[Technology] Advice about basic software purchasing

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

This question could be very complicated but I'll keep it simple. I am a microsoft 365 user at work. I have a new laptop that I want to set up outside the work environment so that if I retire sooner than expected I won't lose the ability to work (I will still be crunching data and writing and researching after I retire). So I will need the 365 software, cloud storage etc. I am not bothered about this synching with my phone because my phone is perfectly synched with work (emails, document access) and if I want to synch my 'private' laptop to a phone I'll just buy another phone.

It looks like microsoft 365 personal for £60 a year is what I need. Any better reccomendations? And what else should I buy (security wise)?

All advice, along with the usual clver arse quips, gratefully received

 

[thedonkeycentrehalf]

Honestly, while many will go all anti MS here, if it is what you are used to and you are happy to pay £5 a month for it then I'd stick with what you know.

If you want alternatives, you could use Google for free cloud storage and even the Google tools such a Docs, Slides and sheets. I use LibraOffice on my home PC now which also free. Neither are quite as good as MS but if (like many) you only use the basic functions then either would do the job.

You can always download the free tools and try them first before deciding to commit to MS365.

 

[Seasidesage]

This question could be very complicated but I'll keep it simple. I am a microsoft 365 user at work. I have a new laptop that I want to set up outside the work environment so that if I retire sooner than expected I won't lose the ability to work (I will still be crunching data and writing and researching after I retire). So I will need the 365 software, cloud storage etc. I am not bothered about this synching with my phone because my phone is perfectly synched with work (emails, document access) and if I want to synch my 'private' laptop to a phone I'll just buy another phone.

It looks like microsoft 365 personal for £60 a year is what I need. Any better reccomendations? And what else should I buy (security wise)?

All advice, along with the usual clver arse quips, gratefully received

Would it be considered a clever arse quip to point out you spelled 'clver' incorrectly? Asking for a friend...

 

[BNthree]

If you use MS365 at work and want an easy life then the subscription is the way to go. [MENTION=292]thedonkeycentrehalf[/MENTION] has listed the alternatives but sometimes there are compatibility issues between different software suites etc. Personally I hate the subscription model for software but it's a case of like it or lump it.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Would it be considered a clever arse quip to point out you spelled 'clver' incorrectly? Asking for a friend...

...

 

[Sid in the Sharknado]

Would it be considered a clever arse quip to point out you spelled 'clver' incorrectly? Asking for a friend...

Sid's rules of comedy no. 43:
Commenting on somebody's spelling and grammar is only funny when there's a plausible implication that they are too stupid to know they're wrong.

 

[halbpro]

Just chiming in to say that [MENTION=34787]BNthree[/MENTION] and [MENTION=292]thedonkeycentrehalf[/MENTION] are dead on. If you don't mind paying the subscription and you're already comfortable with 365 then its the way. The alternatives are pretty serviceable, but if you're coming from 365 you may find things don't quite work the way you want.

 

[schmunk]

Agreed re the subscription, and it's what I do.

Currently on offer at £42.99 for 15 months at Amazon. (don't forget the NSC referrer link up there...)

 

[thony]

It's worth seeing what you think of the free online web-based option first before paying for a subscription.
It's not as fully-functioned as the subscribed version (although I was surprised how much functionality is in place), and obviously you can't use it offline, but you may find it's enough for you.

https://www.howtogeek.com/667717/how-to-get-microsoft-office-for-free/

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Sid's rules of comedy no. 43:
Commenting on somebody's spelling and grammar is only funny when there's a plausible implication that they are too stupid to know they're wrong.

I don't mind, to be fair, and I expect the poster realised it was a simple typo.

Being a bit of a shithouse myself sometimes, I often write in the margin of really careless student work: 'carless' and 'please poofread'. The fact I've had no complaints speaks for itself.

Back on topic, the laptop I'm using here is my 'work' laptop that is configured using a college template, and I assumed that by bypassing that rigmarole I'd not be able to use the college software on 365. One of my pals at work (one of the admin staff) told me that the college has kindly allowed us to use our college account to download all the Office software (and more) onto computers not registered in the college system, for our private home use, at no charge. I have just done that. Extraordinary. Amazing the amount of benefit that arises from being a friendly natterer with colleagues who are not 'essential to my career'.

 

[Scoticus]

Agreed re the subscription, and it's what I do.

Currently on offer at £42.99 for 15 months at Amazon. (don't forget the NSC referrer link up there...)

Plus that is for installation on up to six machines & each one gets 1 Tb of OneDrive cloud storage.

 

[Sid in the Sharknado]

I don't mind, to be fair, and I expect the poster realised it was a simple typo.

