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September 12, 2007 9:42 AM PDT

Microsoft says college students can 'steal' Office

Posted by Ina Fried

For college students who want Office 2007, but don't want to pay Microsoft a fortune, the software maker is offering another option: Steal it.

Well, actually Microsoft isn't encouraging piracy. Rather it is launching a promotion, dubbed "Ultimate Steal," in which college students can get the ultra high-end Ultimate edition of Office for just $60.

The promotion runs through April 30 and starts Wednesday in Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States. It launches next week in France, Italy and Spain. To be eligible, Microsoft said students have to be "actively enrolled" in a higher education program and have an e-mail address from that school.

"We're listening to students who have told us they need Microsoft Office for their studies and want more flexible ways to get the latest version," Alan Yates, general manager of Worldwide Education at Microsoft, said in a statement. "The Ultimate Steal is the latest in a long history of providing compelling academic offers for students."

Microsoft tried the promotion earlier this year as a pilot program in Australia, before deciding to offer it in the U.S.

Topics:: Microsoft

Tags:: Microsoft,; Office 2007

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Add a Comment (Log in or register) 35 comments (Page 1 of 2)

You THINK you need it
by MaLvaDo39 September 12, 2007 10:40 AM PDT: Until you realize there's open formats that read and write to Microsoft's proprietary formats. Even Apple's Pages can read and write to those formats.; Reply to this comment View reply
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Why not High School students, too?
by seangum September 12, 2007 10:46 AM PDT: Why limit this to college students? My 15-year old son who is in High School has his own laptop and his own copy of Office 2003. If he could get the 2007 Ultimate version for $60, I am sure he'd buy it. And, yes, we have been thinking about dumping Office 2003 to go with OpenOffice. MS should be more forward thinking and target highschoolers as well before they get used to OpenOffice. By college, it will be too late... Sean Gum SeanGum.com; Reply to this comment View all 2 replies
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Arrr, matey!
by ppgreat September 12, 2007 10:59 AM PDT: Windows Genuine Advantage? DRM? My comments: http://www.stonethembas.com/files/ 603cdb26b2e0637863c6638e96f67f1a-150.html; Reply to this comment

Get a grip
by kojacked September 12, 2007 12:20 PM PDT: Microsoft is just about giving away it's latest version of Office and there are still haters who have nothing good to say. Go figure, I guess they've already claimed their welfare checks for the week and have nothing better to do. If you like communism so well why not head over to Russia; I hear Putin is looking for a few good people to help him rebuild the government there. This is the second benevolent thing that Microsoft has done today (the first being the announcement of opening up Vista's search). C'mon people just let it go...; Reply to this comment View all 5 replies
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MSFT Desperation So Soon?
by Penguinisto September 12, 2007 12:29 PM PDT: No, seriously - they wouldn't be doing this if MS Office was selling like hotcakes, or if there was no threat from competition. I'm thinking there's both, and MSFT is desperately doing everything it can to stop what's coming (as evidenced by this little fire sale of theirs, attempts at corrupting the ISO on OOXML's behalf, etc). I'm guessing that fear is going to become a larger and larger factor in Redmond as time passes, and their marketshare begins to drop... /P; Reply to this comment View reply
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That's okay Microsoft, I'd rather "steal" OpenOffice instead!
by skillingssucks September 12, 2007 12:40 PM PDT: <eom>; Reply to this comment

Is the free office suite OpenOffice.org a threat?
by kieranmullen September 12, 2007 12:41 PM PDT: Is the free office suite OpenOffice.org a threat? it does after all open up and save as Microsoft format for Word, Excel and Powerpoint. It has many of the features users are looking for. It may have some functions that power users are lookign for but it is worth spending a few minutes and downloading the program legally for free and trying it out isnt it? KieranMullen http://360oregon.com; Reply to this comment

Is this like the Office 2003 "educational" edition?
by The_Decider September 12, 2007 1:12 PM PDT: Ya know the one that said it was for teachers and students but MS put no student/teacher validation requirements on the purchase? MS must be getting desperate.; Reply to this comment

Available to teachers too?
by mkrump September 12, 2007 1:35 PM PDT: Does anyone know if teachers can get it for this price? I can send an email from my school address.; Reply to this comment

Microsoft Haters, read this...
by cary1 September 12, 2007 2:01 PM PDT: Freetards in Deep Denial... http://fakesteve.blogspot.com/2007/07/freetards-in-deep-denial.html This article is about Linux vs Windows, but very well applies to MS Office vs OpenOffice too Enjoy!; Reply to this comment

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