In an effort to implement a new distribution system, Microsoft is pushing consumers to use Office 365 Home Premium, which on paper sounds like a real office solution. By paying a yearly subscription of $99.99.-, users will be able to install Office 2013 on up to five computers (Windows or Mac) with free upgrades, and it even includes Office on-demand, a feature that lets you stream any Office 2013 application on any computer instantly from the cloud.
But how about if you don’t need Office 365 and you need to purchase a retail version of Office 2013? This is the implantation that is causing users to think twice before buying the new suite, as the software giant is locking the Office 2013 license to only one PC. This basically means that you cannot uninstall Office and reinstall the software in a new PC, taking away the right to reassign the product key to a new computer you own, even though you uninstalled Office from the old computer. And this is also true if, for example, your computer encounters a hardware failure or gets stolen and you want to reinstall the suite on a new system replacement.
The new EULA (End User License Agreement) for Office 2013 significantly slashes the consumers benefits. Office 2010 allowed users to migrate from one computer to a new one, as long as you did it once every 90 days. However, it is not a complete new policy, according to Peter Bright from Ars Technica; Microsoft has similar terms with OEM pre-installed version of Office in Windows, which cannot be migrated to a new PC.
The bottom line here is, if you are already on, let’s say, Office 2010 consider the benefits of moving to 2013. If the new features will make your work or school life a lot easier, by all means go ahead. But if you’re an average user, many people like me will agree that a previous version of the suite, which you can still find for a good price online, will do just fine with almost any task.
Source PCWorld
