[pscates2.0]

Says so right here.

Some caveats/catches (always are), but for those who like to buy and be done, vs. monthly subscription, that's good news.

I don't use it so this doesn't affect me in the least, but I assume quite a few here use Office.

Not sure if it's a fluke/one-off thing, or a sign of the pendulum swinging back in the other direction a bit (and maybe, someday, even Adobe might offer two buying options as well). I have no plans to go back to them anyway at this point, but I know that would be welcome by many.

We're all getting "monthed to death" (all the streaming services falling out of the sky the past year or so, Adobe, Office 360, etc.), it seems, so something useful/desirable that isn't based on yet another monthly fee/bill is just nice to see. Refreshing.

[kscherer]

A buy-it-and-own-it version of Office has existed all along. Office Home & Student has been a thing for $149 for ages. We sell it in the store, and have carried both the 2016 and 2019 versions.

It's not all monthly subscriptions.

[pscates2.0]

Good to know. This doesn't seem like it'll be called that, so I don't know what makes the difference. In any case, a new version is coming in 2021, so it should have a least a few things that differentiates it from the 2019. Even if it's just dropping the "home office and student" part of the name. The article says that Microsoft says all their improvement/innovation is done in the cloud-based, subscription stuff, but a lot of people probably won't care. I don't know what the differences are in the home office/student version vs. the "real" one...major stuff, or just lots of little features here and there? Like Adobe, is a large part of it cloud/collaboration-oriented features? Because, if so, that certainly doesn't matter to tons of users.

And I didn't say all is, but the biggies seem to be. Outside of Adobe and Microsoft, who really gives a shit, right?

I'm joking. A little...

I'm not eager to fall into that, so I like knowing new stuff coming out isn't only available that way. That's the point.

[chucker]

Originally Posted by pscates2.0 Not sure if it's a fluke/one-off thing,

Nope.

Originally Posted by pscates2.0 or a sign of the pendulum swinging back in the other direction a bit

Nor that.

Microsoft has continued to do non-subscription releases every ~2-4 years, for most of their product lineup.

Like, you can even buy just individual products, like Excel 2019 for $140, if you like.

So, I wouldn't extrapolate a shift from this. There's probably some beancounters at MS that hope that the amount of people who still buy this variant eventually reaches below 1% or whatever threshold they pick, and then they kill it off.

[chucker]

(I wonder how much of this IT departments come into play here. Perhaps they, in this case, act as a good conservative force, whereas Adobe's customers are more likely to install the apps on their own and thus, for this part, don't have IT backing?)

[pscates2.0]

My Mom has Home Office & Student Office 2008. It's in a little yellow box, and I don't think she ever updated it. It was around $150 I believe...so long ago. She opens Word about three times a year, and I think she keeps track of her DVDs in Excel. I'm 98% sure PowerPoint has never been launched.

Someone tried to teach me the basics of Excel ages ago...my forehead exploded, and in my weakness and despair I turned to heroin.

[chucker]

Spreadsheets are kinda neat for some quick napkin calculations.

You might be more into something like Soulver, though. https://www.acqualia.com/soulver/

[turtle]

My mom just bought Office 2019 Home & Business outright so she wouldn't have a monthly fee for her Mac. Funny thing is, she's retired and doesn't have to use any of it. My brother uses Excel and my mom still helps him with spreadsheets so she wanted Excel and not a different brand.

[drewprops]

I still run Office 2011 on a daily basis and have gone back and forth over the option to buy the standalone version when I upgrade to a new machine with a new OS.

My decision will be based on the refresh cycle on the software vs the sunk costs vs being able to freeze at some point (as I've done with this machine, on MacOS V10.12).


...

[Frank777]

I use iWork, but I have Office 2016 for emergencies.

Will likely upgrade to 2021 in conjunction with an M1X Mac purchase later this year.

[kscherer]

I just use iWork.

[PB PM]

I use iWork on Mac or open source on a PC, will never use MS office again. There is simply no reason to unless you need MS Offices database app, which is Windows only anyway.