Office 365 Home - MS has increased user and device limits

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NightStalker

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#242899 19-Nov-2018 14:07

just noticed that Microsoft has changed the user/device limits of office 365 home

the old licence was for 5 people and a total of 5 pc/mac + 5 tablet + 5 phones

new licence looks like its been increased to 6 people in total with each person being able to be logged into 5 devices each
"If you've purchased Office 365 Home, you can share your subscription benefits with up to five family members or other people."
"Each person can install Office on all their devices and be signed in to Office on five devices at the same time"

this also appears to have been updated retrospectively.
When I log into my MS account my 365 home subscription I purchased as a "5 user" has been updated to the new limits

"You, and up to 5 others, get

Each person sharing this subscription can install Office on all their devices and be signed in to 5 at the same time.
1 TB of OneDrive cloud storage
60 Skype minutes per month"

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#2129451 19-Nov-2018 14:33

Wow. That's a pretty attractive offer for $165 per year, especially if you have a larger family.

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#2129479 19-Nov-2018 15:03

Makes the $119 for personal and one pc stink even more. I have a Surface Tablet plus pc. Hence I continue to just use my 2013 and 2016 paid for versions. Zero incentive in it for me.

irongarment

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#2129482 19-Nov-2018 15:07

LibreOffice is free. You can use it on as many devices as you like.

Hammerer

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#2129527 19-Nov-2018 15:17

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Office-365-Blog/You-re-about-to-get-even-more-from-your-Office-365-Home-or/ba-p/234907

The original announcement included some further features I've been waiting for:

Device limit increases from 10 devices (i.e. 5 users with 2 devices each) to unlimited devices. So no need to allocate more than one user to yourself if you have more than two devices and want to avoid swapping devices in and out as you move around different computers.
Manage the subscription from the Microsoft account portal rather than having to use office.com/my account.

If my kids were still children then this last improvement would also have been useful to me:

Automatic sharing with members of the Microsoft family service.

And I usually pay only NZD85-125 a year for this, much cheaper than the standard retail price of NZD165. The funny thing is that the boxed versions are usually cheaper than the online versions. Clearly there is a premium for instant activation.

OmniouS

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#2129537 19-Nov-2018 15:41

Office 365 Home will be $99 online from PB this evening

Hammerer

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#2129538 19-Nov-2018 15:47

irongarment: LibreOffice is free. You can use it on as many devices as you like.

Trolling? LibreOffice lacks complete equivalence or compatibility with Office. Every time I've looked at LibreOffice and other pseudo-Office suites they force me to use their native file format or maintain compatibility using an old Office file format.

robjg63

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#2129551 19-Nov-2018 16:20

Hammerer:

irongarment: LibreOffice is free. You can use it on as many devices as you like.

Trolling? LibreOffice lacks complete equivalence or compatibility with Office. Every time I've looked at LibreOffice and other pseudo-Office suites they force me to use their native file format or maintain compatibility using an old Office file format.

This.

I have also found that Office 'alternatives' never seem to cope well with anything above basic formatting and they fall apart when any moderately advanced formatting options are used.

Its a pity.....

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irongarment

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#2129557 19-Nov-2018 16:30

I have found it to be adequate for most things. It sucks no more than Microsoft Office. Most people pay for MS Office even though they don't need any of the advanced features because they are unaware of alternatives. Even Google Docs does a great job for most requirements.

I'm always surprised that MS users feel compelled to rabidly defend this multi-billion multinational, but carry on.

Hammerer

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#2129568 19-Nov-2018 16:40

irongarment:
I'm always surprised that MS users feel compelled to rabidly defend this multi-billion multinational, but carry on.

Just more trolling! Only adding insults when ignoring issues.

dryburn

430 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2129569 19-Nov-2018 16:41

what's the difference between these two 365 packages?

https://www.pbtech.co.nz/product/OFFMST1101/Microsoft-Office-365-Home-for-up-to-6-People-in-on

and

https://www.pbtech.co.nz/product/OFFMST1001/Microsoft-Office-365-Home-up-to-5-people-for-one-h

irongarment

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#2129573 19-Nov-2018 16:52

Hammerer:
irongarment:
I'm always surprised that MS users feel compelled to rabidly defend this multi-billion multinational, but carry on.

Just more trolling! Only adding insults when ignoring issues.

What issues? Do you have a list? As I said, LibreOffice works fine in most cases. It's also free and unrestricted. You might find that insulting since you have to pay for yours.

And since when does "trolling" mean "saying something I don't like"?

rscole86

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#2129574 19-Nov-2018 16:56

Please keep this on topic.

If you need a definition of troll then feel free to Google it.

Hammerer

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#2129579 19-Nov-2018 17:02

dryburn:

what's the difference between these two 365 packages?

https://www.pbtech.co.nz/product/OFFMST1101/Microsoft-Office-365-Home-for-up-to-6-People-in-on

and

https://www.pbtech.co.nz/product/OFFMST1001/Microsoft-Office-365-Home-up-to-5-people-for-one-h

Most importantly, the first product is available for $99 from Noel Leeming until tomorrow, 20/11/18.

https://www.noelleeming.co.nz/shop/computers-tablets/accessories/software/microsoft-6gq-00929-office-365-home-subscription/prod166635.html

The second product you linked to is cheaper probably because it is older stock, i.e. before the October announcement. APAC probably means Asia-Pacific.

When you activate your subscription, the two packages should provide the same features discussed in this topic.

Hammerer

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#2129613 19-Nov-2018 17:14

irongarment:
Hammerer:

irongarment:
I'm always surprised that MS users feel compelled to rabidly defend this multi-billion multinational, but carry on.

Just more trolling! Only adding insults when ignoring issues.

What issues? Do you have a list? As I said, LibreOffice works fine in most cases. It's also free and unrestricted. You might find that insulting since you have to pay for yours.

And since when does "trolling" mean "saying something I don't like"?

You are the one choosing to insult others who don't agree with you. That is trolling.

You said that many users don't know about LibreOffice as an option. Fair enough, I agree with that which is why I didn't quote that part of your statement.

I quoted the part where you use an insulting statement for "MS users". We have said that the issue is that LibreOffice is not fully compatible with Microsoft Office. We know about your option and have tried it. It doesn't work for many of the files we have that work fine in Microsoft Office.

P.S. Here's one example of known incompatibility with LibreOffice: https://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=164&topicid=207502&page_no=1#1697068

tripp

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#2129625 19-Nov-2018 17:24

The personal copy of office (which use to be 1 laptop and 1 table) is now 5 device installs (for 1 user).

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