Buying win 7 and office?

[tim the toolman]

Hi I was wondering if it is practical to build a new system when you have to buy win 7 and office which is probably more expensive than buying a new computer? It's too bad you can't buy a motherboard and cpu already assembled with a software package in the cost. Then you could buy whatever hard drive and opticals etc you want and still save a ton of money. Or is there something already out there I'm not aware of? Any suggestions?

[Nikon]

as far as office goes, new computers dont come with it, and if they do, you paid for it. there is openoffice.org if you cannot afford the real office suite.

the OEM versions of windows are $99.

for hardware, your best option is combo deals on hardware from newegg.com. sometimes they come with software.

welcome to the world of PC building, everything comes ala-carte.

[Nuclear Krusader]

Hardware and software are always independent from each other. Macs are the only ones that include the OS (and the OS alone, if you want an office suite you have to add that one yourself either by buying it or downloading OpenOffice) with their hardware.

Even brand systems do not ship with Office by default (they ship with a 60-day trial, but after that you have to cough up $$), only with Windows.

It's really better this way, as a person has the freedom to load the OS and programs he wants/needs onto his newly built system.

[strollin]

Many years ago IBM sold both the hardware and software as a package. They were sued for doing that as it stifled competition. As a result, they were forced to separate the two and that increased IBM's profitability immensely since they could make a profit on both.

[matt99881]

The only time I've seen MS office coming with an OS was on iBuyPower. Then again I haven't been much of a combo-shopper lately.

[Force Flow]

I'll buy the O/S (note that there are free distros of linux available), but not office. Openoffice.org is fully functional, does everything I need it to, and the price is right (free!). If I need to send actual MS word documents, I can just do a file>save as.

$200+ is just way too much for MS Office in order to make simple word documents and spreadsheets.

[glc]

If all you need is a word processor, Windows comes with Wordpad.

[tim the toolman]

The only reason i want office is my wife works with it at work she is concerned about working with files and doc's from work and sending them back to work without any trouble.Does open office have it's version of outlook? If i can assure her open office will do everything ms office can do "excel, etc" i might be able to at least get her to try it.

[David M]

I looked on Craigslist and saw people selling their Microsoft Office 2007 disks for as low as $20.

[Nikon]

the disk itself is worthless, its the activation key that microsoft is interested in. without a valid and unused key, you will not be able to use the software.

as far as outlook goes, give mozilla thuderbird a try. i use it for all of my email related affairs. it can connect with just about any email system there is, save backups to your HDD, and much more.

[David M]

Originally Posted by Nikon the disk itself is worthless, its the activation key that microsoft is interested in. without a valid and unused key, you will not be able to use the software. as far as outlook goes, give mozilla thuderbird a try. i use it for all of my email related affairs. it can connect with just about any email system there is, save backups to your HDD, and much more.

NOT if it has never been registered. You do of course have to ask that question of the seller.

You can also install it with the correct key and not register it online. You don't get updates but so what. All the OP needed was a working version of Word and Excel.

[Nuclear Krusader]

Outlook is a very valid reason to purchase Office. Thunderbird may be fine if all you need is E-mail, but if she manages contacts and appointments, Thunderbird is useless as it's not a real PIM, it's just an E-mail client.

Also, in order to have true and true compatibility with her co-workers' files, yes, she does need MSO.

I guess your only option is to purchase the latest version of MSO.

[David M]

MSO 2007 is still selling, for slightly less money.

Amazon.com: office 2007

[Dave in Houston]

$120 for the home/student version doesn't seem like a bad price, until you realize that after Office 2003, the home/student version of Office no longer came with Outlook.

One other thing to consider: my wife and I both work for big companies that use MS Office. We can get a copy for use at home for a nominal fee, I think $10 or so. You might ask your wife to see whether her company has the same arrangement.

[Berethorn]

I suggest you download and try OpenOffice, just to see if it might meet your needs, before going out and buying expensive software. I think it's about 150mb to download, and if you don't like it you can get rid of it. I don't know how good OpenOffice's file compatibility with Microsoft is, but that's something you'll want to test. It depends on the sorts of files your wife will need to open. OO may open MS files but not be able to save in the same format. I think there are some downloadable plugins available to help solve this problem, but then again they may be fully compatible now.

I like to encourage people to use free software alternatives when possible.

[Nuclear Krusader]

OpenOffice does not include Outlook.