Happy new year!
I’ve previously said that I hated the idea of “renting” software. When MicroSoft decided to go to a subscription-based model for their Office produced (called Office 365) in 2013, I gave up on MicroSoft Office. In the past, I have worked with other alternative software, such as LibreOffice, and, recently WPS Office (which I wrote about in Sep 2022).
So, all of that has changed as of today, January 1, 2023. I’m completely back on MicroSoft Office (in fact, this article is written on Word). That’s because I just bought the Microsoft Office Professional 2021 lifetime license for $30, after reading about it on C-Net. The article referenced Stack Social, which I’ve never heard of until today.
There are some restrictions: the license only grants one computer at a time and you have to pay the one-time payment using PayPal or Venmo. That’s actually not a choice, since PayPal owns Venmo. My PayPal account was burned a while back when hackers got access to it, so it’s permanently disabled for the time being. My only option was creating a Venmo account, and that went pleasantly easy. You need a phone and an app, and it seemed pretty secure. Just set your privacy to private, as by default, it’s set to public.
After payment went through, you’re given a code, which is tied to your MicroSoft Windows account. After installing Office, everything just worked. I now own Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint, and so many other Office productivity software. What a deal for $30.
I still stand behind WPS Office and will likely to use it on my laptop or my iPad, considering that my MicroSoft Office can only be used on my main computer. I can live with that, since most of my productivity will be done on my primary PC.
So far, I love being back in Office. It’s been a long time. I do miss it. No matter how amazing the copycat software are, nothing compares to the real thing.
If you have a business or a student, the life time ownership of Microsoft Office Professional 2021 for $30 is an amazing deal, I highly recommend you getting it right now. The sale ends on 1/8/2023. Even if you only want to use one of the products, it’s definitely worth it. If you decide to pass this up, you are going to kick yourself when you need Office in the future.
