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For no very good reason, I succumbed to Amazon's marketing last month and decided to upgrade my old Microsoft Office XP.
The Amazon offer was "Buy Office 2010 today and get a free upgrade to Office 2013 when it is launched".
What I bought was a three-user pack of Office 2010, Home and Student Edition. It installed and worked fine. No complaints at that stage.
Then, last week, the promised e-mail from Microsoft arrived inviting me to use my Free Upgrade to Office 2013.
What I was actually offered was a choice:
1. A one-user version of Office 2013
or
2. A one-year subscription to a 5-user version of something new called Office 365
An upgrade of what I had actually purchased was not offered - i.e. a 3-user version of Office 2013.
I opted for the 1-user Office 2013 and will take up the fraudulent sale aspect with Amazon.
But the purpose of this posting is to draw attention to the new "model" of software sale in the Office 365 option. In essence, what a new buyer will get (for much the same price - £79 - as the full everlasting 3-user version of Office 2010 is a one-year subscription allowing them to use Office 2013 for 12 months (together with some pretty meaningless add-ons such as Skype, something called Skydrive, etc.)
As far as I am concerned, this development in Microsoft Office does not really concern me (as long as Amazon give me my money back). I am unlikely to want to upgrade again for another 10 years or more. But I shudder to think what it would mean if programs that I do want to keep up to date with - such as Lightroom, Photoshop, ProShow Gold, etc., - adopted a similar marketing model for future upgrades.
One to watch?
Definitely.
I have taken up the EPZ offer of Capture One Express 6 only to find that it won't open my Olympus E-PM2 ORF files. This in itself is no major issue - DNG conversion solves the issue and away I go...
Now. I run XP Pro on a 32-bit m/c (which is 64-bit-capable with a change of CPU). I fired a question into Phaseone Support as to when I could expect COE 6 to accept my camera RAW files and the response was:
Hello,
The Olympus E-PM2 is not supported in Capture One 6.
If you have the means you can gain access to these files in Capture One 7 Pro but this software does require a 64 Bit Operating System.
Kind Regards,
Phase One Support
I wonder how many others have been 'caught' in this manner?
Thanks but I am aware of that and am taking steps... 
I think a lot of the 'major' software bundles will be (or are) moving towards subscription licenses, although i personally dont see the benefit of them. I guess in some ways it attracts users who may not be able to afford a one-off fee to purchase the software, but can afford the monthly direct debit (with the likes of Adobe)
With regards to the 'fraudulent sale' it would really come down to the wording. If, as you posted, they said you would receive a free upgrade ('a' being singular) to 2013, well, in effect that is what you got. If, however, they said you would receive a free upgrade to the complete multi-use license then you have been mis-sold
I totally agree with the OP about the misselling side of things, but the Office 365 is actually better value for many businesses than buying Office 2013. The 'meaningless' add-ons, such as Skype and Skydrive actually add quite a lot of value in many cases. We are looking at it as a business, because it also allows us to put our email capability completely online, with no need for expensive hardware in the office.
I used to use / own the Microsoft office suite whist working but these days I use the free Open Office suite . Well worth checking out for the PC / Mac. http://www.openoffice.org/
Quote: I totally agree with the OP about the misselling side of things, but the Office 365 is actually better value for many businesses than buying Office 2013..
You may well be right in terms of vfm for a business, Stuart, but not for a home user (and it was the Home and Student version I bought). I think my Office XP was bought in 2005 for about £60. So call it £8 per year. That seems reasonable and a far cry from the £79 a year they seem to want for Office 365.
'Skydrive,' in it's most basic form, is free to anyone. I use it as a back up in the cloud.
Although I'm not sure, I believe that 'Skype' is also free. Personally, I don't use it.
Basic Skype is free, and you can do a lot with the basic service.
Marvellous for people with family in other countries, children at Uni etc.
Presumably useful for a business with contacts some distance away.
I have only used it in an academic environment, where people are doing projects with researchers in other countries, and and as a family thing.
Just as an update on the Amazon side of things. Their initial reaction to my complaint was to suggest that I raised the problem with Microsoft Inc.
When I then pointed out to them that, under UK consumer law, the consumer's redress for any problem had to come from the retailer - not the manufacturer or distributor - they agreed on a full refund. A plus and a minus for Amazon - the minus being that they initially tried to con me with a "take it up with Microsoft" line; the positive being the speed of their action. My first e-mail to them was at 8:30pm last night, their initial reply and my response to that were at about 11:00pm and their agreement to refund came through at about 2:00am this morning.
Quote: But I shudder to think what it would mean if programs that I do want to keep up to date with - such as Lightroom, Photoshop, ProShow Gold, etc., - adopted a similar marketing model for future upgrades.
Adobe are already pushing this way with their "creatiive cloud" subscription. Some new features only apear in the subscription version of the product. A consistent revenue stream is very attractive to these companies, compared to releasing every year or 2.
For what it's worth, I'm still using Office XP or the core components of it, such as Word, Excel & Access on Windows 7 with no problems whatsoever. What's more I can still download the security patches for it. I know sooner or later I'll have to bite the bullet and upgrade, but I've not had any problems up to now.
Quote: For what it's worth, I'm still using Office XP or the core components of it, such as Word, Excel & Access on Windows 7 with no problems whatsoever. What's more I can still download the security patches for it. I know sooner or later I'll have to bite the bullet and upgrade, but I've not had any problems up to now.
That why I said (above) that my decision to upgrade was irrational. If I was rational, I would discover that my word-processing needs would still be perfectly adequately met by the PCW version of LocoScript that I was using almost 30 years ago; and my spreadsheet needs by SuperCalc!
Quote: That why I said (above) that my decision to upgrade was irrational. If I was rational, I would discover that my word-processing needs would still be perfectly adequately met by the PCW version of LocoScript that I was using almost 30 years ago; and my spreadsheet needs by SuperCalc!
I've an old copy of Lotus123 somewhere, I never chuck anything out 
I think the way Microsoft and others licence their software and continually bombard us with adverts saying we should upgrade to their latest products suck, when my version of OfficeXP fails to be supported with security updates and becomes unstable, I'll probably plump for Open Office and give that a whirl. Whilst I might have a full version of Office, like most folk I've only ever used a very small percentage of it's functionality. The only real reason I keep using it now is to write the odd letter to someone and set up some databases for my moth recording using Access/Excel.
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