Illegal Microsoft Office?

[Top Cats Hat 10]

2 minutes ago, simonj said:

How come Office is so cheap nowadays, especially the Professional editions? Doesn't seem that long ago that I recall seeing prices up in the £200-300+ range.

 

I think that this is because it is no longer the only player in the market which it used to be. Also development costs were recouped decades ago and apart from minor security patches, new versions differ very little from older versions. I use Word and Excel extensively and I'm still using a 15 year old version of Office for Mac 2004 which has migrated from a G4 Powerbook to a MacBook Pro to a MacBook Air. Apart from a few really old games it may be the oldest software I have.

[melthebell 862]

sigh weve gone through all this with him

[Lastnet IT 10]

On 11/04/2019 at 14:14, Top Cats Hat said:

 

Why would you do that when legit, licensed copies of Office 2019 are available for £25-27 with a valid key?

No way is that "legit". Office Professional costs £419. 99, you'll find that a bit cheaper from resellers, but not by much.  I'm aware you can purchase them from sites such as Amazon and eBay, but they are not proper licensed copies.

A key that validates does not necessarily equal a valid key. You've almost certainly purchased a Volume Licence key, which is not legal to use outside of the licensed organisation.

 

The cheapest (legal) way to get Office is with an education address (staff or students), you can get Office 365 for free. Employees of large organisations can often get it heavily discounted with the Home Use Program, or you can buy Office 365 Personal, which is often discounted to around £30-£40 per year.

Edited April 12, 2019 by Lastnet IT

[simonj 10]

23 hours ago, Top Cats Hat said:

I think that this is because it is no longer the only player in the market which it used to be. Also development costs were recouped decades ago and apart from minor security patches, new versions differ very little from older versions. I use Word and Excel extensively and I'm still using a 15 year old version of Office for Mac 2004 which has migrated from a G4 Powerbook to a MacBook Pro to a MacBook Air. Apart from a few really old games it may be the oldest software I have.

 

1 hour ago, Lastnet IT said:

No way is that "legit". Office Professional costs £419. 99, you'll find that a bit cheaper from resellers, but not by much.  I'm aware you can purchase them from sites such as Amazon and eBay, but they are not proper licensed copies.

A key that validates does not necessarily equal a valid key. You've almost certainly purchased a Volume Licence key, which is not legal to use outside of the licensed organisation.

 

The cheapest (legal) way to get Office is with an education address (staff or students), you can get Office 365 for free. Employees of large organisations can often get it heavily discounted with the Home Use Program, or you can buy Office 365 Personal, which is often discounted to around £30-£40 per year.

So it still costs a fair bit then? Thought those prices were remarkably cheap! I only really use Word and Excel so may be cheaper to get them individually before support ends for my Office 2010 Professional Plus later next year.

[woolyhead 15]

.Thanks De Zeus  and lastnet IT. It makes sense now.

Edited April 13, 2019 by woolyhead

[swarfendor437 14]

On 12/04/2019 at 23:05, simonj said:

 

So it still costs a fair bit then? Thought those prices were remarkably cheap! I only really use Word and Excel so may be cheaper to get them individually before support ends for my Office 2010 Professional Plus later next year.

You can always run Office 2010 in GNU/Linux under WINE.

[woolyhead 15]

Simonj, you say I probably have a copy intended for use inside an organisation using the Volume Licence key. You may be right but I haven't even got that volume licence key since the shop refused it. Where can I find this key and if I quote it at Microsoft will it work if I say I am part of the organisation that paid for this licence key? Note that the shop has since closed and left no forwarding address.

[simonj 10]

10 hours ago, woolyhead said:

Simonj, you say I probably have a copy intended for use inside an organisation using the Volume Licence key. You may be right but I haven't even got that volume licence key since the shop refused it. Where can I find this key and if I quote it at Microsoft will it work if I say I am part of the organisation that paid for this licence key? Note that the shop has since closed and left no forwarding address.

Think Lastnet IT said that. 

[woolyhead 15]

Yes, you're right simonj. My mistake.

[Jomie 30]

Have you tried Belarc Advisor? 

[DeZeus 11]

Just an Opinion:

Maybe they M$ could not be bothered to prosecute everyone who was taking party to using the supposed illegal copies as so many were using the same duplicated keyed copies, or they may  have given up competing with the Vast Many Free download Linux Versions, of 'Office' as Op have mentioned earlier.

 

[DeZeus 11]

Yes..I was impressed, with that, however I always suspected that Item was some sort of. 'Tracking software, for M$ (no Proof of this however) but I was always very wary of using items from ..... Very dubious sources like USA sites'.

Just for customers...