn't be able to use it without any problems for another 10 years either. 180 * 5 = 900, if I continue to use it only to that point. I do not know what the original cost would have been, but it is clear what the motivation is. |
Yes in the long run it is more expensive, which is how they make more money. It is cheaper for the per month subscription and is something someone can afford instead of dropping $300 or whatever the cost is of just the regular Microsoft Office. The problem is majority of people are shortsighted, which is why people think console gaming is cheaper than PC gaming cause PC hardware tends to be more expensive, but everything else is cheaper from games to accessories to not having to pay a subscription to play online.
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When you are not given a choice between a one time or monthly payment, you only have the option to go with what is available. Software like 3DMax or Photoshop gets updated yearly, and if you want to have it supported, you need to purchase a subscription to support on top of the initial cost. A rental in those situations is a better deal if you are paying $1k or more a year for the bundle. Something like Office is not updated yearly and very few people update when a new version comes out. This is the best way for MS to stimulate sales; at least that would be my opinion if I was a member of the MS sales team.
I don't understand why people even use MS Office when OpenOffice exists...
https://www.openoffice.org/
https://www.openoffice.org/
Because professors require documents to be turned in as .docx files and students don't realize that Google Docs can convert to that format for them.
closed account (EwCjE3v7)
I would just think people use MS Office because they see it around, by that I mean it's installed onto computers in hospitals, schools etc.
And that's why more people get it, because others use it and they get used to it.
Another reason would be because people are thought to use them, for example in computer class we are learning to use excel and what we can do with it(really boring) and that's the reason I may use excel then, because I'm used to the layout etc.
And that's why more people get it, because others use it and they get used to it.
Another reason would be because people are thought to use them, for example in computer class we are learning to use excel and what we can do with it(really boring) and that's the reason I may use excel then, because I'm used to the layout etc.
| I don't understand why people even use MS Office when OpenOffice exists... |
OpenOffice doesn't have near the functionality MS Office does.
MS Office is also more widely used. So people use it for the same reason people still use .zips. Sure, there are superior compression file formats, but everyone everywhere can open a .zip, so it's usually the preferred option.
| You can save documents in OpenOffice as .doc or .docx. No conversions required. |
OpenOffice doesn't get the formatting quite right. I've had docx files that looked terrible when I opened them in OpenOffice.
I tried the whole "use Open Office instead of MS Office" thing for a while. For casual use I guess it's OK, but there's no chance in hell I would trust anything professional like a resume with it.
Also -- MS Office has free versions available for many of it's common programs (Word, Excel, etc), so there's really not much reason not to use it.
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