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Re: [LUG] Kids failing on coursework because of proprietary file formats

 

On 17/06/2010 17:00, Rob Beard wrote:
Yep, IIRC they supply the basics in the Home/Student edition of Office, and don't supply Publisher. When I *cough* bought a Windows 7 Upgrade *cough* for the wife on the student offer she was also offered a cheap Office 2007 Pro package. I think it was something like £60. I gather this is open to anyone in education or anyone who has kids in education. Still cost's an arm and a leg for the software though if you're on a limited income, not to mention the cost of making sure your PC is up to the job of running it (not everyone has a nice new fast PC to run Office 2007 and it runs like a dog with 512MB Ram on XP).
When I was on my degree I had Office 2003 Pro bought for me by Student Services - part of the disabled student assessment. I didn't particularly need it as I already had 2000, but the words 'gift horse' and 'mouth' spring to mind. IIRC the agreement a lot of educational establishments have is called the Microsoft Alliance. In a nutshell I was able to get MS SQL Server and MS Visio free; programme director emailed MS with my email address and student number, they emailed me with a link to get the license number to install the software the programme director gave me on disk. I *could* also have got MS Visual Studio 6 - but I already had it - doh. Anyway, the point is yes students can get free / cheap stuff :)

I had an email yesterday from Amazon - or Ebuyer, I've slept since then :) Anyway the mail gave the three different versions of Office 2010 and prices. I was quite annoyed to see that once again the *only* version to include Access is the bells and whistles £358 version.

£150 extra from the previous version for *one* program.

Sod.  That.

I think they'd sell a lot more copies if they just said each element was £50 and you just bought what you need. I don't *want* Outhouse - I have Thunderbird. I don't really need Publisher. What I'd *like* is Word, Excel, Access for a decent price. What idiot in MS marketing thought a DTP package is more use than a database? Oh wait, they KNOW a database is useful - that's why the only one with it is the expensive one. Silly me.

BTW that's a nasty cough you have there Rob :)

Julian

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