Microsoft says college students can 'steal' Office

[gxsaurav]

Taken from Cnet via Neowin

For college students who want Office 2007, but don't want to pay Microsoft a fortune, the software maker is offering another option: Steal it. Well, actually Microsoft isn't encouraging piracy. Rather it is launching a promotion, dubbed "Ultimate Steal," in which college students can get the ultra high-end Ultimate edition of Office for just $60.

The promotion runs through April 30 and starts Wednesday in Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States. It launches next week in France, Italy and Spain. To be eligible, Microsoft said students have to be "actively enrolled" in a higher education program and have an e-mail address from that school.

"We're listening to students who have told us they need Microsoft Office for their studies and want more flexible ways to get the latest version," Alan Yates, general manager of Worldwide Education at Microsoft, said in a statement. "The Ultimate Steal is the latest in a long history of providing compelling academic offers for students."

 

[din]

We're listening to students who have told us they need Microsoft Office for their studies and want more flexible ways to get the latest version,

- Alan Yates

Seems Alan bhai think Openoffice is a threat finally !

As always $60, not a big deal for people in USA / Canada

For us, Rs.25 option is good OpenOffice in CD lol

 

[gxsaurav]

OpenOffice is good if u r a single user with no collaboration needed a.k.a student . It will do mos of the things assuming saving time is not important

 

[The_Devil_Himself]

Very true Din.
I am still waiting for Rs2.5k vista for Indian students.

 

[infra_red_dude]

why are indians left out??!! why does every company do this in countries where piracy is not an issue???? why NOT india??!!

why doesnt MS start this campaign in india? why doesn't dell/lenovo offer linux wid laptops? why the bloody hell is this discrimination against india??!!

 

[din]

OpenOffice is good if u r a single user with no collaboration needed a.k.a student . It will do mos of the things assuming saving time is not important

I am not sure what "complicated" things a college student do with MS Office that can't be done with the latest ver of OpenOffice.

Just another way of making people addict to MS products !! I think Kerala state in India is much better MS tried their level best to do all these kinda tricks but every school is moving towards Lin n OpenOffice kinda softwares and that also completely !

why are indians left out??!! why does every company do this in countries where piracy is not an issue???? why NOT india??!!

why doesnt MS start this campaign in india? why doesn't dell/lenovo offer linux wid laptops? why the bloody hell is this discrimination against india??!!

I think the consumers are a problem too ! Well, I remember I had 3 options while buying my Thinkpad. The sales man told me.

1. Lin
2. Original Win
3. Pirated Win

But things are changing and people are more aware of Lin and related stuff now.

Anyway I think Thinkpad / Lenevo still offer Lin laptops. Not 100% sure though.

 

[infra_red_dude]

offtopic: din, i hafnt seen any lenovo laptop wid linux. if u haf any model info then plz do pass it on. coz my fren needs a new laptop and will be working on linux only. rite now, since only acer comes wid linux (or freedos) he's thinking of buying that.

 

[din]

Sure, I will check and tell you. But I am sure the offer was there when I bought it, but that was 2-3 yr back I think (just before it became Lenovo)

Meantime, why Acer ? If he has enuogh money, ask him to go for Dell / Lenovo. Many of my friends usin Acer gave negative feedback on it. Or hes looking for any high-end Acer model ?

 

[shady_inc]

60$ ~ 2500 odd rs.still too costly for Indians to make them switch over from pirated software to this...

 

[gxsaurav]

why are indians left out??!! why does every company do this in countries where piracy is not an issue???? why NOT india??!!

why doesnt MS start this campaign in india? why doesn't dell/lenovo offer linux wid laptops? why the bloody hell is this discrimination against india??!!

Simple, too much democracy. If they collaborate with say BJP's Education ministry for this, then Left will say "BJP is selling India "

MS does comes forward for these kind of initiatives, but they face lots of resistance from either social bodies or OSS. Remember that seminar in China where some OSS guy entered in the ceremony of MS.

60$ ~ 2500 odd rs.still too costly for Indians to make them switch over from pirated software to this...

Its still better then Rs 4,000 for Student & teacher edition. U get full office professional plus for $60 "only". If you can pay, do so. Its not like u will stop using Office 2007 in the year 2009

 

[NucleusKore]

People will never learn no matter how much they suffer. I have genuine Windows XP Home but use Open Office as I cannot afford Microsoft's so called "Teacher and student Edition" of Office @ Rs. 7500. At the college I work there are a number of versions of office available on different PCs. Many a time what usually happens is a presentation made in one pc acts awry when run on our conference hall pc (so much for backward compatibility!). I as a teacher use only Open Office on my pen drive (*www.portableapps.com). I really hope and pray Microsoft cracks down hard on all institutions so that they either shape up or go open source.

 

[Pathik]

@infra freedos is also offered wit the vostro lappys and hcl ones.. Not only acer

 

[nish_higher]

60$ ~ 2500 odd rs.still too costly for Indians to make them switch over from pirated software to this...

think about money spent in development and the usefulness of this.it cant be made to sell at 100 rupees..!

but any chance of its availability in india??

 

[din]

think about money spent in development and the usefulness of this.it cant be made to sell at 100 rupees..!

Agreed, but

Just coz MS spent a lot of money all Indians should buy MS Office ? There are no alternatives ? ?

For school and college, OpenOffice is quite sufficient. As NucleusKore mentioned, we can use portable apps (I use a lot of portable apps at office / home) for presentation etc.

And the reason MS bringing these starter / student / teacher / stripped (reminds me of mediator's avtar lol) version is to make people lure and addict to MS product and nothing else. Thats is not because they love students so much

Pure business and this is NOT social commitment

 

[entrana]

another reason is that piracy rates are too high in india and most people pirated copies so why wud anyone bother to buy ms office even if it was for 200rs?

 

[iMav]

a lot of ppl wud buy it if it were even for as low as 1k ... the pride and privilege that comes along with a legit copy

 

[nish_higher]

i think open office is great stuff for clgs and schools.i dont have office and i have used open office for all my documents.i think schools clgs shud settle with it.and the hardcore users i mean corporates and other who earn 4m it-they always have that money to buy it.i certainly want this offer in india too.any chance?

 

[praka123]

openoffice.org is much bigger than what it was earlier.lot of options.even lot of plugins too.ps -uses debian sid.it throws out around 500 pkgs related to OOo

 

[entrana]

a lot of ppl wud buy it if it were even for as low as 1k ... the pride and privilege that comes along with a legit copy

i really doubt it

 

[delivi]

previously microsoft used to give, Windows Xp and Office free for college students.

but definitely not in India, but in US and other Developed Countries.