A UK company is offering Office 2007 for 5 quid a month
Fasthosts, a UK web hosting firm is offering Office 2007 on a subscription basis from £5 (US$1.96) a month , but is it allowed by Microsoft?
Under the deal you can subscribe to various types of Office 2007 for immediate use with no disks required. You must have a broadband connection running at all times though a version with some offline capability is promised.
The offer is described as ‘streaming’ Office 2007 to your computer though that’s not strictly the case. What’s happening is that Office is downloaded and installed on a computer plus some extra code to maintain a link to the host server. The subscription is limited to a single computer and isn’t capable of ‘roaming’. Documents are stored on your computer, not the host.
The service is only available for Windows XP and Vista 32bit users – Mac and Windows 64bit need not apply. There’s no stated geographical limitation so presumably anyone on Earth could use it.
It is not a terminal or remote hosting service where you can run a hosting computer with Office from a remote location (using Remote Desktop Connection, supplied with Windows).
Such services are not new, though they are generally used within companies to allow speedy installation and availability of Office.
PC Pro is reporting that Microsoft UK alleges the whole deal is wrong. “At present, streaming Microsoft products like Office 2007 via the web infringes our license regulations,” says Michala Wardell, head of anti-piracy at Microsoft UK. “Fasthosts has been informed of this and we are currently working with it to rectify this situation.”
Since Fasthosts isn’t really streaming, Microsoft’s comments are a little strange. The offer is still available so either Microsoft UK got it wrong (not the first time) or they looked into the deal and realized that despite the name ‘streaming’ Fasthosts was on solid licencing grounds.
Or maybe it was an attempt to fake a controversy to get some free publicity?
Whatever the case, it’s an interesting idea if you want Office for a short time. Though Google Docs and Spreadsheets is cheaper and gives you roaming options not available from Microsoft or Fasthosts.
