theirs a Catch ? right?

pay $59.95 now

and owe MS your soul later
lol

no really theres a catch right ?

The catch is that this is a trial offer only. From the site:

Program Description:
Eligible students may have free access to Microsoft® Office Ultimate 2007 Trial for a limited amount of time. Each trial provides (1) 25 application launches (each launch of an individual Office Ultimate application is counted as one launch) before the software goes into reduced functionality mode (at which time your software behaves similarly to a viewer, you cannot save modifications to documents or create any new documents, and additional functionality might be reduced); and (2) the opportunity to purchase the following perpetual license for the Microsoft® Office Ultimate 2007 software:

1.
Microsoft® Office Ultimate 2007 (USD$59.95): Perpetual license, which includes the following applications:

• Access™ 2007

• Accounting Express 2007

• Excel® 2007

• InfoPath® 2007

• Groove 2007

• OneNote® 2007

• Outlook® 2007 with Business Contact Manager*(see Obtaining Software below)

• PowerPoint® 2007

• Publisher 2007

• Word 2007



Trial Conversion:
Eligible students can convert their Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007 Trial to the perpetual license by returning to Promotion website prior to the Promotion deadline and purchasing the relevant product key.

Purchase Limitations: Each eligible student is limited to one purchase per valid e-mail address and billing address.

Obtaining Software:
Eligible students can obtain the Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007 software by downloading or ordering a disk from the official Promotion web site
*Business Contact Manager requires a separate download. If ordering a disk Business Contact Manager is included on a separate disk.

Obtaining Product Keys:
Product keys will be provided on the purchase confirmation page and sent to the student's eligible educational institution email address entered into the Promotion web site during the purchase process.

Promoter:
The promoter of this program is Microsoft Corporation, One Microsoft Way, Redmond, WA 98052.

Microsoft reserves the right to terminate this promotion at anytime.

There's no catch. In fact, this is actually a higher price for most college students on campuses with a Microsoft Purchasing Agreement. It's only $50 here and tax is included.

But it clearly states this is a trial offer. After 25 uses, it gets locked down and you have to purchase the product key. So after paying 60 bucks, you'll have to shell out some more money. Granted...it's probably cheaper than a regular consumer will pay. But the marketing grab line is what get's you.

I'd just rather stay with Open Office 2.2 which is, free, stable, equivalent, and oh yeah, did I mention free?


Get Micro$oft out of your wallet, go open source!   

I like what Stupendous Man said, but (you know there is always a but) could anyone put together programs from open source that would match up with those offered in the Microsoft Office package as messiah1 shows us in reply #2.  

Come on everyone take your shot, give it a try. Who knows we may even come up with a list that's equal to or better than what MS offers. It could be very interesting.   

I would think Open Office would be the list, what else?

Messiah, you are only half right.

You can download the trial version of Office Ultimate for a limited 25 use term.

After that, if you wish to keep it, and you are eligible for the student discount, you pay 59.95 for the perpetual license that fully activates the product.

If you don't, then you're up the creek without a paddle....cuz Ultimate is NOT worth $700.00.

The product key is what costs $60 (not the download of the trial software -- Anyone can download the trial software for free, right now).

By the way, OneNote is incredibly useful. I got Office for free at a conference, but it was the business edition that didn't include OneNote. After trying out OneNote for 30 days (via the trial software on the web site), I shelled out the big bucks to get it.

It's terrific that it's actually part of the package for students. They'll get tremendous use out of it.

Trial Software is in fact - T R I A L S O F T W A R E . There will be limitations to either time/times of use, or functionality. That simple. MS isn't going to give out software no strings attached, whether you're a college student or not. Pay now or pay later, it's all the same. You'll pay $50 now, and in 2 months there'll be a function you need to use; and WHAMO! - "I'm sorry, that function is not available for PLUS. You must purchase ULTIMATE to gain that function... Oh, and your PLUS will expire in 30 days. Have a nice day!"

/wrists

I Received my copy about two weeks ago for 70 dollars. Also, I got a copy of Window XP Professional and Window XP 64 bundle for $25.00 from the school.

Yep I'm backing cavalierex on that one.

I've just discovered One Note myself and its bloody marvellous, the best Microsoft have done in an age. In 2007 it can search image file text which is a big boost. The whole 2007 set is a good improvement on past efforts.

Just a shame they made such a dogs-dinner of the new interface, I mean I like the ribbon but its implementation is a bit patchy and didn't make it to One Note at all.

Reading what's outlined in #2, the 'trial' aspect is the launch limitation of 25.  Then the proggy becomes read-only.

It is free to access....but if the student wants to continue using it he pays the $59 and the 'key' is sent to his school addy where he can retrieve it....ensuring it's for a student, and not simply someone trying to rort the system.

Read what you want into it.....presume Microsoft is evil incarnate if you really must....but maybe think back to reading comprehension classes [or look forward to them].....

I got my Office 2007 Pro at a seminar completely free with Groove NO trail
but it only has

Microsoft Office Access 2007
Microsoft Office Excel 2007
Microsoft Office Outlook 2007
with Business Contact Manager
Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007
Microsoft Office Word 2007
Microsoft Office Publisher 2007
Microsoft Office Accounting Express 2007

but it wasn't Ultimate

and I didn't have to sell my soul

does office 2007 come with front page?