OEM OFFICE 2003 Professional question

[yogart]

I want to buy OFFICE 2003 Professional on ebay and it show it low priced but listed as a OEM version. It also says it for system builders and they will send a piece of hardware to fullfill the microsoft agreement. What? I just want to install it on my PC. How doe this work? A, I allowed to use it?

[lowellriggsiam]

Clearly you are not a system builder. A piece of hardware? There are some expensive programs on the market that require use of a "dongle" a usb like device that holds the key to the software, without which, the software will not operate. In this case I'd post that question to the seller.

[rallynavvie]

Don't buy software on eBay. That's the simplest answer.

What the seller is trying to do is exploit a weakness in the EULA that says that the OEM copy can only be installed on one machine ever. The loophole people think they can use to get around this when building a new system is to carry over some piece of the old machine and say the OEM license was attributed to that piece of hardware, not the rest of the old system. In actuality OEM licensing is very harsh. For instance if you installed an OEM license on a laptop and the laptop was broken and had to be replaced you would not be allowed to install the same OEM license on the replacement laptop; essentially the OEM software is destroyed with the laptop and you have to buy it again.

[RBK]

OEM Versions are sold to system builders and they are supposed to be installed on hardware that the system builder sells. These version do not come with Microsoft support (You are supposed to get your support from the system builder). By contract they are supposed to be selling you hardware and the MS software is part of the package.

If it is a new package there is probably nothing wrong with the software and you can install it and use the included serial number (which does identify it as a OEM version)

[Supreme2k]

I buy most (if not all) of my software from retailers. This is one instance (eBay) where I would go with a torrent or other pirate outlet. I am not suggesting you do so (or that I do), but that is basically what you will get most of the time, but you will pay a middle-man.

It's the same thing I see on craigslist. People sell these "OEM" copies, claiming that they are a manufacturer who has "extras". I've seen people recently buy Windows 7 Black Edition (WTF?) for $10, and the discs were burned (purple dye), labeled with a Sharpie.

Best to use Pricegrabber or some other bargain finder to get a decent deal on software.

[jman98]

If this is just for personal use, for the vast majority of consumers the free Open Office works just fine. Take a look here:
http://www.openoffice.org
There is no need for many people to buy Office from anyone if they would just try Open Office.

[freebird73717]

If this is just for personal use, for the vast majority of consumers the free Open Office works just fine. Take a look here:
http://www.openoffice.org
There is no need for many people to buy Office from anyone if they would just try Open Office.

Completely agree. OpenOffice suites my needs just fine. It will do pretty much anything that MSoffice will do and open all MSoffice documents. You should give it a shot. Like jman98 said. It's free so you really have nothing to lose.

[rallynavvie]

Hell I even use OpenOffice at work on a lot of my VMs just because I don't want to waste my time tracking down one of our enterprise keys for Office 2007. I would also recommend that application suite instead of shady software sellers.

[yogart]

I see people on Amazaon selling USED copies of Office 2003 Pro. In theroy, can it be alright to buy a used copies (is that allowed?)? Can it work in some cases?

[Bjs]

The loophole people think they can use to get around this when building a new system is to carry over some piece of the old machine and say the OEM license was attributed to that piece of hardware, not the rest of the old system.

Er ... no ... not accurate

Truth

You'll find that to comply with the elua that the software must be supplied with a piece of hardware ... the use of the word "hardware" has not be defined by microsoft so as to limit or hinder the sale of the product which allows for sellers to supply the OEM software to non-system builders with any hardware ... usually an old network card or stick of memory of which is always untested.

Weather the piece of accompanying hardware came from a particular system dose not matter

There is no problem in buying but it must comply with the two common sense rules :

1: Sealed (never opened)
2: License attached ... of course there's no way of telling if the license has been used until you install and try to activate the product.

====

Used copies without license attached are useful for those where the product has been previously installed but either the disc was not provided , damaged , missing ... one must be absolutely sure that the product being offered match's the installed product or end up wasting money

[yogart]

1) So if the OEM is good and activates with MS, will MS send updates to it like it does to other Office 2003 thru out the world (the sometimes send security updates every now and then.

2) So USED software will work if the product key matched the software and it activates?

[Poppa_Meth]

Newegg does the same thing. You can buy OEM software and a USB cable and you will fulfill the requirements of purchasing OEM software.

[rallynavvie]

A fleabay seller is probably not selling a new, unused copy of OEM software. This is probably someone trying to resell their OEM license since they've upgraded. Buying a new copy (that's never been installed or registered) with a piece of hardware is one thing, but once it's been installed you are supposed to keep it with the original computer. As a consumer it might be OK to try your luck with testing the wording of the EULA but if you're running a business with that software (which I hope you wouldn't be using such an old version of Office to run a business) and you're audited there is a chance you could be in trouble with M$. But if you're playing the odds then go ahead and buy it already.

[SeánB]

For home use, I can't think of anything one would use in Microsoft Office that is not included in OpenOffice, apart from Outlook, which Thunderbird is an excellent alternative to. However, if you're taking part in an advanced course teaching how to use Microsoft Office, especially Access (databases), this may be the only time one would be better off learning with Microsoft's Office package.

At work, I had a case where a colleague's PC hard disk failed and had to reinstall it. This all went fine until it came to reinstalling office and could not activate it. I called Microsoft and they claimed this was not a legit copy. The PC was ~3 years old, was purchased with Office (before I joined the company) pre-installed and the shop had since closed down. So I just installed OpenOffice (v2 at the time) and over a two year period before we replaced her PC, the lady who used it for spreadsheets and documents didn't complain apart from asking me towards the start "Where is Word and Excel?" (I told her it's now Writer & Calc).