Not selling very well? :)

Rubbish promo. 2 months subscription? Seriously?
I can't stop thinking the only point of this is for geeks to benchmark they'll "productivity" PCs.

Also, I kind of hoped for Bethesda bundles, not Square Enix. Again, why this studio? Because some of their games work better with AMD gear?

notbNot selling very well? :)

Rubbish promo. 2 months subscription? Seriously?
I can't stop thinking the only point of this is for geeks to benchmark they'll "productivity" PCs.

Also, I kind of hoped for Bethesda bundles, not Square Enix. Again, why this studio? Because some of their games work better with AMD gear?

So when NVidia is giving game promotions it means it is not selling very well. LOL, what a conclusion. They have a contract with Bethesda, but Square Enix not only released Hitman or Deus Ex (which run better on Radeons), but also Rise of the TR which runs better or NV or Final Fantasy XV which is a GameWorks title.

Selling users into new subscriptions is the new(ish) trend for sales. That's all.

bugSelling users into new subscriptions is the new(ish) trend for sales. That's all.

Just as all OEM computers in my country come with "free" M$ Office and anti virus....Just free for the first 6 months to maximum a year that is...:shadedshu:

No thanks....

P4-630Just as all OEM computers in my country come with "free" M$ Office and anti virus....Just free for the first 6 months to maximum a year that is...:shadedshu:

No thanks....

Eh, just the other day my GSM provider tried to sell me (again) an additional data plan. So you see, this more widespread than just computers.

There's also smartphones coming with "free" Dropbox/OneDrive storage and crap.

bugEh, just the other day my GSM provider tried to sell me (again) an additional data plan. So you see, this more widespread than just computers.

There's also smartphones coming with "free" Dropbox/OneDrive storage and crap.

Yeah, I hate that.

shows who the real target market is.

Strange seeing a poll added. I voted' no' but that is because like many other things it's just standard PR (which tech sites must post to stay relevant).

P4-630Just as all OEM computers in my country come with "free" M$ Office and anti virus....Just free for the first 6 months to maximum a year that is...:shadedshu:

No thanks....

Office 365 can be a decent deal actually. Real Excel and Word (LibreOffice calc is awful) and Outlook (which always was part of a more expensive Office suite) across five devices and 1TB Onedrive storage for €90ish a year. That's less than WoW. And getting six months for free is never a bad thing.

SAAS is here to stay, and it's not all bad IMO. Have fun setting up your servers so you have data parity across a bunch of different devices and have the same software on all of them to boot.

FrickOffice 365 can be a decent deal actually. Real Excel and Word (LibreOffice calc is awful) and Outlook (which always was part of a more expensive Office suite) across five devices and 1TB Onedrive storage for €90ish a year. That's less than WoW. And getting six months for free is never a bad thing.

SAAS is here to stay, and it's not all bad IMO. Have fun setting up your servers so you have data parity across a bunch of different devices and have the same software on all of them to boot.

It can be a decent deal, but for very few people. I haven't had the need to open Microsoft Office in over 5 years. Everything I need I can do in Google Docs. So for me, the deal is €450 more in my pocket.

Both poll options are 'no.' Is that on purpose?

the54thvoidStrange seeing a poll added.

mharbingerBoth poll options

What POLL LOL!!!!?

Loaded die :D

B-RealSo when NVidia is giving game promotions it means it is not selling very well.

Both companies are giving game bundles, I find this OK (although AMD seems to give a lot more this time).
I'm way more interested in the Adobe part. Sometimes camera manufacturers bundle Adobe software (or a different paid one), but that's either a lifetime license or a fairly useful 12-month subscription.
2 or 3 months is good for what? You'll suddenly decide you want to be a photographer?
On the other hand, it seems pretty pointless for Adobe, so this only leaves an option that AMD wanted this to happen.

They have a contract with Bethesda, but Square Enix not only released Hitman or Deus Ex (which run better on Radeons), but also Rise of the TR which runs better or NV or Final Fantasy XV which is a GameWorks title.

Actually RoTR seems better on AMD according to tests that I've seen.
Check RX580 vs 1060 vs 980Ti here:
www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/RX_580_Nitro_Plus/21.html
(average scores: www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/RX_580_Nitro_Plus/30.html)
But sure, it's not as obvious as with Hitman.

bugIt can be a decent deal, but for very few people. I haven't had the need to open Microsoft Office in over 5 years. Everything I need I can do in Google Docs. So for me, the deal is €450 more in my pocket.

