OEM office

squibs · 03-02-2006 4:01pm #1

Can I buy MS Office OEM legally with any piece of hardware, or do I need to buy a PC to qualify?

A friend recently bought a dell not realising they needed office. I was surprised at the price of office, but oem price is reasonable. Would dell sell us the oem now? It has to be office - lotus, star office, etc. are not an option. Any ideas for getting office cheaply but legally for a business (1 seat license) are appreciated.

Capt'n Midnight · 03-02-2006 6:42pm

Don't forget the OEM license would be bound to whatever HW you buy.

You could also get a copy of Works and upgrade it to Office, then you can move it to another PC later on. OEM lives and dies with a machine it was supplied with

non-OEM www.micromail.ie www.softsell.ie - must do up a sticky with sw suppliers some time

WexCan · 04-02-2006 12:30pm

squibs wrote:

Would dell sell us the oem now?

Nopes, just the full version, for all it's hundreds. As a matter of interest, what's wrong with the likes of OpenOffice?

rogue-entity · 06-02-2006 1:52am

You could try and get a copy of the Student/Teacher edition of Office 2003 standard. PC World sell it for about 120Eur (it was 170). It is not as cheap as the OEM edition, but it is still a hell of a lot cheaper then the full version. And you can legaly install it on 3 PCs to.

Of course, OpenOffice 2 is going to be a better option as it fully supports and impliaments OpenDocument, the OASIS document standard that the EU is supporting.

WexCan · 06-02-2006 1:56am

rogue-entity wrote:

You could try and get a copy of the Student/Teacher edition of Office 2003 standard. PC World sell it for about 120Eur (it was 170). It is not as cheap as the OEM edition, but it is still a hell of a lot cheaper then the full version. And you can legaly install it on 3 PCs to.

Of course, OpenOffice 2 is going to be a better option as it fully supports and impliaments OpenDocument, the OASIS document standard that the EU is supporting.

Exactly, OO does 98% of what M$ Office can do anyway.

squibs · 06-02-2006 11:37am

Thanks lads. She ended up giving the dell sales people an earful of abuse and they proposed the student/teacher version

I'm amazed they would sell it to her, I don't think she qualifies to buy a license for it. Wonder if she'll have any problems activating it.

WexCan · 06-02-2006 11:43am

squibs wrote:

Thanks lads. She ended up giving the dell sales people an earful of abuse and they proposed the student/teacher version
I'm amazed they would sell it to her, I don't think she qualifies to buy a license for it. Wonder if she'll have any problems activating it.

Tell her to be nice to us

Capt'n Midnight · 06-02-2006 2:13pm

squibs wrote:

Thanks lads. She ended up giving the dell sales people an earful of abuse and they proposed the student/teacher version
I'm amazed they would sell it to her, I don't think she qualifies to buy a license for it. Wonder if she'll have any problems activating it.

This is a very grey area, if only because of the radio ads microsoft did last year. Those ads did not state that the product was not for business use or that it only lasted the duration of the full time schooling in a recognised institiute.

Technically you should read the EULA before installing and confirm that you meet all the conditions. Or check with the BSA. If you have a problem with activation or License or BSA then back to the Dell sales person, for selling something that wasn't fit for purpose perhaps ?

OpenOffice just doesn't have the hassle and you won't be fined €127,000 for using a legit copy of it.

WexCan · 06-02-2006 2:28pm

Capt'n Midnight wrote:

This is a very grey area, if only because of the radio ads microsoft did last year. Those ads did not state that the product was not for business use or that it only lasted the duration of the full time schooling in a recognised institiute.

Technically you should read the EULA before installing and confirm that you meet all the conditions. Or check with the BSA. If you have a problem with activation or License or BSA then back to the Dell sales person, for selling something that wasn't fit for purpose perhaps ? (Pity you can't get 10% for ratting out the supplier )

OpenOffice just doesn't have the hassle and you won't be fined €127,000 for using a legit copy of it.

Think it's really a good faith thing. I remember a year or so back shops were asking for student ID. Very hard for Dell to do.

Capt'n Midnight · 06-02-2006 3:06pm

WexCan wrote:

Think it's really a good faith thing. I remember a year or so back shops were asking for student ID. Very hard for Dell to do.

I think it's really an entrapment thing. Wait until enough people are hooked and then release the BSA. My opinion but it's not like they haven't had big licensing campaigns after extended periods of negligable licence enforcement, cf. China and alledged comment by Bill? that if they were going to copy* software he'd rather they copied microsofts.

*piracy is an international crime, it's what happens in places like the coast of Indonesia, people get killed.

WexCan · 06-02-2006 3:18pm

Capt'n Midnight wrote:

I think it's really an entrapment thing. Wait until enough people are hooked and then release the BSA. My opinion but it's not like they haven't had big licensing campaigns after extended periods of negligable licence enforcement, cf. China and alledged comment by Bill? that if they were going to copy* software he'd rather they copied microsofts.

*piracy is an international crime, it's what happens in places like the coast of Indonesia, people get killed.

If only the the world would switch to open source. Life would be so much easier. Software licensing makes my brain hurt

aidan_walsh · 06-02-2006 9:05pm

WexCan wrote:

If only the the world would switch to open source. Life would be so much easier. Software licensing makes my brain hurt

Yeah, because Open Source licenses are far more understandable...

WexCan · 06-02-2006 10:25pm

aidan_walsh wrote:

Yeah, because Open Source licenses are far more understandable...

Well, to put it simply, there are a lot fewer rules, and they can be summed up quite easily.

timeout · 07-02-2006 11:16am

As far as I know the S&T edition of MS office can be activited by any student or teacher as long as they are enrolled in a learning institute recognised by the governing body of that country. So if she has a kid that is in primary school, registers the product in their name and says that they use it then there should be no problem. Now thats my take on it, but I didn't read the EULA so there could be some clause against this.

Timeout

rogue-entity · 11-02-2006 10:28pm

IIRC the Academic licence which only applies to Students and Teachers for non-commercial use. Once you obtain a legit S/T version of office, the licence is perpetual even after you are no longer a student, and it can be transfered to other PCs as long as it is never installed and activated on more then 3. I still have a legit copy of Frontpage 2000.

I use OpenOffice2 as it is free and it does the job. It also includes Draw and Base, a program for designing flowcharts and the like and a database application that is compatable with Access. To get Access with Office (you can always buy it seperatly) you need the Professional Edition. To get anything like Draw you need Visio which is a seperate program. This is why you should install OO along with Office, you get these two other programs, and OO supports OpenDoc as I said before.

OEM office

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