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James17

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Dec 13, 2007
361
0
As a 16 year old at school, I was a bit hesitant in paying £90 for Office 2008 Student Edition for Mac as it had been receiving a lot of bad reviews and I don't like asking my parents to buy everything. I came across a UK website called "Software4Students" who are in a partnership with Microsoft to give the students of participating schools, colleges and universities in the UK discounted software. I purchased Office 2008 from them for £35 ($68)- Microsoft sends the disc and serial out themselves without the boxing and manual but who needs that? I had prompt delivery and within minutes I had it installed then the SP1 Update which went well for me because my serial was obviously genuine. I have noticed speed improvements from 12.0.1 and now 12.1. I recommend this website for any student who is interested in buying software for school or whatever at affordable prices.

James
 
Software4Students UK

Hi James

I came across your post and just wanted to say thanks for your feedback and for spreading the word.

The most common question we get is "is this for real?" which is understandable when it's this cheap so we point out that we're a Microsoft Partner linked from their site (see: http://www.microsoft.com/uk/education/buy/pro-default.mspx).

Retail prices are expensive by comparison so any student or family members can save money if they buy through us.

I don't have time to answer posts usually (we're a small company catering for students, charities, voluntary groups, etc) so anyone who has a question is best advised to contact us via our Software4Students site.

thanks
geekspeak
 
Hi All,

That is great... a cheeky question... is there any price reduction for Staff (Lecturers and teachers)??

I lecture at Manchester Met. Univ.... and am the only MAC user in my Department - so my IT people don't provide MAC software under the site licencing agreement

Thanks.
 
Hi All,

That is great... a cheeky question... is there any price reduction for Staff (Lecturers and teachers)??

I lecture at Manchester Met. Univ.... and am the only MAC user in my Department - so my IT people don't provide MAC software under the site licencing agreement

Thanks.

Yes it applies to students and teachers.

Well it should do anyway
 
I just had a look, and while I was suspicious, it does seem legit.

Here's the Microsoft official link:

http://www.microsoft.com/uk/education/buy/pro-default.mspx

Geekspeak

You say it is also for charities and voluntary groups. I work for a theatre charity who would be interested in buying through you. I couldn't see anything on your website about charities or voluntary groups.

The only relevant item was:

Who can buy software at Software4Students?

This site is for students and their parents and is intended to supply low-cost software for home use. The licensee of the products is required to be a University, College or School student in the UK.

Could you clarify please?

Can I just add - it's really nice to see the owner/staff of a business appearing here to answer (some) questions. Thanks.
 
one license to rule them all...

Hi again

as a 3rd party company we deal with Microsoft's various discount licenses.

If you're a student in the UK we process your order through Software4Students. Teachers with children should use this option.

Otherwise if you represent a school / disadvantaged school / charity / voluntary group then you are entitled to a different discount and we process that through a different part of the company (email: support@software4students.co.uk).

The website for non-student organisations that are entitled to a discount isn't live yet but we can still process the orders no problem.

Ideally we'd process all discounts through the same part of the company but Microsoft allocate different licenses for students / groups / NHS staff etc.

I've been working here for a few months now and the various licenses still confuse me sometimes! The education sector alone uses more than one.

If anyone has any further Qs please email the address above and mark them FAO: Paul @ S4S Customer Service. He'll take care of you.
 
Postgrad students are classed simply as students - so the Software4Students site will be fine for you.

We have a huge academic database so your University or college should be listed in there. We update it every day and for some reason it tends to be institutions in Wales that we're currently editing the most - so apologies in advance if you're Welsh and can't find your school, etc. We're working on it!
 
Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate Upgrade

32-bit or 64-bit?

I've just ordered Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate Upgrade, was under the impression that Ultimate was 64-bit. Am I wrong?

Cheers,
Matt
 
You would think it could be either but Microsoft currently only license the 32-bit version to students.

We've highlighted the '32-bit' on the product page but we can make it clearer if needed. If you email support ASAP they may be able to change the order for you prior to being posted out.

I'm more of a Mac Pro / Final Cut Studio 2 kinda person myself. Vista is good for office work and gaming though.

64-bit Vista Ultimate is only really needed if you need to run apps that require more than 2 GB of RAM.
 
You would think it could be either but Microsoft currently only license the 32-bit version to students.

We've highlighted the '32-bit' on the product page but we can make it clearer if needed. If you email support ASAP they may be able to change the order for you prior to being posted out.

Hi,
I've emailed them, thanks.

No it's no problem about clarity - it was perfectly clear I just had it in my head that Ultimate was 64-bit, and assumed it was a typo. My mistake!

I've also got a Mac Pro, on which I want to Bootcamp this. Wanted 64-bit because I've read Crysis runs 15-18% faster (I posted links in another thread somewhere). Either-way, I spend 99% of my time in OS X so I don't think any lives will be lost.

AppleMatt
 
I haven't bought anything from RM but I'm sure they're equally reputable.

Microsoft are clever enough to have more than one reseller for the whole of the UK. As always it's up to the customer to choose who they buy with.

That's why we aim to have the most comprehensive and updated daily educational database available.

People don't care who they buy from as long as they get the best deal possible, so after price it really comes down to customer service / delivery times / etc.

When my Mac Pro ran into trouble the Apple support team were really helpful, you don't forget things like that.
 
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