Very few?
Basically all students will find it useful (if not essential). Then we have that "very few people" who use MS Office at work and might want to have it at home as well - we're talking hundreds of millions worldwide (possibly more than 10% of population in developed countries)...

And as it was already pointed out: even if you don't need any of Office's applications, it's still possibly the cheapest cloud storage.
In Europe a 5-user license costs €100 yearly. Of course you can use few of them yourself. Each one comes with 1TB storage.
So I've just checked Dropbox and a single 1TB account costs... €99. :-D

notbVery few?
Basically all students will find it useful (if not essential). Then we have that "very few people" who use MS Office at work and might want to have it at home as well - we're talking hundreds of millions worldwide (possibly more than 10% of population in developed countries)...

And as it was already pointed out: even if you don't need any of Office's applications, it's still possibly the cheapest cloud storage.
In Europe a 5-user license costs €100 yearly. Of course you can use few of them yourself. Each one comes with 1TB storage.
So I've just checked Dropbox and a single 1TB account costs... €99. :-D

I went through college without Office just fine. I used it for my diploma paper, but only because OpenOffice really sucked back then. As for you counting people that "might want to have it at home as well" into those millions... I'll pretend I didn't see that.
Office is a nice piece of software for... office use. For home use, you really don't need 90% of the functionality it offers while alternatives become increasingly more attractive.

bugI went through college without Office just fine.

Maybe you simply studied something that didn't need it?
People doing all kind of economic / financial / business courses are using Excel, because that's the main tool in the industry. It can't be replaced by anything else (not just because everything else really sucks).

I also haven't used MS Office during my studies (I've used LaTeX for the thesis, obviously :-D), but I did use it at home. Today I use even more and for all kinds of things - from research to planning shopping.

As for you counting people that "might want to have it at home as well" into those millions... I'll pretend I didn't see that.

What's wrong with that? You've never wanted to finish something from work? Or improve your skills in the tool you're working with? Or you're just so used to the tool you're looking at for those 8+ hours a day, that learning something else seems pointless?
If I was a programmer, I would use the same IDE that I use at work. If I was a data scientist or database admin, I would use the same database. If I was a cook, I'd use the same pans. Why make things harder?

Office is a nice piece of software for... office use. For home use, you really don't need 90% of the functionality it offers while alternatives become increasingly more attractive.

I find the "90%" argument pretty bonkers. How much potential of your PC do you use most of the time? E.g. during writing posts on TPU?
We don't buy computers and software for what we need most of the time. We buy them for the potential they offer => for the things that they make possible.

And of course it all depends on what you use it at home for.
Excel is simply the only spreadsheet that works. "Alternatives" are so lame and slow that they're really only good for simple and tiny calculations. I couldn't have used anything else for my home stuff.
Other applications in the package are more or less replaceable, but still: if you're used to their interfaces from work (I use Word and PP for around 1h/day each, on average), why learn anything else? And of course MS Office apps are quite well integrated - something that really can't be said about free alternatives...

Sure, Office is a paid option, but it's money you spend also on not having to learn anything else. :-)

notbMaybe you simply studied something that didn't need it?
People doing all kind of economic / financial / business courses are using Excel, because that's the main tool in the industry. It can't be replaced by anything else (not just because everything else really sucks).

I also haven't used MS Office during my studies (I've used LaTeX for the thesis, obviously :-D), but I did use it at home. Today I use even more and for all kinds of things - from research to planning shopping.

So you went from "Basically all students will find it useful (if not essential)" to some students absolutely need Excel. I guess you're starting to see my point of view.

notbWhat's wrong with that? You've never wanted to finish something from work? Or improve your skills in the tool you're working with? Or you're just so used to the tool you're looking at for those 8+ hours a day, that learning something else seems pointless?
If I was a programmer, I would use the same IDE that I use at work. If I was a data scientist or database admin, I would use the same database. If I was a cook, I'd use the same pans. Why make things harder?