Being a bit of a shithouse myself sometimes, I often write in the margin of really careless student work: 'carless' and 'please poofread'. The fact I've had no complaints speaks for itself.

Back on topic, the laptop I'm using here is my 'work' laptop that is configured using a college template, and I assumed that by bypassing that rigmarole I'd not be able to use the college software on 365. One of my pals at work (one of the admin staff) told me that the college has kindly allowed us to use our college account to download all the Office software (and more) onto computers not registered in the college system, for our private home use, at no charge. I have just done that. Extraordinary. Amazing the amount of benefit that arises from being a friendly natterer with colleagues who are not 'essential to my career'.

One of my main motivations to stay at work is the hope that one day I'll receive comments on a drawing which include "STET", despite being reviewed as a PDF.

Glad you're making progress and receiving useful advice

 

[PeterOut]

I don't mind, to be fair, and I expect the poster realised it was a simple typo.

Being a bit of a shithouse myself sometimes, I often write in the margin of really careless student work: 'carless' and 'please poofread'. The fact I've had no complaints speaks for itself.

Back on topic, the laptop I'm using here is my 'work' laptop that is configured using a college template, and I assumed that by bypassing that rigmarole I'd not be able to use the college software on 365. One of my pals at work (one of the admin staff) told me that the college has kindly allowed us to use our college account to download all the Office software (and more) onto computers not registered in the college system, for our private home use, at no charge. I have just done that. Extraordinary. Amazing the amount of benefit that arises from being a friendly natterer with colleagues who are not 'essential to my career'.

Just a thought (and I may be misunderstanding your situation here, but here goes anyway...)

You have the use of a 365 licence on a college-setup laptop. A colleague has just advised that you can also use the college MS365 licence to download and use the software on another (private) PC - all good so far.

However, I thought that part of your original enquiry relates to being able to use software after (if) you left the college? In that case, I presume that the software on your private PC will simply expire, either at the time of leaving the college (unlikely) or at the time it comes up for annual renewal (more likely).

Maybe a better option is to buy a licence for Office 2019? The downside is that there are slightly fewer features in the Office 2019 software, and all the updates / developments will only be in the 365 version of office (not that the majority of owners will notice). However, the big updside is that your licence for Office 2019 is a 'forever' licence - no need to keep paying the annual fees.

You can buy a key for Office 2019 Pro for about £45 or less if you look around.

As others have said, the free versions of office-compatible software (such as Libre Office) are very good indeed.

If only software purchase / licensing was as simple as gaining access to the Amex, eh?

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Just a thought (and I may be misunderstanding your situation here, but here goes anyway...)

You have the use of a 365 licence on a college-setup laptop. A colleague has just advised that you can also use the college MS365 licence to download and use the software on another (private) PC - all good so far.

However, I thought that part of your original enquiry relates to being able to use software after (if) you left the college? In that case, I presume that the software on your private PC will simply expire, either at the time of leaving the college (unlikely) or at the time it comes up for annual renewal (more likely).

Maybe a better option is to buy a licence for Office 2019? The downside is that there are slightly fewer features in the Office 2019 software, and all the updates / developments will only be in the 365 version of office (not that the majority of owners will notice). However, the big updside is that your licence for Office 2019 is a 'forever' licence - no need to keep paying the annual fees.

You can buy a key for Office 2019 Pro for about £45 or less if you look around.

As others have said, the free versions of office-compatible software (such as Libre Office) are very good indeed.

If only software purchase / licensing was as simple as gaining access to the Amex, eh?

Cheers for that!

My original concern was this. My employer sets up all computers using a template. Even the log on is password protected. If I retire, eveything conks out after a year. This is because the employer (a university) considers it owns anything I buy and indeed anything I invent. So once I leave, the computer effectively won't work, and I am expected to return it to the university. Nobody has done this in the past, partly because this rubric is new (3 years old).

Since I started the thread one of my colleagues told me that the university has recently introduced a way of allowing us to access for free the key microsoft software (word, outlook etc) without having to have a computer set up so it belongs to the college. I have now done this.

Yes my access to 365 may expire a year after I retire but I will be able to install 2019 or some other version easily enough by then, as the computer itself will continue to work.

 

[dadams2k11]

Just a thought (and I may be misunderstanding your situation here, but here goes anyway...)

You have the use of a 365 licence on a college-setup laptop. A colleague has just advised that you can also use the college MS365 licence to download and use the software on another (private) PC - all good so far.

