Windows 7: Office no longer need to buy?

I was looking at SkyDrive and it says


"Create, view, edit, and share Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote files online with SkyDrive—even if you don't have Microsoft Office installed on your computer."

Does that basically mean if you were going to buy Home&Student, you don't need to buy it, you could just use this?

If you can keep every file at 50 mb or less then you don't need to buy it. Or you can split a large file into a bunch of 50 mb mini files. For me, that's a total pain in the sweet patootie to not have my own copy of Office.

Regardless of file size limitations, the overriding cause for concern would be data security. I would certainly never contemplate using an online office suite for that reason. It is much safer to have the program installed on your system because in that way you have far more control over your data and its security. Notwithstanding that, once you have stored data online it is readily accessible to hackers should they choose to target your accounts (this has been known, as social sites such as FaceBook and Twitter have already been hacked), especially if the data is of a highly confidential nature. You should also take into account the possibility of faults/outages in your Internet connection (or somewhere down the line) that you have absolutely no control over - this could result in the loss of data that you've been entering for that session. If you feel that the cost of MS Office is a bit steep, there are freeware alternatives available.

In the end, the choice is yours but, as I have stated above, I wouldn't consider it. It all depends on the price you put on your data and whether or not you can afford for it to fall into the wrong hands.

Hi there
considering how cheap Office and Student edition is the restrictions on the other product - apart from the security and having to be online when using it just make it a plain NO NO -- I would just go out and buy the real thing it -- it will run on up to 3 computers too.

If you are a student you might be able to get a really cheap copy via a University / College Discount system and some office places are signed up to the "Use at Home" system whereby you can get an ENTERPRISE version just for the cost of the media --often around 5 - 10 USD.

Cheers
jimbo

Well I already have office Pro Plus. i was just wondering :P

"There's nothing like the real thing baby" !

Open Office, which matches Microsoft Office, has all features, and is FREE. Do the Google thing, and away you go! Jim S

Such a generalization is not only untrue -- it's meaningless!! Neither tool is a clone of the other.

Open Office had (1) many of the same features and (2) additional features. For the details on this, see (among many of the links on the Net) the link below:

http://www.openoffice.org/product/docs/ms2007vsooo2.pdf

The statement of fact could have stood on its own merit, without the distracting use of the word "meaningless." You forgot one other important item: IT"S FREE!

Open Office is a very solid application. And for my home use, is exactly what I use. However, for those familiar with Microsoft Office and needing specific functionality, this product may or may not meet their needs. For me, it solid...and does what I need it to do. If I need an absolute perfect conversion to Microsoft office, I can always use the copy of Office on my work laptop...which I need at work for Outlook.