Looking for MS Office - how can some sellers sell so cheaply?

Tulipone

Tulipone

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My current edition continues to work but no longer gets updates, thought it timely to start looking for a replacement as a new computer is in my near future.

Looking on Amazon there are some sellers who are flogging MS Office far cheaper than others. How? Is it legal?

Any thoughts?
 
I have used LibreOffice in the past, and it is indeed excellent.

To answer the OP's original question, I think some sellers sell the OEM versions; they're identical, but they're supposed to be bundled with a new PC rather than sold on their own.
 
Apache Open Office. Free and works with all the MS documents I've ever tried. It has a spreadsheet, drawing, presentation, word editor, database and formula editor.
 
I think they discontinued development of Apache Office some time ago. Although, it's still around. Libre Office is the one that they seem to be concentrated on now. And very good it is too.
 
There are some company's who get access to keys to OS's and programs/games, and sell them at normally much reduced prices, where they get these keys are open to speculation, but you would think that with the power and money some of these software producers have, if they wanted to stop these keys being sold, they would do it. Microsoft are a trillion $ company, with you would think, the best lawyers, if they wanted to stop people selling keys to their OS/programs, if there was something illegal going on, they would do. Nintendo, a much smaller company, are very quick to stop people infringing on their software.

If you download the software from the official sites, then there is no chance of getting any viruses, because it is the proper software, and you just activate it with the key. It either works or it doesn't. I got a Win 10 key for less than £8 last year, and that has worked fine. :)

Many years ago I got an Office License through work for £10, and that still works as I have moved it over a few different PC's through the years. I think that shows how much MS can sell their software for. ;) There has not been much that has been added to Office over they years that I am missing out on by not having the latest version. :)
 
redhed17 said:
If you download the software from the official sites, then there is no chance of getting any viruses,
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Even the biggest companies get compromised.

The bigger you are, the bigger target you make and software houses are the lodestone the crackers want. It only takes one user at your site to use a weak password or some similar mistake and the crackers are in, Worse still, as software gets bigger and more complicated, security checking gets harder and more expensive, which too many managers just don't wish to hear. :(
 
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There are companies that sell licences from companies that have gone into administration (IE Companies that had, for example 100 office licences then went bust, the licences then get sold on by the administrators to try and recover some cash for the creditors)- Software companies in general don't like this practice, but I believe a court ruled it was legal in some circumstances a while back.
 
LibreOffice for me too especially as it comes with a database which the normal 'cheap' MS Office versions do not.
 
AndrewFlannigan said:
Even the biggest companies get compromised.

The bigger you are, the bigger target you make and software houses are the lodestone the crackers want. It only takes one user at your site to use a weak password or some similar mistake and the crackers are in, Worse still, as software gets bigger and more complicated, security checking gets harder and more expensive, which too many managers just don't wish to hear. :(
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And if you take that as a legitimate fear, you would never download any software. If you can't download the software from the source in good faith, then what do you do! :thinking:
 
redhed17 said:
And if you take that as a legitimate fear, you would never download any software.
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That's your conclusion, not mine.

I use any tool, so long as it doesn't bite me. Being aware of the possible problems, allows you to decide on how to avoid them ahead of time.
 
I do use both Apache and Libre Office. Libre is by far the nicest. I only retain Apache because I have work that was done on it historically. I can't really mix and match because little things like the apostrophes differ and it looks dreadful.
 
AndrewFlannigan said:
Being aware of the possible problems, allows you to decide on how to avoid them ahead of time.
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I agree. :)

I just don't see downloading software from the source as a problem, which is why I mentioned it above. Downloading software and buying the key, is the way most people will get software now. In the scenario above, the key is just coming from somewhere other than the producer of the software, and has no influence in the safety and security of using the software.
 
Libre office is fine for home use, but can be problematic for professionals sharing documents. Microsoft office is the industry standard now for business, and generally works very well. Whether that's good or not is debatable, but for home use then buy/download what ever you feel comfortable with.
 
