Non-subscription MS Office blocks all legacy Windows

[time]

Everyone probably already knows this, but for the non-365 versions of Office, eg Home and Business, Microsoft has blocked every legacy version of Windows and requires Windows 10. So no Windows 7, 8, Server 2008 R2, Server 2012, etc, and probably Server 2016.

It's got absolutely nothing to do with technical limitations; Office 365 will continue to work fine - so far. But Office 2019 Home and Business, Home and Student, etc will not.

As a side-note, Home and Business no longer allows two installations, which is where the name came from FFS: one for home and one for business.

Also looks like Office Home and Business 2019 is now nearly 4 times the annual subscription for Office 365 Personal. I'm extremely wary about committing to Office 365 because it is blatantly obvious that they will increase the subscriptions once they have weaned everyone off the alternatives. Personally, I've never paid full price for MS Office - my current Pro version cost about $20 or so as part of a corporate deal, which is about what I think it is worth. Can anyone think of any useful improvement since Office 2010?

 

[Will Rickards]

Not really, no. I don't recall which version switched to the xml formatted files (docx vs doc).
Honestly I don't even use office at home. But I have some older version on one laptop.
I use google docs and sheets most often. Sometimes I use LibreOffice.

 

[LunarMist]

I don't see any improvedments since 2003 and much is worse. Adobe is like that and MS is copying. I need something to replace Outlook and I'd be off MS programs for good.

 

[Newtun]

As Will mentioned, LibreOffice.

 

[Chewy509]

I'm not surprised about not supporting Windows 7 (EOL is 14-Jan-2020), but Windows 8.1 was a little surprising. I can only think of, that Windows 8.1 has already reached End of Mainstream Support (9-Jan-2018), but its EOL is till a few years away (10-Jan-2023).

At home, we get Office365 sub's from the kids school education accounts, but I tend to use LibreOffice when needed. My wife is clinging to Office 2003, as she doesn't see any improvements/features needed since then. (and in many case features that she used have been removed, especially from publisher).

I'm not surprised on the pricing thought, being 4x times the price of Office365, and major releases every 3 years, means it's cheaper to go Office365... (are there any major differences in provided features between the two)?

 

[Chewy509]

Not really, no. I don't recall which version switched to the xml formatted files (docx vs doc).

Office 2007 was the major release where it became the default, but Office 2003 did have XML based document formats (precursors to now standard docx format).

 

[Chewy509]

I need something to replace Outlook

What features of Outlook do you need that's keeping you on the platform?

 

[LunarMist]

I need to be able to download/access new emails from multiple ISPs and accounts and keep all the old ones back to the 1990s including the attachments. I don't want to pay by the month. I usually use the POP3 and sometimes IMAPAP depending on the account.

 

[time]

I suspect you have already had this conversation, but what exactly is wrong with Thunderbird?

 

[time]

I was being generous when I said "since Office 2010". I could have said Office 2007, or even Office 2003. My faint recollection is that Office 97 had too many bugs.

Realistically, everyone just wants Excel, because nothing else is 100% compatible with macros etc. Mind you, if that discourages people from creating complex macros, so much the better! I still find myself expecting the sort of functionality that existed in old versions of Quattro Pro (no, I am not Tannin). M$ destroyed all the more creative and functional competitors, making a mockery of the 'free market' ideal of the best products rising to the top.

 

[Chewy509]

I suspect you have already had this conversation, but what exactly is wrong with Thunderbird?

My thoughts exactly....

I personally use Thunderbird, w/POP3 from gmail, IMAP from Office365, IMAP for another outlook.com account and have done IMAP to several other now defunct email providers (including mailcity.com and hotmail.com pre-MS), calendar sync with gmail, contact sync with gmail/Office365 and outlook.com...

Both S/MIME and PGP work as advertised as well for email signing/encryption?

The only item not personally tested, but I've read recently that this has been corrected, is Exchange connectivity via EWS (Exchange Web Services).

 

[Newtun]

I use Evolution in Ubuntu, because I had read that Thunderbird does not have a well-integrated calendar function (Emailed invites that are accepted are added to the calendar, and calendar appointments can have pop-up alerts before the appointed date/time, which can be delayed to repeat at a specified time, etc.) Is that not (or no longer) true about T-bird? TIA.

(Unfortunately, Evolution seems to be Linux-only.)

 

[Chewy509]

Lightning for Thunderbird (which is the calendar component) has come along way recently. I've had no issues with email invites or pop-up reminders in a long time. (I did read of an issue if the calendar is CalDAV based, you need to configure source location of email invites to be sent if creating new meetings).

 

[Newtun]

Thanks, Chewy, maybe I'll take another look at T-bird.

At work, we were "upgraded" from Office/Outlook to Gsuite/Gmail. (G-not-so-Suite ) It has pop-up reminders, but they only show in the lower right corner of a Gmail web session. It's sooo nice to have reminders pop up in a new window, whether or not you have the Email client running. And the Gmail pops can't be "snoozed", a handy feature; e.g., a recycling day reminder pops up, but recycling is delayed because of a holiday, so just snooze the reminder for 12 hours.