Discussion on:

Microsoft loses yet another fanboy

Before vista, I only dabbled in the Linux world. But then, I saw vista as a badly handle product. Not a bad product, just badly handled. That made me think MS wasn't even caring about making the use of their product a good experience. Paying for this kind of customer satisfaction seemed stupid.

So my use of Linux got a lot more serious from then on. Now, I'm on ArchLinux and OpenOffice, and you couldn't get me to use anything else without a galactic sized argument.

I don't want to rent my software. I don't want my licence to be permanently licenced to one computer. So this sort of "crap" is only keeping me further away from MS products. MS is taking the "you don't own the software" idea behind their EULA a little too far. It' not the computer which should be licenced to use the software, it should be me as I'm the one paying for it all.

I'm really curious to see where this will go.

But all commercial shrink wrap software is on a rental basis with no warranty other than the bits are shiny. That's why I prefer open source. You don't really own it unless you have the source code.

This outcry over office licensing is puzzling. I assume folks who would be upset over MS-Office are already running a Windows OS that that has been tied via license terms to one computer since WinXP days. (Don't confuse the ability to install on multiple platforms with license compliance.)

My personal experience with OEM is that if your motherboard suffers catastrophic failure and that was the reason you upgraded the MS phone support critters will authorize you on the new computer (Office 2013 still has that language in the terms).

There's even a good chance MS won't screw you over because your motherboard fried itself. But should really have to deal with MS, just because your motherboard fried?

It seem like a hassle that I can, and actually do without, now that I use free - as in freedom - software. I don't have to worry so much about licencing for my small office with free software, which the proposed licensing discussed here actually makes things worse.

I don't want to deal with a weird idea like my software being tied to my hardware. Nevermind if it's fair, or if MS will or won't screw me over because of bad PC hardware. I just don't want to deal with such things. I imagine that the "outcry" pretty much resembles my position on the matter.

I've usually had no problem (other than the supreme hassle of having to call them) getting windows relicensed in the event of motherboard or some other component failure. But on at least 2 occasions I can recall atm I was told basically to stick it. These were full boxed versions, not OEM.

I concluded that it's a judgment call on the part of the CSR you happen to get on the phone. If they don't like you for some reason, well, Tough S#!t.

One of those occasions was in the middle of elevated public awareness of outsourcing, people were amazed that Microsoft support landed your call somewhere in India.

The techs would tell you their name is "Tim Smith" or other "American" sounding name, despite the thick accent. Some of these "Smiths" were just about incomprehensible.

I asked "Tim" where he was, and was surprised that they were trained to lie, he said something like "Kansas City." I remember someone saying if you suspect the fellow is lying to follow up with a question about the weather in "Kansas City" today.

I asked the fellow about his weather and he replied generically, "it's ok," so I pressed him with "getting a little rain today?" At that the fellow said something about wasting his time and let's get back to the problem at hand. He was obviously mad at me, knowing that I was pressing him to admit he was in India.

He eventually told us that his "records" showed out product ID was installed on more than one set of hardware simultaneously. There was no way this was the case, it was a customer of mine who had only the one computer, and no children or other usual suspect who might have used his windows disk. (it was XP)

Sorry for the rant, I'm set off by the appearance that MS is actually making this kind of rip off their official policy nowadays. At least in the past you had a chance to suck up to the tech and beg your way into a new product ID.

not too many people know that ;0

Agree with you. His dismissing of the reasonable "outcry" from users is pathetic. It is the say way, that users who find using the square blocks on a Laptop to be frustrating, non-intuitive resulting in more loss of productivity, treated as though they do not have a right to complain. The learning curve to use those square blocks and typing in a search field for most applications you wish to use, is not worth that pain. It does not offer more speed and ease of use than the Win 7 UI.

Just puzzled that the folks complaining accept tying the underlying OS to hardware but not the office suite.At least with WinXP activation was a new and loathsome feature...

http://redmondmag.com/articles/2001/10/21/outcry-spurs-changes-in-activation-procedure.aspx

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2030120/microsoft-caves-to-office-2013-licensing-backlash.html

And as evidenced above user complaints are heard in Redmond, they apparently have changed Office 2013 licensing just as they softened WinXP license activation a decade ago. You really ought to stay up on these things before posting.

