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cjrivera · May 17, 2006, 10:02 PM

The teachers at our school want MS Office installed on their donated Windows laptops and also on every computer in school. The school is already having budget problems and we're looking to save money in any way we can.

Is it legal to purchase a MS Office license for each teacher's laptop that they bring back and forth from school to home, while at the same time using the same code on one of the classroom computers in her/his room, providing that the teacher is not using Office at the same time that a student would be on the classroom computer (with the same code)?

Any thoughts?

macroy · May 17, 2006, 10:28 PM

Not sure if this answers your question directly - but at my old company, I was allowed to install a copy of Office on my home machine in addition to my laptop. However, I'm not sure if that's due to a licensing agreement with MS or just the way it works.

What you can do is simply call a company like CDW and ask. They're usually pretty good about explaining those things.... at least their corporate sales staff are.

mduell · May 17, 2006, 10:37 PM

Look into the student and teacher licensing program.

skipjack · May 18, 2006, 02:20 AM

I doubt whether anyone will be able to answer this without looking at the specific licensing agreement being used.

I'm sure there are many different licensing agreements with different restrictions. Just today, I came across the "Military Appreciation Edition" of MS Office! (That particular one specifically states it is for a single computer.)

Scotttheking · May 18, 2006, 02:33 AM

Contact MS, they give VERY good discounts for academic institutions. Look into Academic Alliance, you can get site licenses for many software applications.

Spook E · May 18, 2006, 02:38 AM

OpenOffice.org?

May 18, 2006, 06:47 AM

Seriously, I would look into Open Office. MS Office is overkill for 99%* of the people that use it. That's my own estimate but really, do you know anyone that uses all the feature bloat in these apps?

I remember reading somewhere about the Office license being able to be installed on a laptop and a desktop as long as they weren't used at the same time. Who knows? There are persons that all they do is MS licensing and most of the time, they don't know the answer off the top of their head in regards to the way MS licenses things.

(* I admin a 1,000 user MS network with Office 2003 on every machine. NO ONE knows anything more than the "basics" of each of the apps, so my opinion is based upon this)

besson3c · May 18, 2006, 07:49 AM

Our local high school is moving away from MS Office and using OpenOffice instead, and this high school has probably the best rep in the state. They've been using OpenOffice with great success.

I agree, you absolutely must check out OpenOffice.

OreoCookie · May 18, 2006, 08:31 AM

Another vote for OpenOffice. Especially if they have a tight budget. Plus it'll save generations of students the hassle of printing out longer documents without breaking a sweat. (Just had to do this three weeks ago. Question: how long does it take for a computer-savvy person to print a 150-page document from word (using a laser printer)?

)

cjrivera · May 18, 2006, 09:48 AM

Thanks for the suggestions everyone.

I'm trying to get them to use openoffice.org - but you know how it is. Just like the "E" is the only way to get on the internet, "Word" is the only way to type documents.

The other argument is that MS Office is the primary office suite in the "real world" so our kids should know how to use it. I can kinda see their point....kinda. OpenOffice's "powerpoint" program isn't the greatest, but I don't think that would be a big issue.

I'm still working on getting them to try OpenOffice, but in the meantime, am still looking for other ways around paying more to MS. Guess I'll have to look at the licensing agreement....

torsoboy · May 18, 2006, 10:06 AM

In the student and teacher version of MS Office you are NOT allowed to copy program to both a laptop and a desktop machine regardless of their uses (but you are allowed to with the regular version). That is on the versions that you buy at the store though, so maybe if you have a special arangement with MS it would be different.

ghporter · May 18, 2006, 11:06 AM

OpenOffice will sound scary to people who only know (and only WANT to know) Office. With that said, have you looked at Microsoft's Office site? Look here and start searching for the Academic Open Licensing Agreement.

Scifience · May 18, 2006, 11:41 AM

AFAIK, the regular Student & Teacher edition can be legally installed on three computers - laptop, desktop, it doesn't matter.

The plain old retail versions can be installed on one desktop and one laptop (the last time I checked, anyway).

However, if you need more than ten licenses or so, you should definitely contact Microsoft. They give very nice discounts to schools and universities, and will no doubt be able to explain the licensing issue far better than anyone here (no offense intended).

Regarding OpenOffice, I'm not sure that it is ready for primetime quite yet. It is slow to load when compared to MS Office on even the fastest machine, and since you say these are school-owned machines and donated laptops, these aren't likely to be state-of-the-art. I'm not a big fan of Java apps in general, and OpenOffice has a lot of the same problems that many of these have.

olePigeon · May 18, 2006, 12:20 PM

Scifience is correct. For Student Teacher Edition, it's up to 3 computers of the same household. For normal Office, it's one computer plus a laptop:

1. GRANT OF LICENSE. Microsoft grants you the following rights provided that you comply with all terms and conditions of this EULA:

1.1 Installation and use. You may:
(a) install and use a copy of the Software on one personal computer or other device; and
(b) install an additional copy of the Software on a second, portable device for the exclusive use of the primary user of the first copy of the Software.

Here're the Office EULAs.

cjrivera · May 18, 2006, 12:48 PM

Thanks everybody.

I'll have to see what our tech guy is planning to buy the Student Teacher edition or the normal edition.

olePigeon · May 18, 2006, 01:09 PM

Originally Posted by cjrivera

Thanks everybody.

I'll have to see what our tech guy is planning to buy the Student Teacher edition or the normal edition.

Just FYI, if it's the Student Teacher Edition, it has to be installed at the home of the teacher. So it'd be on the Laptop plus 2 computers at home. You wouldn't be able to install it on the laptop, once at work, and again at home.

cjrivera · May 18, 2006, 01:16 PM

Originally Posted by olePigeon

Just FYI, if it's the Student Teacher Edition, it has to be installed at the home of the teacher. So it'd be on the Laptop plus 2 computers at home. You wouldn't be able to install it on the laptop, once at work, and again at home.

what about the laptop and 2 computers at school?

olePigeon · May 18, 2006, 01:22 PM

Originally Posted by cjrivera

what about the laptop and 2 computers at school?

1.1 Installation and use. You may install a copy of the Software on three personal computers or other devices in your household for non-commercial use by people who reside in your household.

I'm certain the Teacher Student Edition is instended for home use. Microsoft offers pretty cheap prices to schools. We get Office 2003 for about $80 a copy here at my work. Just don't get it with Publisher, that doubles the cost for some reason.

cjrivera · May 18, 2006, 01:28 PM

Thanks.

Did I mention how much I hate Microsoft. Ugh.

RAILhead · May 18, 2006, 01:32 PM

Student/Teacher lets you have 3 installs per copy, household, school, wherever student work may be done.

torsoboy · May 18, 2006, 11:32 PM

Originally Posted by RAILhead

Student/Teacher lets you have 3 installs per copy, household, school, wherever student work may be done.

Mine says pretty clearly that you can only have it installed on ONE computer. Period. I didn't read the license and assumed it was like the standard edition, and when I tried to register it for my laptop as well as my PC the M$ person jumped down my throat about it... so I read the terms and sure enough, it says ONE computer.