However, I thought that part of your original enquiry relates to being able to use software after (if) you left the college? In that case, I presume that the software on your private PC will simply expire, either at the time of leaving the college (unlikely) or at the time it comes up for annual renewal (more likely).

Maybe a better option is to buy a licence for Office 2019? The downside is that there are slightly fewer features in the Office 2019 software, and all the updates / developments will only be in the 365 version of office (not that the majority of owners will notice). However, the big updside is that your licence for Office 2019 is a 'forever' licence - no need to keep paying the annual fees.

You can buy a key for Office 2019 Pro for about £45 or less if you look around.

As others have said, the free versions of office-compatible software (such as Libre Office) are very good indeed.

If only software purchase / licensing was as simple as gaining access to the Amex, eh?

Cheers for that!

My original concern was this. My employer sets up all computers using a template. Even the log on is password protected. If I retire, eveything conks out after a year. This is because the employer (a university) considers it owns anything I buy and indeed anything I invent. So once I leave, the computer effectively won't work, and I am expected to return it to the university. Nobody has done this in the past, partly because this rubric is new (3 years old).

Since I started the thread one of my colleagues told me that the university has recently introduced a way of allowing us to access for free the key microsoft software (word, outlook etc) without having to have a computer set up so it belongs to the college. I have now done this.

Yes my access to 365 may expire a year after I retire but I will be able to install 2019 or some other version easily enough by then, as the computer itself will continue to work.

[emoji106]

I have been an admin for O365 and Azure and with any work/college O365 subscription, you can have it on 5 devices.

 

[hoof hearted]

Cheers for that!

My original concern was this. My employer sets up all computers using a template. Even the log on is password protected. If I retire, eveything conks out after a year. This is because the employer (a university) considers it owns anything I buy and indeed anything I invent. So once I leave, the computer effectively won't work, and I am expected to return it to the university. Nobody has done this in the past, partly because this rubric is new (3 years old).

Since I started the thread one of my colleagues told me that the university has recently introduced a way of allowing us to access for free the key microsoft software (word, outlook etc) without having to have a computer set up so it belongs to the college. I have now done this.

Yes my access to 365 may expire a year after I retire but I will be able to install 2019 or some other version easily enough by then, as the computer itself will continue to work.

When you leave/retire, your employer will likey remove the license (or at the very least change the password or disable the account), so you won't be able to use it after that. Also the data you have under that 365 account is tied to it and would be owned by your employer. And even though you can install Office 365 on multiple computers, there may be security policies setup by the employer preventing you from using it on 'unmanaged' (personal) computers.

So basically, just buy a MS Office 365 subscription for your own personal use on your personal computer.

 

[dazzer6666]

I know of a couple of people connected with Universities that were easily able to download extra copies of MS software to home PCs using their student codes - I am also led to believe that the one on their father’s PC is working perfectly despite being downloaded some time ago

 

[PeterOut]

When you leave/retire, your employer will likey remove the license (or at the very least change the password or disable the account), so you won't be able to use it after that. Also the data you have under that 365 account is tied to it and would be owned by your employer. And even though you can install Office 365 on multiple computers, there may be security policies setup by the employer preventing you from using it on 'unmanaged' (personal) computers.

So basically, just buy a MS Office 365 subscription for your own personal use on your personal computer.

I know of a couple of people connected with Universities that were easily able to download extra copies of MS software to home PCs using their student codes - I am also led to believe that the one on their father’s PC is working perfectly despite being downloaded some time ago.

I think this is the problem - if you try to use a rolling licence (such as 365) which is linked to your employer, when the employment ceases, so does the licence.

Obtaining a one-off licence (such as Ofice 2019), is as close as you will get to a 'forever' licence. I am guessing that the situation that Dazzer decribes is the ability to download a 'one-off' licence. MS did this for a good number of years with larger corporate buyers of Office, it was perfectly legitimate for their employees to download a licence to use Office at home (I did it myself several years ago).

You will have to examine your conscience with regard to who owns the data generated as an employee, and whether you or your employer owns it.

 

[Curious Orange]

Probably not relevant, but older versions of Office don't require a subscription and do work fine on Windows 10 provided you completely uninstall newer versions such as 365 first.

I'm still running the copy of Office 2007 Home and Student Edition I bought over ten years ago, which is on its fourth box now. If you only want compatibility with the docx format (which you don't always truly get with the free offerings) then you don't really need anything fancy and new.

 

[Seasidesage]

Sid's rules of comedy no. 43:
Commenting on somebody's spelling and grammar is only funny when there's a plausible implication that they are too stupid to know they're wrong.

I'm not going to go THAT far, I was suggesting Harry's proof reading skills are on the wane...