Microsoft would say allow you to move it multiple machines with a limit per yearly. For example, I could move it say 10 times. If one machine failed and quickly brought up another and installed my license, it too could fail. By then I would fix the original and go back and so forth. So even though this may not be the scenario, I should have that option, without having to call for MS tech support! Imagine if you could only get a driver's license if you own a vehicle and then it is tied to that vehicle! What happens when you have to rent? Or if your car dies and you buy a new one? I really hope the developers of Libre Office can make it perform and even give you a skin to look like MS Office. This change and the new look UI for WIn8 already has me completely frustrated, to the point where I do not even want to use Win 8 on a tablet or a phone.

You can transfer Office 2013 every 90 days.

Every time a major UI paradigm has come out it's engendered negative comment. (and I remember when X11 was first introduced :)) So far Metro is only a splash screen away from the desktop for me thus not worthy of complaint.

On the Nokia phones I've played with Metro seems really nice (in some respects better than iOS with regards to information delivery customization)

So is your frustration of the Who moved my cheese sort? Or does Metro break things?

This only applies to home users, I work in a company with over 1000 licences and we deploy them all without having to do this as we have a KMS server.

Dont rush to hate MS so quickly without doing your research!

I didn't know that.

On a Microsoft product? Is it possible?

I don't think so. Just another way for Jack to put down Microsoft. He will never respond to any of these comments directed at him.

we will get loads of negative ratings for these comments but its true. this article is a load of rubbish

This is the year for Linux to conquer the desktop. Or was that 2003? Been there, heard that...

Android, a fork of Linux, has conquered the phone and tablets, and now, because Microsoft wants to ride on that wave, they have designed an operating system for the phone. Their big mistake is thinking that just because the user interface is popular on phones that it will also be popular on desktop and laptop computers. People expect user interfaces on computers to behave in a different way and in a way they are used to. Since Microsoft has changed the user interface, many Linux distributions are more similar to older version of Windows than even Microsoft's latest operating system.

User incentives for remaining with Microsoft are growing fewer and fewer by the day.
I'm not saying this is the year, but as time goes by, I see more people getting into Linux.
Microsoft, in inflicting more bureaucracy on users while charging a hefty price in this economy for something when free alternatives are available, are slowly whittling away their customer base. If Microsoft wants to remain a serious competitor and regain customers, it is going to need to quit this sort of crap and start once again creating innovative products that people "have got to have."
Those I personally deal with, once they have used Linux for a couple of weeks, never want to go back.

Our company will absolutely not adopt a change of this nature. We still utilize 2008 because of some significant changes to 2011. Silly things like the way spreadsheets print. I get the finger pointed at me from the not so tech savy exec's that just expect it to work. It gets old after upgrading and every version seems to have show stopping changes. We work through them and move on. Now this? Time to start changing. We can hobble along but what about new purchases? More concerned about our merges and data computing that we utilize exports out of our database to .csv or .tab then import into excel for manipulation, prior to a merge.

Change is good though i suppose. I am not removing the fanboy status because i love windows but I will dust off my old officeXP cd, and hold on to our 2008/2011 office software.

I have developed using Visual Basic for Windows and would like to see MS flourish. But the horrible interface of Windows 8 and the latest MS Office 2013 licensing shenanigans will eventually decrease MS popularity substantially. I equally use Linux and Windows 7 (Win 7 host to Linux virtual machine). If more and more people flock to Linux, I could see myself porting my applications to Linux. Good luck MS and I hope you listen to all the important feedback.

I have been gradually converting our users to Apache OpenOffice, Mozilla Thunderbird and Firefox. Our production systems require Windows O/S, so we can't go Linux for workstations. But we don't have to kneel down to Micro$oft, either.

If each Win 8 license is permanently tied to the first piece of hardware it is installed on, what does that mean for the two virtual machines on two separate pieces of hardware I have installed Win 8 Pro on? Are the licenses now permanently tied to virtual machines?

Then it wouldn't know it's on a different computer.

I'll just say that I've not investigated either of these, because my impression is that to use them you have to have an open connection to the internet. That's just my impression, and it may be wrong, and there is some way to use it offline. Can anyone tell me if my impression is correct? I use Libre Office at home, and like it a lot better than office 2007 and 2010.

