Buy Office 2007, Get Office 2010 for Free?
Hold off for a bit before buying Office 2007 -- Microsoft should announce a free upgrade offer starting in March.
Just as how Microsoft gave late Windows Vista buyers an (almost) free upgrade path the Windows 7, it appears that the same will apply to those picking up Office 2007 in the months leading up to the release of Office 2010.
Ars Technica caught a cached copy of a bulletin posted on a Microsoft U.S. Partner Community website that specifies that customers who purchase and activate a copy of Office 2007, with or without a new PC, from an authorized reseller between March 5, 2010 and September 30, 2010 qualify for the promotion.
Those who satisfy the qualifications must request his or her free Office 2010 product by October 31, 2010 using an activated Office 2007 Product Key and a dated sales receipt.
Although this information is no longer available on the partner website, we suspect that the deal is real. Microsoft often makes these sort of "technology guarantees" and this information leak is likely just a case of the company revealing plans with its partners before making a formal announcement to the public. After all, letting this information out this soon could potentially halt all Office 2007 sales for the next month.
Here is the provided image regarding the free upgrade path:

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microsoft ftw!!
This is more or less what they did with Vista before Win 7 release.
well this sucks because to most people feel like its too soon for the 2010 version for the fact that alot of places still use the 2003 version. heck even I just started using 2007 about a year ago after my old pc crashed and decided to build a new one. oh well I guess its time to upgrade . . . NOT lol im sticking with 2007 version I dont think I need to upgrade yet
They should offer BIG discounts for early adopters as well.
Well, if this halts the sales for this month, or they see it as a risk. they have only one option: get this plan in motion in advance.
This is true. I read it in an expertzone lab.
They should offer BIG discounts for early adopters as well.
Why?
OpenOffice is always free... no matter you are updating or not...
seriously, eairly adapters should get serious discounts! hell office '97 still works great! typical micro$oft though.
2010 is Waaaaay better than 2007, I'm running the beta now.
Plus don't buy any version, if you're waiting for 2010. There's supposed to be Word and Excel free online. (Ad supporting) That's usually sufficient for home users.
sweet, been planning on upgrading for a while. 2003 is old
They should offer BIG discounts for early adopters as well.
You can download the beta version of the 2010 suite for for free until October!
Great!!!
"Almost free upgrade from Vista to Windows 7"? I payed around 30€ to HP for an Vista-to-Windows 7 upgrade to their Compaq nc-something netbook/laptop (with AMD Neo processor). That's half the price of the actual product...
great offer but only looks good who keeps sale receipts For software
most are not returnable once open so the offer looks heroic but only a small percent will actually qualify
Office 2007 and 2010? I'm still using Office 2003 with Windows 7. It works great and is suffcient for personal use. It would be different if a business needed Excel with a very large number of columns.
Free if you get Office 2010 with a product key of its own and you can still use your old Office 2007 on another PC. Otherwise, it's a replacement/upgrade offer only.
2010 is Waaaaay better than 2007, I'm running the beta now.Plus don't buy any version, if you're waiting for 2010. There's supposed to be Word and Excel free online. (Ad supporting) That's usually sufficient for home users.
Yes to compete with Google's free apps online. Plus there are numerous studies out there that show that 80% of people who use Office only use about 20% of its features...I personally didn't and won't buy 2007 for the mere fact that I am not going to shell out a hundred plus dollars for extra features I won't use and the implementation of the "Ribbon" when 2003 does just what I need to this day...
I think OpenOffice is really starting to scare Microsoft now.
I think OpenOffice is really starting to scare Microsoft now.
Yep, that and Google Docs.
I'm only going to buy 2010 because I can get a cheap
Change a to it.
An edit button would really help!
or you can always get open office for free from www.openoffice.org and it works just fine. I use it rather than microshaft orifice whatever year.
Part of the problem is that if your company is an early adopter of Exchange 2010, Office 2003 (Outlook specifically) has a LOT of problems with it and there are a lot of bugs. Upgrading to 2007 fixes everything, but if you want 2010 without rebuying it, then you have to pay out the ass for software assurance. 65-70 licenses of Office 2007 Professional Plus with SA is 68-70k dollars. Learned that lesson the hard way
Part of the problem is that if your company is an early adopter of Exchange 2010, Office 2003 (Outlook specifically) has a LOT of problems with it and there are a lot of bugs. Upgrading to 2007 fixes everything, but if you want 2010 without rebuying it, then you have to pay out the ass for software assurance. 65-70 licenses of Office 2007 Professional Plus with SA is 68-70k dollars. Learned that lesson the hard way
Whoops, meant 58-60k dollars