I dont use it too much just bog standard stuff so another shout out for LibreOffice
 
redhed17 said:
I just don't see downloading software from the source as a problem,
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Nor is it.

On the other hand, open source software is inherently more robust, if only because many more people will be keeping an eye on the code. For obvious reasons, we'll seldom know when attacks on closed source software have occurred, especially if they've been thwarted.
 
AndrewFlannigan said:
Nor is it.

On the other hand, open source software is inherently more robust, if only because many more people will be keeping an eye on the code. For obvious reasons, we'll seldom know when attacks on closed source software have occurred, especially if they've been thwarted.
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I would argue that Open source is NOT inherently more robust - that's all down to the experience and quality of the people designing and implementing the software, not the quantity of people doing so.
Making software Open source means that it is possible for independent skilled and experienced developers to check the code and identify issues - it does not guarantee that.
There is also nothing inherent in 'closed source' software that prevents a company from hiring the best software engineers available, and by then having them work full time on the project ensure it is top quality - that is down to the individual company culture, and I'd be much more trusting of a small software company making a dedicated product (where the senior positions are likely held by software engineers that understand the importance of quality) than a large company run by salesmen and managers who have no real software engineering experience, and consider a software engineer as just another replaceable employee.
 
Another for Libre Office, haven't used M$ Office at all for six years now.
 
Faldrax said:
I would argue that Open source is NOT inherently more robust - that's all down to the experience and quality of the people designing and implementing the software, not the quantity of people doing so.
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Given that the great majority of the internet runs on open source Linux and the majority of the domestic market is now the open source derived Android, I think there are alternative views available.
Faldrax said:
I'd be much more trusting of a small software company making a dedicated product ... than a large company run by salesmen and managers who have no real software engineering experience,
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On that we can agree.
 
Plain Nev said:
I think they discontinued development of Apache Office some time ago. Although, it's still around. Libre Office is the one that they seem to be concentrated on now. And very good it is too.
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They are still issuing bug fixes though, the last one was released 22nd December 2023, I'll have a look at Libre though.
 
AndrewFlannigan said:
Given that the great majority of the internet runs on open source Linux and the majority of the domestic market is now the open source derived Android, I think there are alternative views available.

...
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Linux and the open source Apache web stacks are a good example of how open source can be cheap, reliable and robust - they attracted the interest of top quality software engineers, and the resulting code was suitably high quality. They do the job well, so have become 'the standard'.
But those represent a tiny fraction of the number of open source applications available, and there are more half-written open source projects languishing abandoned, and full of bugs, than there are refined, robust applications with minimal bugs.
Regarding Android - while it started as an open source OS, the version running on the majority of today's smart-phones is a long way from being truly open source - much is either Google propriety code, and manufacturers propriety UI skins.
 
Faldrax said:
But those represent a tiny fraction of the number of open source applications available, and there are more half-written open source projects languishing abandoned, and full of bugs, than there are refined, robust applications with minimal bugs.
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This is true but it is equally true of closed source products.
Faldrax said:
Regarding Android - while it started as an open source OS, the version running on the majority of today's smart-phones is a long way from being truly open source...
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Yes.

The fact remains that it started as open source and Google found it worth while to pick it up and run with it. This suggests that a model under which both open and closed source co-exist, has been very efficient in providing useful products.
 
AndrewFlannigan said:
Even the biggest companies get compromised.

The bigger you are, the bigger target you make and software houses are the lodestone the crackers want. It only takes one user at your site to use a weak password or some similar mistake and the crackers are in, Worse still, as software gets bigger and more complicated, security checking gets harder and more expensive, which too many managers just don't wish to hear. :(
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No. That's not how security works.

Back to the original question, as people have said, it's either OEM software (supposed to be bundled) with a very liberal interpretation of the reseller agreement or just pirated. It's low cost and relatively low risk. Personally I pay for an office subscription which is pretty good value.
 