As far as Linux goes, I've made the decision that I'll not go to any flavor of Windows 8, as I find it to be completely horrible. I'm not a 5 year old that needs big blocks in primary colors to find my way around. When it comes time to replace my laptop, I'll search around and see if I can find one already built with some flavor of Linux. That's kind of hard to find around here, but I should be able to order one.

i think this post is another example of closed-minded Microsoft bashing without researching the details, simply to provoke the readers who still think of Microsoft as the evil giant in used to be in the days of 95 and 98.

NT

I wouldn't say Microsoft is suddenly not evil, or not gigantic. But on the scale of things, times have indeed changed. They have lost about half their corporate value since 2000. There have been good alternatives to Windows for some purposes, like software development, for years, but they're still growing. The Office alternatives are all offering platform neutral options, my last company left Office and Exchange for Google and never looked back. Current company was already there.

There was a time when Microsoft saw someone else's success in some market segment, took aim, and owned that market. That's not really happening anymore. Sure, they're still cloning, just not so successfully. They lost billions in gaming, now they're minimally profitable, not in control. They went after modern smartphones, but lost market share in 2012. Now they're sacrificing traditional Windows users at the alter of the tablet, driving us away, but not ruling the tablet world. I'm fine with tablets ... typing on one. Not from Microsoft. Between Apple and Android, two rival and growing personal computing platforms have emerged in Microsoft's shadow... but not in the dark anymore.


Microsoft did good Blofeld back in the 80s and 90s. Today, they're still at it, but now doing their Dr. Evil impression. It's all sharks with lasers now...

I usually read Jack's articles because they are generally useful. But when it comes to microsoft Jack usually has a one track mind. I get it, Jack hates microsoft and has the right to use His column to vent. but honestly, it gets old very quickly.

All empires fall and MS will not be the exception, either by their own hand (due to repeated mistakes) or by the rise of something else, lets say linux. Who's to say that once there is enough money around linux it will not fell prey to the same temptations MS has?? by "linux" I refer to the software itself but also to the people that has a vested interest in it. once there is enough money on the table, the game will necessarily change. it may or may not be for good.

The Microsoft Phone last week?

Hardly bashing MS unless of course saying it's good is bashing.

Col

I didn't saw it, but now that you mention it I went looking for it and read it. I agree that its not a MS bashing article so point for you and Jack.

however, a single article doesn't change a whole trend, I still stand behind my original comment in which Jack going into MS bashing mode its the norm and not the exception.

Now, don't get me wrong. I don't have an issue with jack, as I don't have an issue with him being so enthusiastic about linux and promoting it until he es blue in the face. I usually read his articles and when he is not in full bashing mode they are very good. I myself have been beneficiary of some of his software review articles. I'm not taking away jack's merit. But for whatever reason he has a personal bias against MS and it shows. it becomes annoying after a while. specially when compared against other writers on this same same that even when they disagree with something they are still able to maintain an objective, non-emotional point of view.

The problem is nobody outside of the IT world even knows that there are Office alternatives. Even when I suggest alternatives to people, they have been so indoctrinated with Office that they are suspicious of a free alternative or they're scared that it might not have the functionality that they "need."

If you are using some other software that is built to work with it you usually have little choice as to whether you use Office. Sometimes there is no alternative to that other piece of software so you are stuck with office.

I have had a lot of conversion errors when opening MS Office documents on Open Office.

Bill

opening MS Office documents with later versions of Office.

I remember it being a big deal when folks started migrating to Office 2007 and some were still running 2003. Hence MS released the 07 conversion pack for Office 2003. But as far as Word/Excel I never saw a later version having trouble with an older format. MS-Access was most problematic in my experience with conversion.

Guessing it must have been MS-Access where you had problems. Access 97 format was a royal PITA as I recall...

And like Bill my experience with Open Office had a LOT more conversion problems across the board than just the database format. If you are invested in complex office documents (esp sharepoint) I wouldn't make the leap to Open Office.

The office I was working in at the time had been using Word to create camera-ready pages for publication for a decade. Word 97 and Word XP did not render heavily formatted (styles, custom page layouts, tables, embedded images, etc) Word 4.0 & 6.0 documents as created. I understand the problem finally went away in the 2003-2004 timeframe when they converted to LaTeX for creating their page layouts.

