Modern Vespa

I'm looking for a couple of legal copies of Office 2010, for my partners 2 girls, who are in 6th form.. I checked software4students, and they have a copy of Office 365 with 2 licences for £52.98 - a good deal, until I noticed that you have to be in Uni to qualify..
So, I checked out ebay and came across this... http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Microsoft-Office-Home-and-Student-2010-3-Users-PC-On-Sale-Free-P-P-/291034579199?pt=UK_CDsDVDs_DVDs_DVDs_GL&hash=item43c30340ff
3 licences for only £27.99??? how can that be? surely iffy copies here, as I've never come across such cheap office software!
Graham

Hmmm two things maybe.

First it looks like it could be an "educational" version which are only sold to teachers and educational staff. They are not intended for resale unless the buyer is in education. Usually, people will notice and start reporting these auctions. If that is what it is of course.

Second I am surprised ebay is letting this go. Last time I tried to sell licensed software on ebay they informed me that a piece of computer (like a hard drive) had to be included. Didn't make sense but that's what they said.

there are loads of free office suites available

http://www.kingsoftstore.co.uk/kingsoft-office-freeware.html

or

https://www.openoffice.org/download/

both are compatible with microsoft office

Microsoft used to patrol it pretty heavily. They usually want the OEM versions to be bundled with a piece of hardware, but the retail versions are fine.

Might be some sort of "system builder" install also. I'm guessing you'll get a burned copy of a DVD and a typed product key sticker for install.

louswheel,

To end all problems of licenses, product codes, copies, compatibility, and also to allow cloud services at no extra charge, I chose to do this:

Office 365

I think it is a good deal.

$100.00 US covers 5 PCs and 5 mobile devices.

All UK educational establishments (and government departments, come to that) should be happy with the use of OpenOffice instead of MS Office. It's the 'right price' as well.

Unfortunately, it covers them for only one year.

I do not like OpenOffice for reasons that don't really matter here, but if you need a suite, especially a PowerPoint replacement, OoO is your best bet. I use AbiWord for rtf editing, and an older version of Spread32 as my sole spreadsheet, though I have looked at a portable version of Gnumeric, which hasn't crashed on me.

It varies. I've sold copies of Office that I "won" at various events and was asked for a picture of the box to verify it wasn't OEM - which requires some piece of hardware or NFR - not for resale such as from the MS company store where I've had the occasional opportunity to shop where prices are insanely good.

MS has run some Office 365 subscription bargains lately. Also in the US students can qualify for Home & Student which is very reasonably priced but excludes Access and Outlook.

FWIW, I've tried Open Office, Quick Office and several other open source or lower cost alternatives and didn't like any of them so keep going back to MS Office. Eventually I'll probably switch over to Office 365 since it lets me use one license on both my Mac & PC. Don't have to worry about it on my Surface RT since Office is part of the RT OS, again it is the version without Outlook or Access but you don't need that on the RT devices anyway.