News Microsoft Windows 365 beckons era of hybrid computing

...and probably also the era of annual subscriptions to continue using the OS.

 

I'm curious to see the pricing. If I remember to check in August.

 

If Office is the blueprint then buying outright will remain an option but subscription will be available with the benefit some cloud services you'd expect to pay for anyway. Microsoft haven't really shown signs of going full Adobe CC.

 

They better not. No one wants an OEM that you need to feed money for it to operate. Google will fill in that gap immediately.

 

You know, I thought I'd just check re: Office quickly, but unless I'm reading something wrong, it looks like it's now subscription only:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/office.aspx

I do remember the missus' laptop coming with a free 1yr trial for the same a while back, after which she was unable to edit any of the spreadsheets she'd created. Which is when we switched to Libre Office. @wolfticket - is there still this "buy once" option somewhere that I've missed?

Yeah, plus hooky copies, Linux etc. for sure.

 

They've just made the one off purchase option a bit harder to find:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/microsoft-365/get-started-with-office-2019#compare_table

 

For whatever reason buying MS Office as a one off purchase through a reseller has always seemed the more common and cheaper way to get it rather than direct from Microsoft.

One time purchase at is the first result for "microsoft office 2019" on Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=microsoft+office+2019
And I'm fairly sure you can buy it in store at Currys PC World along side the 365 sub vouchers.

That said MS do still have the one off purchase version in the main comparison chart: https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/microsoft-365/buy/compare-all-microsoft-365-products

 

Does anything major really change under the hood of something like Office to justify £250 one off?