I just bought myself an Acer netbook today for uni work. It says that it only comes with a 60 day free trial of Office. Which I really need to use. I can receive Office Ultimate 2007 for £38.95 being a student. It this a good package, worth getting?

I am thinking on taking the whole thing back as I think its pretty ridiculous that you have to pay for a product that really should come with a new computer

The reason computers don't come with software like this is down to European competition legislation. According to this legislation you have to be able to choose your own software, therefore if ACER automatically install a full copy of Office they have taken away your right to choice. Seems daft I know but it is very same law that has seen Microsoft roll out an update that gives you a choice on which internet browser to use, your new laptop should have popped up a selection box asking you this very question.

As for is 40 quid a good deal for Office 2007 Ultimate, in short buy it now. If you go to a standard computer store like PC World you are looking at over £500.

Just make sure it is definitely Ultimate you are getting, a lot of these student offers give you a version called Home and Student which is just the basic package of Word, Excel, Powerpoint and One Word, which is enough for a lot people. The Ultimate package contains everything including Outlook, Access and Publisher etc.

Hope this helps.

you could try openoffice as an alternative,its free and practically the same as micrsoft.

http://www.openoffice.org/

£40 is a very good deal for that Office package, I'd buy it sooner rather than later if I was you; that price sounds like a special offer or something.

Cheers for the advice all :D

Cheers for the advice all

open office is a smaller file size and i replaced my microsoft office with it it has everything you need and is as good if not better than microsoft office and better its free for stuff go to http://download.cnet.com/windows/ you get freeware with reviews and they are virus free save the cash

Hi, I have been building,diagnosing and repairing systems for the past 15 years now.

If the offer they are making of Ultimate is the full office suite then it is definitely worth having, you must try to find out what you are getting for your money as some offers made are somtimes reduced in the way of content (i.e. only word, publisher and front page are included) so therefore you may have to pay more for other modules to make it the full deal, having said that, In my expirience ACER are a good reliable machine.

Have fun