My university student son has just purchased a new laptop, and wants to put Microsoft Office 2016 on it. I was under the impression that Microsoft offered cheap or free versions of Office to students, but his university (Swinburne in Melbourne) doesn't seem to offer it.
Is there any other legitimate avenue for him to get Office cheap or free?
Thanks, but I think he wants Office 2016 - I have edited the original post to say that.
That is Office 2016 :)
From the page:
Log in to Microsoft Office 365 using your student username ([email protected]) to install Office 2016.
Office 365 is the new initiate by Microsoft to have an always updated Office suite with additions such as Skype for Business and OneDrive (1TB)
IMHO it does not make any difference. If I was at Uni I would install the Office 365 free version which is the same as Office 2016. The only difference is the license and activation type.
Yes, I understand that 365 is 2016, but the "free" 365 expires when you're no longer a student, and he's in his final year.
@pjetson: if he wants it for free then……could "lease" it, i.e. he should look at a version to rrent.
@altomic: I'm embarrassed at how many times I had to read that to work out what the hell you were talking about :-)
@pjetson: Well once he's finished tell him to look for a job in an organisation that is partnered with the Microsoft Home Use program. He can then purchase it for $15.
Swinburne offers it for free. As does my uni via 365.
However, recently I decided that as MS Office runs like absolute junk on Mac and takes up a ridiculous amount of space, plus Zotero integration is hit and miss I would switch to open source. Tried LibreOffice (which is amazing) but I am sticking with OpenOffice for now as it is a little more stable.
Thus far (3 months since I switch to aOO) no problems. All assignments are submitted by PDF so no compatibility issues and aOO is much smoother and lighter than MS Office. Plus, when I graduate no on-going fees.
Food for thought.
There used to be a 4 year Office 13/16 licence for AU$99 for students, not a bad option if he is in his last year.
Swinburne has it. You need to get a office 365 account. Once you stop being a student you need to get a job and start paying for things. That includes office. They do take a while to delete your account though (hint hint)
Want to add that when you work, a lot of companies help you get Office fairly cheaply also through some sort of deal. If you're working OP maybe you might want to check with your company?
The place where he currently works part-time is more or less a "Microsoft-free" workplace. They only use Linux.
taobao.
It appears that Microsoft no longer offers "real" Office cheaply to teachers, students, and educational institutions. All offers now appear to be for Office 365, but are free for as long as you qualify. After that, I believe it is $70 per year.
The most recent Microsoft student /education offer never was "real" office if you want to call it that. You always had to make an account with your student email then login.
Melbourne Uni staff can buy Office Professional Plus 2016 for $27.85, I guess MS is no longer doing it with students though.
Office 365 is Microsoft Office 2016??
My uni offers it to me for free and tbh I don't know how they do it but I just login and it gives me a full 12 months to use all the Office 2016 suite I have installed on my computer.
Confused.
There's no need to be confused, pennypincher98!
Office 365 is basically the same thing as Office 2016, with one major difference - you buy Office 2016 outright, but you only "rent" Office 365. I believe it costs $70 per year.
Educational institutions offer Office 365 free to qualifying people, but when you no longer qualify (for instance, if you leave the institution as either staff or student), you then have to start paying rent on your previously free copy of Office 365.
Microsoft used to offer Office 2013 (and earlier) free or low cost (with the low cost meant to cover the cost of the CD/DVD media, but usually about $27) to qualifying educational customers, but as I have now discovered, this is no longer available. The only Office you can get now is 365.
Well it's 4 years at least until I have to worry about that!
I also have Office 2007 outright so could always result to that :)
Thanks for clarifying though!
Extended support for O2k7 will end on October 10, 2017, just so you know.
@alvian: extended support? Oh well that's okay I guess because I haven't needed any support with it in the past..
Also, wow they keep up extended support for 10 years? Apple could learn a thing or two from them…
@pennypincher98: No extended support means no bug fixes, in particular no more security updates. You do know that there are viruses and worms that target Office apps, don't you?
@alvian: lol yes I know that, but it is the same as any virus or otherwise attacking your computer is it not? No security updates is a bit of a shame but as I said above, 10 years is a lot of time to provide security updates for something - compared to 3 or so with apple…
And as I also said above, its 4 years until I have to worry about that. Office 2013 outright will probably be like $20 by then :P even if not, at the very least I can get office if I actually need it.
Why? Just use WPS office for free, fully compatible.
Office is FREE for uni students. It usually comes with the uni email account.
Just use WPS office for free, fully compatible.
Forever.
ye but if you're paying 8k a year for uni and they give u a free(?) office 365, u should use it to make the most out of it.
Hey OP, quick google search found that your son can get free access to Office 365 via this link. Just ask him to login to his uni email and then at the top left of the email page he should be able to click on 365, and install from there :) That's what happens at my uni also.