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The change to academic purchases (only direct from institutions or MS) is ridiculous. I buy all of my software from Amazon and don't much feel like scanning and faxing in documents to MS can be sure I'm not ripping them off with their $99 For a New User Interface upgrade. These people are worthy of expletives galore.

Wow, Microsoft is desperate.

Pay your Microsoft tax and enjoy it!

If only there was an OpenDocument format

http://en.wikipedia....ki/OpenDocument

and free alternatives to choose from.

http://en.wikipedia....wiki/Openoffice

Dude .. any one person who "needs" to use five distinct computers .. well .. that person has some major issues. What .. you need five cars to drive to work too?

You probably represent less than one percent of the installed base. Overall, the new pricing structure is quite fair and attractive for the masses .. and I'm a long-time MS basher.

Maybe you should give those folks at Clean House a call ...

Wait a second. How is Microsoft "penalizing" owners of multiple Macs? From what I can see, owners are multiple Macs are not being charged more PER unit than owners of just one Mac.


Where is the penalty?

Maybe what you meant is: "Microsoft used to allow me to install my software on a virtually unlimited number Mac systems and now they don't."

Not getting "as good of a deal that I used to" is not exactly a "penalty".

Microsoft is going in the wrong direction with this one. They should realize that with each year that goes by there are more and more alternatives to MS Office, especially iWork. Now they want to remove the email client from the Home and Student version? I've used Entourage for years but find it doesn't do a number of things as well as Apple Mail. Apparently MS feels Mail is quite good as well for many users. MS knows that many of us have multiple Macs in our house, and is looking for more revenue. But I think it will backfire; you can be sure I'm not going to pay them extra to license each and every Mac. I'm going to find alternatives instead. They should take a cue from Apple, which is quite liberal with their "Family Pack" software (iLife, iWork & OS X).

Since1988, on 02 August 2010 - 03:12 PM, said:

For those of us who really need Office, iWork is not even close to an alternative.

1. 90% of home users won't have more than 3 macs. Seriously. My father bought a mac 8 years ago, we're a household of 4, we used that one single computer. More recently we bought a new iMac (2007) because the old eMac's screen gave up. Now I have one laptop, and maybe my sister will get one too. But once we move out, the household (and the 2 new ones) will end up with... just one computer.

2. We bought Office 2008, with 3 cd-keys. We used one on the iMac, and one on my laptop. And now we have a spare one for a possible new laptop... all that for 149$. And THIS is what most people probably encounter.

3. You don't HAVE to upgrade. I don't think I'll even buy Office 2011. Yes there might be new features, but, as a student (and not a journalism or writing-related student) I don't need these. Hence I'll probably just stick to Office 2008 anyway. Same argument for the home computer. Both my parents don't NEED the new version. But should we decide to upgrade, it's the same price for 3 CD-keys... the only difference is no Entourage and you can't use them twice...How are we penalized?

Why would you need Office 2011 on ALL FIVE of your macs anyway? if you buy the 149$ three-cd-key version you have 3 macs (2 desktops, 1 laptop e.g.) with Office 2011 on it.

I find it funny that an article on this site from a PC World writer lauds the decreased pricing of Office for Mac, while this article by a MacWorld writer gripes.

lister, on 02 August 2010 - 02:59 PM, said:

Well said! It's MS way of adding a feature.

With this pricing Microsoft's traditional hubris is re-emerging. I guess the success of Windows 7 has blinded them to user concerns once again. The ultimate solution is to break with Office altogether and use one or another of the Office substitutes, like NeoOffice or OpenOffice. Of course, if you need Outlook and/or VBA you're stuck with - and stuck by - Microsoft. It looks like they're intent on milking Outlook for all it's worth (and more besides). I plan on advising my clients to stick with Office 2008. For them Entourage does the job well enough. Alternatively, I assume that Entourage will still work if you were to install the Office 2011 Home and Student addition.

Besides the pleasure of learning a new interface, what, besides the return of VBA, has Office 2011 to recommend it?

whitedog, on 02 August 2010 - 03:33 PM, said:

I don't know who your clients are, but using Entourage in a corporate environment can be a nightmare. In addition to the limited features for things like scheduling, many people have had many configuration problems. And I've seen features suddenly break with no resolution, as well as many instances where one feature worked for one person, but not another. It hasn't been pretty, but that's what you have to put up with sometimes when you are trying to keep the Mac in the office loop.

Often Mac users stuck with an IT department that can't help. They're just not trained in making this one piece of Mac software work into their expansive systems. Sucks, but if you want to see Macs thrive in the corporate world, I'd say switching to Outlook would be a HUGE HUGE HUGE help.

And if they could just make Word and Powerpoint functional, that would be nice too.

I can install Office 2008 for free on any Mac I use for work, regardless of who owns the Mac. However, I have opted to use iWork, Apple Mail, Calendar, Address Book, TextEdit and Preview instead, and have been able to do anything I have been asked to. And it's not like I am suffering or losing features. Most of the time Quick Look does all I need anyway. Biggest time saver Apple ever came up with.

For me, MS Office has become completely irrelevant around 2006. Never looked back ...