There is new version of Office available and this one cost $0
Phillip Robinson Oct 23 2003

... OpenOffice can not only read and write its own files, it can read and
write Microsoft Office files - sometimes better than the many versions
of Microsoft Office read each other - and now can also export files as
PDF. The Portable Document Format is popular as a way to exchange
fancy-formatting word processor files on the Internet ..

... So if you were to install Office 2003 on a thousand computers at a
school, it would cost you $150,000. Set up a 10,000-employee corporation
and you're looking several million dollars, plus more for
"license-monitoring-software" from another company, to make sure you
don't get sued for installing more Offices than you've bought, plus more
for the latest versions of Windows (only the new Windows can run Office
2003), plus the hardware to run the latest Windows.

Or maybe you've already paid part of that freight because you're in a
corporation that sends Microsoft money every year as part of a Software
Assurance program. Then you get the upgrades automatically, and pay
automatically, whether the upgrades actually have any new features you
care about or not.

With OpenOffice, the upgrades are as free as the originals, and you can
take them or leave them as you like ...

--- unquote ---
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/1003/free_office.asp

Daeron wrote:

> There is new version of Office available and this one cost $0
> Phillip Robinson Oct 23 2003
> 
> .. OpenOffice can not only read and write its own files, it can read and
> write Microsoft Office files - sometimes better than the many versions
> of Microsoft Office read each other - and now can also export files as
> PDF. The Portable Document Format is popular as a way to exchange
> fancy-formatting word processor files on the Internet ..
> 
> .. So if you were to install Office 2003 on a thousand computers at a
> school, it would cost you $150,000. Set up a 10,000-employee corporation
> and you're looking several million dollars, plus more for
> "license-monitoring-software" from another company, to make sure you
> don't get sued for installing more Offices than you've bought, plus more
> for the latest versions of Windows (only the new Windows can run Office
> 2003), plus the hardware to run the latest Windows.
> 
> Or maybe you've already paid part of that freight because you're in a
> corporation that sends Microsoft money every year as part of a Software
> Assurance program. Then you get the upgrades automatically, and pay
> automatically, whether the upgrades actually have any new features you
> care about or not.
> 
> With OpenOffice, the upgrades are as free as the originals, and you can
> take them or leave them as you like ...
> 
> --- unquote ---
> http://www.jewishworldreview.com/1003/free_office.asp


What's the list price for Office 2003 Standard???

<http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=20355330>

$399 !!!!!!!!!! and that _doesn't_ have the 'wonderfull' features being
touted for it's big bro Office 2003 Pro...

I can see people buying an Office XP box just so they can install Office 97
on another box... the only way to get it cheap, as Office 97 has long been
discontinued.

We had this problem at a place I worked at a couple of years back... we
needed to deploy four extra boxes with Office 97 Pro on them, but we
couldn't get Office 97 pro through any of our approved channels (purchases
had to be through approved suppliers). In the end, I had to go and get a
multi pack for Office 2000 pro and still install Office 97 on those boxes
cos we wanted to have no problems with file compatibility with the rest of
the office. Technically illegal as heck... but I think it would be a real
stickler for licensing compliance if they wanted to do us for having Office
97 pro installations covered by Office 2000 pro licenses...

Of course the big problem now with Office 97 is that Microsoft have stopped
all updates etc. for it and hope to force people onto more recent versions
when they discover there are some pretty serious security bugs now with it.

So has Office 2000 been dropped as end-of-life yet???

-- 
COMPUTER POWER TO THE PEOPLE! DOWN WITH CYBERCRUD!