It's my understanding that later versions of Excel also had problems properly rendering charts and graphs created in earlier versions.

Access I don't even want to talk about.

Word, Excel, Access and to a small extent Power Point where marginal in opening older versions of their documents in the newer versions.

So if you had a Word 97 Document like what governments make available as form letters Office programs may not open them properly. Sure it was worse when you had lots of complex formatting involved inside the document, things like Tables, Pivot Tables, Templates and so on where where the problems came from.

Even today look at the Forms available for Download from some Government Departments which are now PDF but some of the older ones where Word Perfect then Word and try opening them in Office today. Not so much the Word Perfect Documents as Word never was very good at opening things not in it's native format but the early versions of Word and so on are not compatible with the newer versions of the Office Product.

Actually move more than 2 versions of Office and you'll run into problems opening your older documents.

Col

that Microsoft is on a crusade to annoy its customers.
Rather than to make its products more user-friendly and intuitive, they seem to have a "hoop-jumping " contest for every new release of anything and payment scenarios.
I've purposely purchased equipment with Win 7 just prior to the Win 8 release just to avoid the clumsiness of Win 8. (BTW, Windows 7 is fine)
I've been able to figure out numerous Linux distro's much more quickly than Win 8. It need not be that way.
I don't recall many people terribly excited about the Win 8 interface for PC's (although it's OK for tablets and smartphones), but somehow, MS appears to be uninterested.
It's never a good thing to stop listening to your customers.

i think another big mistake Microsoft is making is moving towards running Xbox on Windows. I already have a PC on which I play games - why do I want an Xbox in addition to my PC? Answer: I don't. And I especially don't want to have to tie a Microsoft Live account to my Xbox just to play. I don't buy the games to subscribe to Microsoft's overbearing overseers - I buy the games to play and have fun. Put too many barriers in the way, and I will stop using your products. Period.

Microsoft - You are following the path of IBM. Remember the business lesson of lock-in: It doesn't work. If you are unwilling to compete on product merit, get out of the business now.

We set up our new xbox and never set up the networking. Works just fine thank you. You do not have to make it connect to a live account, just insert game and play. Nothing in any of the games I play have any need for the internet (we have a ton of games, Skyrim seems the current fav in our house.)

the benefit (if you want to call it that) of hooking up to the Internet is that you get to play with people all over the world. My son does that and has a great time of it. I know, there can be dangers in doing so, but he is careful. Apparently, you don't need or want that aspect of it and that is OK.

So I don't know what this is saying. Yes I did tie it to my live account, but in the process of testing hardware I have had to reload my Windows 8 machine/re-activate it over five times in the last four months. Finally this last time they did have me phone in and use the automated system. When I flagged it was all done on one machine, they immediately activated it. In fact its the same process as when I did this with Windows 7 and Office 2010.

I love Linux as well and have equal amount of desktops running Windows and Linux in our office. If I count servers, I have even more Linux then MS. What your perpetuating here is just plain false.

You can do that as many times as you like. But that doesn't address the situation where your machine dies completely. The Office 2013 license then dies too. It's like OEM software.

Office 2013 *is* effectively OEM software. What Microsoft have does amounts to ceasing to supply the "Full Packaged Product" version of software. This applies to Windows 8 as well as Office 2013.

and installing it on another. See what happens then.

Spot on comment from dmtinklenb, fact is 90% of people I mention Linux too have never heard of it, the people we're talking about are non-technical users of MS Office who have no interest in what is ethically right or wrong, just what they are used to using and works. The 'works' word is still dodgy btw, for ex. I tried getting my wife onto Linux but as soon as she went to load one of her Powerpoint presentations the formatting screwed up, same with her (more than just text) Word docs.

But I bet they know of Android. That's the difference between small companies fighting each other over Linux, and one smart and powerful company focusing on owning a big part of a valuable market. Linux tech is plenty ready for consumers, it's just still too much of a hobby, business wise. This could change as quickly on the desktop as it did in mobile, with the right backers putting an end to the consumer hostile distro wars and the view of GNU/FOSS so religiously, commercial software is rejected.

This hasn't happened, and may not. But it could. It's not fundamentally a technology problem. And Microsoft has never made it easier to want to leave Windows behind.

What happens if your home computer is shared so that each kid has their own account? And you have a laptop as well? Do you have to install one version per user on the desktop AND a version on the laptop or does one on the desktop cover all users of that machine, and it will handle them having their own Live account?