If it's work related, my employer should pay for the licence. Totally unrelated topic.
I agree with you on the IDE argument. Unfortunately my employers always go for free IDEs (productivity be damned), so I don't need to pay for an IDE to improve my skills.

notbI find the "90%" argument pretty bonkers. How much potential of your PC do you use most of the time? E.g. during writing posts on TPU?
We don't buy computers and software for what we need most of the time. We buy them for the potential they offer => for the things that they make possible.

Most people don't buy Office for its potential, because they don't even know what potential is there. Try to ask people to see how many know to generate ToC in Word (maybe 50%) or know how to define a style (less than 10%). And these are some of the more useful features.

notbAnd of course it all depends on what you use it at home for.
Excel is simply the only spreadsheet that works. "Alternatives" are so lame and slow that they're really only good for simple and tiny calculations. I couldn't have used anything else for my home stuff.
Other applications in the package are more or less replaceable, but still: if you're used to their interfaces from work (I use Word and PP for around 1h/day each, on average), why learn anything else? And of course MS Office apps are quite well integrated - something that really can't be said about free alternatives...

Sure, Office is a paid option, but it's money you spend also on not having to learn anything else. :)

And again your argument hinges on people needing to do advanced stuff in Excel.

bugAnd again your argument hinges on people needing to do advanced stuff in Excel.

The only thing I do is simple tables (fof various stuff in Aurora), and already Excel is so much nicer to use. Whenever I sit with Libreoffice (which I even do at home right now) I miss Excel. Just making lines around things is annoying in Libre.

FrickThe only thing I do is simple tables (fof various stuff in Aurora), and already Excel is so much nicer to use. Whenever I sit with Libreoffice (which I even do at home right now) I miss Excel. Just making lines around things is annoying in Libre.

I don't know about Libre, I seldom open that. Google Docs has been my go to solution for a while now. And again, because I don't need fancy stuff, if that were the case, it probably wouldn't cut it.

bugSo you went from "Basically all students will find it useful (if not essential)" to some students absolutely need Excel. I guess you're starting to see my point of view.

Nope. All students will find it useful in a way: Word is great for essays or reports, Excel is great for all math-related stuff and PP is great for presentations. And every once in a while a student has to do a presentation for a seminar or something.
Sure, you don't need MS Office for those things, but they're the most polished and easiest to use variants. This becomes even more important if you're not very experienced and you just want a tool to do the job.

If it's work related, my employer should pay for the licence. Totally unrelated topic.

If you're required to work at home, he should provide the tools. But if you just want to finish something (which is not legal on a home license - BTW) or train, he won't. And honestly, it's very unlikely that you'd be given time during working hours to just practice your Excel skills or something.

I agree with you on the IDE argument. Unfortunately my employers always go for free IDEs (productivity be damned), so I don't need to pay for an IDE to improve my skills.

So maybe you just underestimate the importance of MS Office? I knew switching to something "more serious" will do the job. :-P

And again your argument hinges on people needing to do advanced stuff in Excel.

Define "advanced".
Yes, some people (even doing typical financial jobs at banks and insurers) use Excel just for data input and simple algebraic operations. Even something as basic as vlookup makes them confused.
But in time every person will get to know something useful - mostly thanks to how easy to use Excel is.
Example? It's quite easy to teach someone using pivots. And it is easy, because of how really well they're implemented in Excel. Other suites (both paid and free) are nowhere near. Current LibreOffice implementation reminds me of Excel 97.
But I've just checked Google Sheets and pivots there are easily the worst I've seen, ever. Even the first implementations (by Lotus in early 90s) were better. It's just like if pivot was some experimental feature: hidden deeply in the menu and unneeded. Totally shocking. :o

But it's not even the "advanced" analytical stuff that is easier or more powerful in Excel. As @Frick pointed out: it's also the basic stuff like formatting tables.
I've been using Excel for around 20 years and I've experienced the evolution that they invested in to make this the most comfortable spreadsheet available. And you can really see that most of the features are beautifully polished.
But occasionally I have to use a free alternative and the simple fact is: they don't change at all. They all look and feel (and perform...) like Excel did when phone display resolution was measured in lines of text.
I guess you might be more of a gamer than a number cruncher, so how would you feel if a game released in 2017 look like that from 2000? It's not like old games aren't playable or fun, but it's not what you'd expect, right?