Chic, IL suggestions for the best place to buy a copy of MS Office

Hey folks,

Any suggestions on the cheapest, reputable place to get a legal copy of Office Home and Student 2007? I'm not in the Chicago area so suggestions for brick and mortar stores need to be chains, unfortunately. I just wondered if anyone has a place they prefer for their software purchases, especially those college students out there.

eBay has it "new in sealed box" for as little as $0.99, apparently from a freight recovery company. I'm assuming it's the Chinese version or something.

 

I don't think a legal copy is going to stray much from the Best Buy price if you're going to an actual retail outlett.
If you don't know already, you can get a legitimate 60-Day free trial download from [link=http://us1.trymicrosoftoffice.com/product.aspx?sku=3082920&culture=en-US]HERE[/link].

Also, you you could use [link=http://www.openoffice.org/]OPEN SOURCE OFFICE[/link] as an alternative.

D'

 

Open Office is pretty damn good if you ask me. As an Office alternative, I've had zero problems with it and compatibility.

Bosh is right, the price is not going to change much no matter where you go. Newegg is a good place to get Office from if you want to order via the interwebs. [link=http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116135]Expect to pay [/link] around $120 for it.

The other option if you want to utilize less scrupulous means is that Bay that has Pirates in it. Run your client in encrypted mode for best results.

 

Thanks for the quick responses, fellas. I do have to keep this on the level so in this case I can't afford to consider "alternative sources". As far as Open Office goes, I've looked into that before for my work computer, but my wife needs this on our home pc for her grad school work. She's sharing all kinds of files with her professors, fellow students, and other colleagues, and she's had enough problems just moving back and forth between files created in Office 2007 and the older version we already have. That's why I think we've gotta stay with the real deal in this case.

Bosh_Talk and darthgoat - thanks again for the help. Other opinions are welcome, I was just checking in and wanted to say "thanks" since I was here.

 

No problemo. Just enumerating all the various options for ya.

You could use Froogle to find the best legit price. The only caveat I'd offer up is that if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is so read the fine print.

 

I don't remember the last time I had a legit copy of [link=http://thepiratebay.org/tor/3895091/Microsoft_Office_2007_Complete_Version___CD_Key]MS Office[/link]. I was even tempted to change from my legit version of XP Home to an illigit copy of [link=http://thepiratebay.org/tor/3937350/Black_XP_6.20_GOLD_Final_(DEC_17_2007)]BLACK XP[/link] which looks super sweet...but I try not to fix things that aint broke.
Back in my durt-pore dayz I'd go to the thrift store and copy Win95 or WinME serial numbers off the backs of the old junkers they had on the shelves (or buy the CPU if it was less than 15 bucks)...and WOOOT!...2 legit to quit.

D'
"That 1st lynk is perzona11y verified & N use F NE1 wantz 2 no."

 

[link=http://theultimatesteal.com/home.asp?cid=fbookss]Here's a legitimate deal for $60.00.[/link]
You have to be a "student" to get it. Your wife should be able go get it if she's a grad student.

I highly doubt that Microsoft wants to help poor struggling college students so much as they realize that college students are in the demographic most likely to grab a free copy off the Intertubes. What sucks is many (if not most) community colleges don't give their students email accounts (which is required for this deal). There's probably a work-around, but it's probably a pain.

D'

 

Thanks - I actually came across that last evening. We're going that route since my wife does have an official university email account. Good observation re: community college students, that's a large demographic. This deal shows me two things - how much Microsoft marks up Office (selling it here for $60 is comparable to generic pop that's 25 cents/per can, vs $1.25 or more for Coke or Pepsi in some places). Also, it's a great way to get the college kids addicted to, I mean familiar with, their product so they become dependent on it as adults.

 

In my experience, OpenOffice is actually BETTER than MS Office 2007 when dealing with previous MS Office-version documents. The place I worked at in IL had every version from Office 97 to Office 2007. Opening a Word 97 doc in Word 2003 or 2007 was often problematic, with OpenOffice preserving more formatting and such than either MS product.

I admit that I am a rabid OpenOffice evangelist, but it is a free 100 MB download. There's no harm in trying it.

 

I agree about MS Word, but I have had some troubles opening old Excel files with Open. Not that I'm knocking Open, I'm just surprised that the world hasn't embraced Open the same way it's embraced Firefox. It's free and it's better than MS.

D'