It was a pleasant surprise when the university emailed everyone announcing that we can all have Microsoft Office 365 for free now while we are HKU students under a new deal:
https://www.facebook.com/TecHKU/posts/741168755924416

Ignoring probably around 25% of the student population *cough* that are using a “disingenuous” copy of the popular Office suite, and our Macbook users with free Pages, Numbers and Keynote, the rest of us have been painfully juggling compatibility and functionality for years among Office alternatives.

And we have gotten used to it.

It might have been jarring at first, but we tolerated the small inconveniences of Libre Office or WPS Office (A personal favourite, proudly Chinese and most awesomely Shanzhai). Google Docs is still a compatibility disaster, but it pioneered collaboration and “always in the Cloud” features and has become the no brainer tool for group projects. Prezi, a somewhat dizziness-inducing presentation maker (also collaborative) was making waves around the business schools replacing PowerPoint with its fanciness. And we no longer do clumsy notes in Word with the advent of Evernote and the now free Onenote.

Now Microsoft, late to respond to the new game, finally caught up with a free but poorly advertised online Office.com with reduced features and a slow collaboration backend.

I would not be surprised if Microsoft was the one that starting courting and wooed HKU into this deal. I would not be surprised if HKU managed to negotiate an incredibly frugal price.

Just desperately exhausting all opportunities to tie the younger generation down to their ecosystem. Retaining this market that still makes the most money for Microsoft on a consumer level is increasingly a challenging task. This “free” software license we get comes with a cost: we are helping Microsoft with its hold and we are unwittingly returning to the position where we find ourselves paying for Office (after graduation).

It is in the young people that Office is increasingly no longer a necessity. We dare to try new products and alternatives (or breaking piracy laws).

Smart move, Microsoft.

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Tyler Woo

Probably the only person in the technology sector who hates social media. BFin alum.

Latest posts by Tyler Woo (see all)

• Rethinking That Free Microsoft Office: Who Needs Who? - August 12, 2014