OS and Software > Microsoft Help > When your PC dies, so does your Office 2013 license

When your PC dies, so does your Office 2013 license

"It's also unlikely to make any material difference to many people."

Yep, he pretty much nailed it.
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My place : »www.schettino.us

reply to jmorlan
Thanks for posting this link.....

Very interesting indeed.

reply to JohnInSJ

I guess for me it's a bigger deal than that. Although my own views are somewhat ambivalent, as a matter of principle I feel a sense of outrage that software I paid for will no longer work when/if my PC dies. In my own case, I own (license) a copy of Office 2010 and was considering an upgrade to 2013. But my main computer is aging. I bought it December 2009. It's not exactly nearing end of life but it's not exactly brand new either.

If I were to buy (license) Office 2013 now, and install it on this computer, that's three years off the life of the license. There are a number of considerations when deciding on a major software upgrade such as to Office 2013. I liked some of its features such as being able to edit PDFs, but was unaware of the change in licensing until I saw the article.

For me, it's probably a deal breaker.
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"It turns out we're very good at not seeing things" - Jack Hitt

While MS has every right to change their license, users also have every right to use some other SW, or continue to use an older version. Personally, the only two pieces I normally use are Word and Excel, and I mostly use Word to open attachments that come through email since I normally use Wordpad or Notepad for my own editing.

This is clearly an attempt to steer people toward their subscription based SW.
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Wacky Races 2012!

reply to jmorlan
Don't forget, Microsoft is trying to push everybody into leasing their software from Microsoft instead of buying it. This is being discussed in another thread. Making the license like this is probably just another way to push users into the model they want customers to use.

Right... they are only impacting a tiny number of users. Who would represent virtually no impact to their bottom line, since those users buy one copy every millennium. Or so it seems.
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My place : »www.schettino.us

reply to jmorlan
If it was just for personal use only, then one of the other Office suites would be fine. However even in your home you will run into times when you need the full MS Office app.

While most people don't realize the difference, there are tons of incompatibility issues, but these don't raise their head on a simple text document in Word, or some simple calculations in Excel.

The issue is when you get some complicated formulas in Excel that don't convert, or a pivot table with slicers, or custom VBA, etc. Since so much of "my" stuff needs to be 100% compatible with corporate files the other options are still not there yet; because I need to share with people/business who have the MS Office app, and the files we work on are beyond what the "free" Office apps offer.

Back to the license: For some it will be much better, other it won't. I have had versions of Office 5.0, 97, 2000, XP, 2003, 2007, 2010, 2013. But then again I do work that even requires I keep older copies for programming purposes, so I'm not really typical.

Lets say I started in 1995 with Office 5.0 to now with Office 2013. This is 17 years. In 17 years I would have spent around $1700 for a subscription based software with 5 license.

Now I have never bought more than one license of Office, and have always been able to use it on at least two PC's. I have always upgraded my PC during the life cycle of Office, so if the key had been hard linked to one PC this would not have been good, and would have at least doubled my cost.

Now I paid retail for some versions, Student for others, and even MSDN subscriptions. I have been able to get great discounts on all but one Office product, so in reality my guess is I have spent about $700 on all the different products through the 17 years. (had I paid retail I would have spent approximately $2400).

So looking at this the Subscription service is a better deal vs retail if you upgrade to every version. If however you are still using Office 97 (the first with VBA) and it's working good for you then you would be out a lot of money. So this isn't an easy argument to settle one way or the other. - Some will need it for compatibility, some for the new features, some for keeping knowledgeable on the latest software. There are many reasons why one would need to have the latest version, and many reasons why one would not need it, or could just use the "free" versions out there.

I have tried the Office 365 with 5 license. I didn't need all five license so I had a friend pay me 20 bucks each for two license. Now my subscription is only $60 a year. Not bad. Also If I need to move a license to another PC I just go on the next and deactivate which one I no longer need and I'm good to go.

The biggest reason I see about having the subscription is you always get the newest software for no extra charge, so if they come out with an Office 2014 you will get it no charge (only your yearly subscription.) Second what happens if you change jobs? All of a sudden you are in an environment that requires you to use the latest Office. You have been using something else, and now you are behind the 8 ball trying to catch up. Don't think this will happen?

Well I have had two friends that refused to use Office, that recently changed jobs, guess what? They have to use MS Office A LOT.

I think Microsoft is trying to go the route of so many other "Custom" programs out there. Roofers, Adjusters, REALTORS, Doctors, Lawyers, Builders, all have software that is a lease software that you either lease by the month or by the year. I have never been a fan of the lease, but right now the MS lease is not a bad deal.

However should the "free" versions or other alternative versions ever go away, then they could raise the subscription price to what ever they wanted to and there would be nothing you could do about it other than not use it.
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He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose. - Jim Elliot

reply to jmorlan
I find all this talk about subscription services disturbing. First I heard talk about the newer Windows OS versions in the future being subscription based and now their latest office suites. When I bought my computers I didn't spend my hard earned money to lease them and I didn't expect the software to be leased either. My understanding was once I payed for my PC it's mine, not on some loan, due to very hard to understand/shady license agreements. If I want to upgrade it, I can upgrade it, if I want to smash it then I can smash it. If in the future all software becomes a cloud based license then you really don't own your computer anymore. You're literally being held at the mercy of a giant software monopoly. At that point why even have a hard drive anymore?

reply to aurgathor

reply to jmorlan
Maybe it's time to dust off my LaTeX skillz!

reply to jmorlan
Thanks for letting us know about this change. It will stop me from buying Office 2013 retail. I'll continue to use my old 2003 version or move to another alternatives.

In this case m$ is trying to grab extra money not only form enthusiasts (as the author of the article tries to portray the move). We all know that computers have tendency to brake. And if in case HD is suddenly gone or I start to see a problem with MB or network card (or whatever else it checks) and after replacing faulting components m$ will tell me - "Bad luck, go and pay us again", I'll feel... well, you know how everyone would feel in such case.

With this move m$ becomes a cheapskate for its own customer base and that is just sad.
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Keep it simple, it'll become complex by itself...

reply to OZO

reply to H2OuUp2

reply to JohnInSJ
Because all of us need to buy the newest version of Office when it comes out when the version they use suits their needs? Same applies to Windows.