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TheBrain v10 Alpha is available
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Posted by tightbeam
Sep 1, 2018 at 05:26 PM
Microsoft Office 365 Home costs $100 per year. For that fee, up to six people (as of October 2) can install Microsoft Office, and each person gets 1TB of storage space (6TB total). If you have six people in your family or group or whatever, the per-monthly cost is $1.39 apiece. And if you’re in it just for yourself, the per-monthly cost is $8.33. Unless you have some philosophical rationale for not using Microsoft products, I can’t see how anyone would classify that as a bad deal.
And yes, you can still buy the boxed version of Microsoft Office, irresponsible rumors to the contrary notwithstanding. I imagine at some point Microsoft will stop offering the boxed version, as likely it’s become a hassle for them.
Posted by Pierre Paul Landry
Sep 1, 2018 at 08:32 PM
tightbeam wrote:
>irresponsible rumors to the contrary notwithstanding (...)
Bob, that’s a bit harsh, no ? Paul acknowledged it is in fact possible to buy (at least some) versions of Office, though as it is evident from MS web site, they strongly favor the rent approach.
So much so that I could not find a purchase option of a MS Office version that included Access (the old Office Pro). Perhaps it is possible, but hardly advertised…
Just my 2 cents
Pierre
Posted by Paul J. Miller
Sep 2, 2018 at 07:34 AM
tightbeam wrote:
>How silly and shrill. Microsoft doesn’t “hold your documents and files as
>a hostage against future payments.”
You try opening an Access database in another program. Go on. I really would like to find an alternative program which can open an Access database and interpret all the calculations, queries and forms correctly.
The reason for this is that I had a particularly important database on Access. I am a diabetic and managed my condition with the aid of an Access database. I built a ‘bolus dose advisor’ in Access which would give me advice on a sensible dose for the current conditions.
When Microsoft refused to re-activate my license for Office 2010 (on the same computer it was first installed on) then I had to come up with a replacement pretty quickly.
The easy but expensive option would be to pay Microsoft for another license (either buying a license or paying Danegeld to Microsoft).
The stopgap solution was to re-create the calculations in a spreadsheet, and that is what I did. The spreadsheet was not very sophisticated, the calculations didn’t use previous data to calculate the ratios, the ratios were entered manually.
The better and more permanent solution was to re-create the Access database in Libre Office Base. This proved to be more difficult than it should have been, Base is a totally different animal to Access. Access is much better. I had to learn SQL and a whole lot more to be able to do something this sophisticated in Base.
I now have an adequate solution working, although it is not as good as the Access database, I am working on it.
The reason SaaS is being pushed so heavily by the software companies is that customers do end up paying more over the long term and SaaS gives the companies a steady and predictable revenue stream. But the bottom line is that the customer does end up paying more for the software over the long term and has no security that the company will not suddenly change either their payments or make changes to the software itself (an upgrade) which will require them to change the way they do things.
SaaS gives companies more power over their customers and more money from their customers. The danger is that it will come to be seen as the ‘norm’.
Posted by Alexander Deliyannis
Sep 2, 2018 at 08:16 AM
As a matter of fact, it appears that purchasing—as opposed to renting—is available only for home/student editions, whereas professionals and businesses only get the rental options:
https://products.office.com/en-us/compare-all-microsoft-office-products?tab=2
While this discussion is quite off-topic, I have to say that I am grateful for bringing this issue to my attention.
Pierre Paul Landry wrote:
tightbeam wrote:
>>irresponsible rumors to the contrary notwithstanding (...)
>Bob, that’s a bit harsh, no ? Paul acknowledged it is in fact possible
>to buy (at least some) versions of Office, though as it is evident from
>MS web site, they strongly favor the rent approach.
>
>So much so that I could not find a purchase option of a MS Office
>version that included Access (the old Office Pro). Perhaps it is
>possible, but hardly advertised…
Posted by Alexander Deliyannis
Sep 2, 2018 at 08:50 AM
I can accept the SaaS delivery and pay model where there is indeed a continuous service involved; the Google G Suite, for example, is a full office suite (and much more), continuously hosted on Google’s servers, which provide malware protection, backup on several locations across the globe, real-time collaboration, etc. The Total Cost of Ownership for a small business is extremely competitive compared to any ‘permanent’ local solution.
For a boxed (or downloadable), locally installed, desktop software, I don’t see the reason to pay year in, year out. If I don’t want or use Microsoft’s online storage and mail, there is no yearly cost to them in order to provide me with a continuous service. Security updates are a matter of after sales service. My wife owns a Toyota since five years; there is no yearly charge and it has been recalled once for a security issue at no cost.
Coming back to the thread topic of TheBrain, this indeed provides the customer with three options https://thebrain.com/store : one can [1] purchase a truly permanent license for v.9 desktop (and upgrade to v.10 will be free), [2] subscribe and have access to the software, sync service, and TheBrain online as long as they pay, or [3] get a bundle of both [1] and [2] at a reduced price (the actual order on the website is [1], [3], [2]).
Paul J. Miller wrote:
>SaaS gives companies more power over their customers and more money from
>their customers. The danger is that it will come to be seen as the
>‘norm’.