Office 2000 or XP? (Office 2000)

Topic

New Reply

My sister is buying a new computer and has a choice between Office 2000 SB and Office XP SB for her bundled software. Do the advances in XP out weigh the negatives? Which should she select? Thanks.

Reply | Quote

Replies

i’d recommend getting the newest version. it’s a wash major feature-wise, but the little ones add up.

with office 2000, she’d be version behind to start and may need to replace it during the life expentancy of the computer.

Reply | Quote

In my opinion, there is nothing that they could add to offset the inclusion of the Regisrtation/Activation wizard.

Reply | Quote

i guess you’ll be suggesting they get office 97 then office 2000 will likely have activation in it also – full version SR1 includes it.

Reply | Quote

Why not Office 95 or 4.3?

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

Reply | Quote

I believe that XP’s main advantage over 2000 is the numerous changes to make it more user friendly. Smart tags for instance make many operations like cut & paste far easier to use. Task panes bring related features together for easier access. This is especially useful for new users.
In case you have not guessed I say go for Office XP.

Reply | Quote

The Registration/Activation Wizard DOES NOT MAKE IT MORE FIENDLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Reply | Quote

Have you ever actually used Office XP? If not, how do you know the features Tony mentions are not more user friendly than Activation? Or is this your new twist on the argument with windows xp that activation causes longer boot times?

Activation happens once – his favorite features hang around forever. Activation for office xp can be backed up.

To seriously ecourage users to use older versions is irresponsible. For starters, if they use Access, the file type changed between 97 and 2000. if they don’t use access, office 97 is buggy and no longer supported by Microsoft. You may be happy using 97, but new users especially may want support available. Even few MS MVPs in the microsoft news groups can help since most now use 2000 or XP.

Reply | Quote

How may times do I have to answer that question for you? How many times have you crashed your car into a solid wall at 100 mph? None? Do you know that it is not a good thing to do?

Copying and pasting all of the same questions that I have answered over and over just shows that you do not read my responses.

You can find the answers to these questions, and all the others that you are ready to ask Here.

Reply | Quote

i (and other beta testers) have extensively tested activation, just as the crash test dummies have extensively tested car crashes.

activation won’t kill you – it’s not painfull at all. it doesn’t damage you or your computer.

i know the risks – and i know the features i like in both cars and office and i just as i choose the car that offers the features i like and accept the safety risks that comes with it, i choose the version of office that provides me the best features and accept it’s problems with open eyes. (Bugs are a bigger problem than activation ever will be – and all software has bugs.)

Reply | Quote

I do not have the same opinion.

Reply | Quote

Here is a MS page that may help, BUT is from MS so you will not believe it..
Microsoft Product Activation

Available from this page:

How Activation Works
Product Activation Fast Facts
Top 10 myths about Product Activation
Frequently Asked Questions about Product Activation
Volume Licensing and Product Activation
Technical Market Bulletin on Product Activation in Windows XP

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

Reply | Quote

I understand how it works, and that is my problem.

Reply | Quote

those will do too but it’s impossible to find those older versions anymore. And they aren’t compatable with Office 97 and newer file types.

Are you using office xp? i am and don’t like office 2000 anymore.

Reply | Quote

[indent]

---

Are you using office xp? i am and don’t like office 2000 anymore

---

[/indent] I am using both. I have 2000 on my desktop and 2002(XP) on my laptop.

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

Reply | Quote

I am using neither, and will not use these or any other product that includes the Registration/Activation Wizard.

Reply | Quote

Just to add my , I’m with Legare. The possibility that the Activation bit will suddenly decide that I’m not using an authorised copy and shut me out means that I will not (voluntarily) get any version that uses it.

I’m on Word2000 at home and I guess I’ll be staying there for the foreseeable future!

Reply | Quote

Well, if you love copy protection and old versions that much, I can probably find a copy of Lotus 123 with copy protection.

Reply | Quote

[indent]

---

find a copy of Lotus 123

---

[/indent]Don’t need to, we have copies going back to a version that is proteded by hidden files. We keep almost all of our Factory made disks and CD’s.

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

Reply | Quote

I would definitely recommend 97 over 2000 with the Registration/Activation wizard. I would rather have the older version (which really doesn’t lose that many features) than trust that the Registration/Activation wizard is going to let me access my data when I need it.

Reply | Quote

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

Reply | Quote

Like I said, I don’t have to crash my car into a wall at 100mph to know that it is not a good idea.

Product activation will not prevent the pirates from stealing the software. It will take them a day or two to disassemble the code and find how to patch it to disable the Activation, but it will not stop them. The only thing that it does is to make life more difficult for honest users.

Reply | Quote

Looks like it’s already happening …Pirated XP selling like hot cakes in Malaysia

The difference between Genius and Stupidity:
A Genius knows their limits.
- Albert Einstein

Reply | Quote

Now that’s a big surprise.

Reply | Quote

it’s just one step in the war against piracy and it’s not an anti-piracy measure intended to prevent wide-scale pirating.

There are an amazing number of users who would never knowingly use pirated software that aren’t aware they can’t install it on all the computers they own. PA is aimed at those users.

Reply | Quote

If it is a step, it is a step backward to the bad old days of copy protected Lotus 123.

Reply | Quote

[indent]

---

Perhaps, but I do know that this is forcing computer manufacturers to supply consumers with the software installation CD’s which many did not do in the past. I just had a “fight” with a certain manufacturer that would not provide my stepfather with the installation CD’s that he rightfully purchased. I kept being told that I would have to use the recovery disk provided with the PC.

---

[/indent] if this is a side effect of activation, it will be great. Sadly, i don’t think it will help with big OEMs and windows, since they can use bios locking to preactivate systems.

Reply | Quote

No, I don’t think it is an extreme comparison.

When I order a system, the first question I ask is if they provide the software installation media. If the answer is no, they don’t get the order.

Reply | Quote

The end result is not the point of offering the comparison, it is that you do not have to do one to know the other.

I have returned an entire system when it was delivered without the install media and the vendor refused to send the media.

Reply | Quote

Many OEMs are prevented in their licensing agreements from providing install media. i’m not sure if they get better costs if they only provide a restore cd or if they made the decision without pressure from software publishers. in any event, it’s nearly impossible to get an cd if they don’t provide it in the initial package.

i returned a $3000 computer for refund once because the only method of recovering damaged apps was to reformat and use the restore disk. The restore cd contained one exe – other restore disks i’ve seen have bunches of zips – one for each app. The app i needed to reinstall was a phone program – worth maybe $15.00.

Reply | Quote

Since it’s software that’s coming on a new PC, I’d say get Office XP.

[rant]
I can’t say I’m thrilled with MS’s business decisions on OXP.

The requirements to quailfy for the upgrade are very narrow.

The price of the upgrade and full versions are higher than ever.

They’re essentially holding corporations hostage with their policy of “You must upgrade by XXX date or you’ll need to buy the full version after that date.” Where have they been for the last few months? Don’t they know the economy is weak? Corporations can’t afford that.

Just once I’d like to see MS fix all known bugs in a version of Office before they pile on a ton of flashy new features. Do you build a second story on a house when the foundation is crumbling?

We’ve heard some of the horror stories about the Product Activation Wizard. As OXP gets more and more users, do you think MS won’t have any problems with the PAW?
[/rant]

Reply | Quote

Ony people who think that MS writes 100% bug free code would believe that there will not be problems with the Registration/Activation Wizard.

Those are the same people who spent much time and money recovering from the Code Red worm.

Reply | Quote