Never too sure how a request for thoughts on cheap MS Office can end up with a disagreement about security, but anyhow.....
....looks like MS are bringing out Office 24 and I'll probably hang on and see what that looks like before making a decision.

Thank you for all the input above.
 
Tulipone said:
Never too sure how a request for thoughts on cheap MS Office can end up with a disagreement about security,
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Tel est l'Internet. ;)
 
I dont know the position now but an old fiddle was to sell the educational version which worked the same but had a standard set of serial numbers or something similar, cant remember rightly now.
 
AndrewFlannigan said:
Really?

Perhaps you could enlighten us on how you think it does work?
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Well for one thing, no proper dev team is using _only_ passwords, for another I've never seen a serious outfit where one person can create, commit and approve their own pull request. And that would include automated code diffs to spot and quarantine unusual code.

Back on topic....there are many good reasons for using Libre Office - not least that it's an excellent package and is free. It is probably the best value option for nearly all home users. But one of those reasons is not that "open source software is inherently more robust".
 
JonathanRyan said:
Well for one thing, no proper dev team is using _only_ passwords,
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No-one is saying they are.

However, the first step in most cracks is access to the drive holding the data. Most crackers will start by getting hold of a user account and easy passwords are a common route in. Once in the system, bypassing other internal security depends on how well that security is designed and enforced.
JonathanRyan said:
for another I've never seen a serious outfit where one person can create, commit and approve their own pull request.
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You're correct in theory but during my thirty five years in the business I saw plenty of poor security at sites where everyone ought to have known better. There are, I should not need to say, those who behave well at work and those who don't. The problem is, as ever, people.
 
ancient_mariner said:
There's an amusing irony here that a serious software vulnerability was found in a key bit of open source software by a Microsoft employee.

www.theregister.com

Malicious backdoor spotted in Linux compression library xz

STOP USAGE OF FEDORA RAWHIDE, says Red Hat while Debian Unstable and others also affected
www.theregister.com www.theregister.com

At least people are still checking.
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We're heading way off topic but we all know Microsoft are big Linux fans, right?

learn.microsoft.com

Install WSL

Install Windows Subsystem for Linux with the command, wsl --install. Use a Bash terminal on your Windows machine run by your preferred Linux distribution - Ubuntu, Debian, SUSE, Kali, Fedora, Pengwin, Alpine, and more are available.
learn.microsoft.com
 
I rather like my 365 subscription, and the 1Tb of storage is a nice bonus part of the package. I am a massive Excel nerd, though, and tend to use some of the features that aren't in the free alternatives. Clipchamp is a nice recent addition.

I do get a 25% discount via a coprorate scheme, which helps.
 
Tulipone said:
I am sure that LibreOffice is now far better than when I last used it but would rather stick with something I know will not cause any compatibility issues.
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Unless you're in a corporate environment, I feel that you're being a bit over-picky there ...
 
Tulipone said:
I'd prefer choosy rather than picky but I guess either sums me up nicely.
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I have both MO and LO on my machines, but would normally use MO, simply because it's familiar and gives the results I want/expect. Occasionally LO is a useful alternative, not least for opening office files created in the 90s and never updated since. Just another handy tool to have available.
 
I pay for Microsoft 365 Family edition which gives me all of the office suite and 1Tb of OneDrive cloud storage on upto 5 devices - so on my PC, iPad and iPhone for example.

I also share this with 3 other people in my family who all get their own instance of the above.

If you look on Amazon they often do offers like they are now…

M365 Family, for 15 months plus Norton (which you don’t need to use) - £54.99 which equates to £3.66 per month for M365.



M365 Personal, for 15 months plus McAfee (which you don’t need to use) - £45.99 which equates to £3.06 per month for M365.



You get the newest versions automatically and the cloud storage is useful too.

It‘s a no-brainer in my eyes (and you don’t have to try and work out how some knock off equivalent like Libre office functions).
 
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