They best think this through before making it so difficult and confusing that LibreOffice, OpenOffice and Google Docs are vaible alternatives.

I think I better go out and buy Office 2010 while I still can!

it is probably better to get the Office 365 Home Premium which lets you install up-to 5 licenses. The install applies to all users of the PC. With the 5 licenses, you can install on 5 different computers and anyone logging into any of the computers can use Office. If you need to have office on a sixth computer, you can deactivate the license for one of them online and install to the sixth. The deactivated office is then in read only mode.

I've tried Office 365 on a Windows 7 machine and a Windows 8 machine and I ran into so many issues with the software not working correctly that I've had to uninstall it and go back to 2010. It seems like it's still the beta version but I'm not going to "rent" software much less buggy software. I don't have any more time to waste with MS technicians trying to help them figure out their software problems.

Peraps MS was inspired by a program some years ago for recording nice things about one's baby--license demanded purchasing it anew for each subsequent baby.

Hi Jack.
Good article. You are saying loudly what we are all thinking is going on. Microsft has taken a way, and worse, they've decided that we all must go that way. Sorry guys at MS, but wake up! MS lost contact with it's base. Windows 8 can be a good idea for tablet. But we won't trow away our PCs tomorrow just because they've decided to remove the good old way of working. I tried Windows 8 and I'm sorry, but I can't do everything I used to do with my Windows 7, so I'll keep it.
Linux is one think, but guys looking for alternatives should also look at Apple. I bought a Mac Book Pro recently, I'm running VMWare Fusion 5 and 2 VMs, one Win 7 the other Win 8 (for tests) and it works great!
Dan :o))

I'd say Mac is more likely. Not that Linux sucks, but you have to have some sort of Linux fanboy around to even know it exists on the consumer or small business level. And then that fanboy has to convince you to use it without annoying you to death (we all know that guy).

And Microsoft still has Enterprise in their back pocket. Enterprise gets much different licensing options than consumers or small businesses. And they have legacy software that just can't change. Things are moving more towards web based/platform independent software but that's a slow process. Heck, we are JUST migrating off of an AS/400 system for our ERP. Talk about resistance to change.

Consumers idolize Apple products and will move towards them. I'd see Small Businesses going towards either all Apple OR Windows/Mac/iOS/Android with Google products as the most likely scenarios. But even that change won't happen until after a few years of getting frustrated while sticking with Microsoft since it's all they know. Habits die hard. For my side consulting work, I recommend my clients go the Google route usually.

Linux needs an all in one package (hardware, software and mass marketing) to really succeed. Well technically, they already do: Android. It took the behemoth Google to even give Linux any mainstream consumer traction and still 95% of the people out there wouldn't even know it's Linux. Until this happens on the PC side, Linux isn't going anywhere further than it's already at. Which is sad because it's an excellent platform. Every year or so I have to try out the latest Ubuntu and wish I could realistically keep it.

And many more have said they are sick of their iPhones and want to get a google or samsung phone.

I don't know if this indicates a new trend, but it's interesting.

People around you may be sick of their iPhones, but according to a recent Q4 report, iPhone 5 outsold the Galaxy series but even iPhone 4S outsold them. In my area, most people are doing the opposite of what you are describing. I've had several people (including my wife) move from Android to iPhone. I'm one of the few people remaining that I know of with an Android phone.

While I'm no fan of Microsoft, been using Linux on personal systems for over half a decade, I think this article is mostly wish and want.

- Installed base takes a long time to disappear. Business are still running XP even with end of security updates approaching next year (should look it up I know, that's from memory)

- Windows 7 is likely to have a long shelf life. I think not as long as XP because of the accelerated changes in technology compared to when XP got introduced but still at least 8 - 10 years.

- Apps built for verticals are almost always built for a particular host system and often don't get updated for new platforms. Remember dBASE? Lots of vertical apps built on that. The product is still around and the current owner has developed a version that runs the old apps written for DOS in a windows environment and supports Windows printing. Seems they've been trying to move their customers to Windows for years and finally found a way to get them to move without forcing the disruption of rewriting applications

- Last, sorry to be pessimistic and hope I'm wrong, as alternatives like Linux attract more investment I fear some of the friendly practices in the community will be supplanted by more objectionable behaviors. Seems money has a way of making that happen.

