Microsoft Launches Student Advantage with Free Office Suite

[JMcEntegart]

Students will get free access provided university or school is already paying.

Microsoft Launches Student Advantage with Free Office Suite : Read more

 

[nhat11]

I don't think MS needs to advertise Office is a well known suite.... lol

 

[JD88]

This sounds more like an attempt to encourage learning institutions to choose Microsoft over other alternatives which include free productivity suites. Likely in response to this:


http://www.businessinsider.com/22-percent-us-school-districts-use-chromebooks-2013-10

 

[jacklongley]

"Proficiency with PowerPoint and World". Jane, be a dear and don't rely on spell check alone in the future.

 

[realAMDfreak]

I prefer LibreOffice or Kingsoft Office which are free. MS Office is making money out of dumb users due to their closed source format.

 

[realAMDfreak]

Atlantis Word Processor is also great.

 

[g-unit1111]

Two words: open office.

 

[mikeangs2004]

They also offer free latest version Windows through DreamSpark at some schools, but I have media center with $40 Windows

 

[rokit]

"What's more, proficiency with Microsoft Office is ranked number three on the list of skills employers look for in candidates for high-growth, high-wage occupations."
Really? How will it help me in 3D work? LibreOffice is more then enough for most of the people. The only thing that holds MS office are other users. Closed MS formats work really good only for MS users. Open formats don't work good for MS users because of the shitty code MSO has for both import and export(this one is bigger hell though) and we get open formats MS style.

 

[JD88]

The only thing open solutions tend to have trouble with is Excel and getting the formatting exactly right on more complex spreadsheets.

I haven't had any problem with Google Docs or Libre Office with Docx or PPT files in a very long time and I do lots of proposals and projects that require quite a bit of intricate formatting.

Most businesses are just used to MS Office and are unaware of the alternatives. Part of this is because a lot of IT professions are only certified in Windows based products and therefore guide their companies in that direction. You see that a lot here on Toms, people blindly defending Microsoft against newer alternatives. IT people want to stick with what they know and were educated in and often resist change.

 

[vpoko]

It's been maybe 4 years since I last tried LibreOffice, but at the time, the calculation speed in Calc was *much* slower than Excel's once workbooks got to an even moderate size and formula complexity. Working in financial systems, I can say that LibreOffice would have been completely, 100% unworkable at our company (with people wasting tremendous time waiting for workbooks to calculate). The situation may well have changed since I last checked, but unfortunately (very unfortunately considering how expensive Office is) at the time LibreOffice wasn't even an alternative for finance-focused work.