I hope I'm wrong and you're right or at least you're more right than me. Lots of benefits to Linux. I hope increased adoption and influxes of capital don't destroy them.

Count me out when Microsoft stops supporting Vista and Windows 7. Ubuntu, here I come... No question about it.

Windows Product Activation.
OK, they have a right to reduce boot legging, but
when they euphemistically re named it to WGA,
Windows Genuine Advantage,
that height of bull **** took me out.
What "advantage" does it provide me?
Chutzpah!

So, i had enough of that attitude and
Happily switched to Linux 7 yrs ago.

Ive yet to convince my friends.
I think its more of the fear factor for them.
Some day . . .

MS fanboy doesn't like MS Office licensing and installs Ubuntu? This is wrong in several ways.

That seems pointless.

But it doesn't terribly matter. Lots of businesses don't upgrade Office when there is a new version, and many that do probably won't this time.

And personal users will, as always, just pirate it. MS hasn't learned yet that these practices encourage piracy.

You are completely correct in saying that these types of practices encourage piracy. Case in point: A friend of mine who may or may not be myself upgraded his Win7 Laptop to Win8 last year for $39.00, which he gladly paid for. This evening he wanted to upgrade another laptop to Win8, only to discover that MS had risen the price to $199.00 for Win 8 Pro. He laughed and headed straight for his favorite torrent site.

Then each install is noted by machine, but you can easily deactivate and reactivate machines through the website. The subscription gives you 5 licenses that can be active at one time. The cost for the subscription is significantly less than buying a single use license for that many machines every four years. So this whole process should reduce piracy quite a bit.

Why pay $99 a year when you can download it for a small fee or free?

Bill

Then why not just use libre office instead? Or google docs?

I really wanted to go with Google Docs. We did a side by side comparison of the 2 (actually it was BPOS back then, not 365). My users simply could not get past using the Web Interface for email. That was without a doubt the biggest hold up. Personally, I prefered it, found it easier to process my work.
We tried using Google Sync so that they could stay in outlook and there were several issues there. I went to the Google forums and it was clear from admins that had gone the route of Google Sync that it was going to be problematic.
So unfortunately, we went with BPOS and that later became 365.

It is Office 2013 Professional Plus that you get 5 installs of, versus the Office Home and Student version. So you get Access, Outlook, and Publisher. So you get more software.

We use office 365 (E1) license and our 365 licens is not tied to a live account.
As for cost, we use Laptops as our employees travel and the life of the laptop is about 3.5 years on average. Cost for an OEN License of Office Pro is about $350. If I upgrade to an E3 or E4 it's $12/mo more or $504 for the live of the computer. So the OEN price is cheaper. We also get Adobe bunbled in for the $350 price, alone Adobe would run nearly that amount so I'd have to add that to the $504 making it much more expensive to go through my Office 365 license.

I could google it, but I want to know where Jack found this info, or where Jacks friend did.

This is mature technology, with no shortage of competitors to do e-mail, word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, etc. Some people will accept punishment to maintain the status quo. Those who tightly integrated all sorts of nifty VBA and macros will hang on to the bitter end.

The easiest exit strategy is to run Libre Office on Windows, while gradually phasing out any other products that are locked into the Windows platform. OS X is the easiest migration, although Apple can get really obnoxious about deliberate obsolescence in their software and hardware. Linux is the final solution, in which the licensing problem is put to bed once and for all.

I fired Microsoft several years ago, so I won't be attending the MS Office retirement party.

a few more improvements and microsoft will be out of business. To hell with them.

I'll get this out of the way first: I am a dual hat Linux/MS user and I love them both for different reasons. I have systems at home that run both platforms and I work with both platforms in my profession. Anyone who claims that Open Office is a "better" alternative to the MS Office suite is smokin' something. Open/Libre Office is better in one aspect; price.

That said, many...no, most consumers adhere to the "You get what you pay for." credo when it comes to purchasing products, and the user friendly UI of MS Office that literally millions of users know and love, coupled with the superior feature set, make it the best bang for the buck. Yes I realize that many people have never heard of Open/Libre Office and that an argument could be made that, if made aware they would switch. I might be inclined to agree if not for the fact that upon launching Open/Libre Office the UI instantly reminds me of Office 98. The average consumer will automatically think "What is this? Reminds me of Office 98...." Open?Libre Office is, at best, an adequate replacement for MS Office.

Say what you will about MS UI changes in their OSs and Office products but they have functional utility. I think more attention needs to be paid to the modernization of the UI in Linux distros and office suites. A valiant effort was made with Gnome 3 (which BTW much resembles Windows 8 in its "drag to corner of screen" functions) but there is still much more that can be done. There is a reason why Linux has not quite made it into the main stream.

After gradually changeing to things like Open Office, Gimp, Firefox and Thunderbird I recently bit the bullet, formatted my disk and loaded Ubuntu. No more Microsoft!! The only thing I'm struggling with is getting my printer to work properly

So you have a small to medium business and don't need the enterprise version of Office 2013, so now one has to use the boss's live account to activate each and every install of Office? That an't going to go down.

I noticed not much talk on renting Office 2013... I know why. It's because renting it would be like the data hostage malware. Don't pay up and you don't get access to your data. Which is why you have to be very, very careful about using the cloud.

Right now I am stuck with Win 7, and Win 2008 servers at work. Slowly more and more Linux servers have made their way into the server field, but the desktop has been stuck is the MS world. After Win 8 and now the Office shenanigans, possibly the desktop landscape will change. Let's see where this goes...

The more I think about this marketing plan of Office 2013 the more it looks similar to other unwanted tactics. We'll give you some "protection" from "losing" your data for a monthly payment, otherwise if you want to go it alone, then things might break and not work out so well. The similarities are confounding!

...tying a licence to a piece of hardware really is. Given that there is no such thing as infinite life for a hard drive - not a question of 'if', but 'when' - you're essentially buying a temporary licence for Office. People going into shops to buy this version of Office need to be warned: "this licence is only good for the life of your hardware. If your computer dies for whatever reason and you need to replace it? your licence self-terminates and you have to buy a new licence for Office."
Wonder - with that caveat in plain view - how many sales would eventuate *anyway* because "people are so tied to Microsoft products"... reason does eventually prevail, except for those with money to burn.

They pay whatever Microsoft asks them to pay. Just like they used to do with IBM.

A stupid term for a stupid attitude.

I have had serious problem. When i machines such as DELL / VAIO, i have no choice but to pay licence for pre-installed windoiws. Unfortunately in spite of best Antivurus tool kit, visit to some websites cause corruption of operating systems. In case, we have misplaced the key, that is it. We have to pay through nose. I have written to microsoft, that there shd be a way for MS to capture the machine ID and Kicence ID and allow the operating system to relaod as a legitimate copy. Recently i lost my key on my Dell latitude 720, i am forced to use a pirated version iuntil i change the machine. And new licence doesn't come cheap in spite of volumes in billions.

I turned to Linux two years ago after I bought a nice new lenovo W520. Start, install Windows7 and restart. Blue screens all over the place. Installed Linux and after a few hitches with video I had it running. All normal tasks I do on Linux but I need Office 2010 for work on projects where (unfortunately) everyone is using Windows. So I installed Windows7 on VMWare. All runs perfectly and I had never after my first Commodore a more stable machine. What if I want to use the Windows in a Virtual machine after upgrading my Linux. Buy the whole lot again?
I am happy to see that more people around me take my example (and I actively support them) to make the switch to Linux. And they are all satisfied after all.

There are so many versions that I don't know which to choose. I don't have time to try everything out and I haven't been able to find a source that gives me the detailed information about GUI details and file manager details, features, etc. of each of them, or even of the primary distros. I need details and screen shots, that sort of thing, to decide which will give me closest to what I want to have. I haven't even been able to find out how (exactly) to get a bootable Linux CD.

Probably the absolute easiest is Mint.
Burn Mint Ultimate to a DVD and install it. You can install it inside Windows if you want to give it a test drive without worrying about partitions and stuff.

Ubuntu would be number 2. They do some neat stuff but it makes it a lot less familiar than Mint is.


To create the CD. First download the ISO file for the Distro you want to try.
Next, insert a blank cd/dvd into your cd/dvd burner drive.
Use a program to burn the ISO. I don't recall if Win7/8 can do this natively. My favorite program is DeepBurner.