I remember when I bought my last copy of Office in 2007. It was an upgrade, naturally, because it's always been an upgrade. I remember I first bought Office sometime before Bill Clinton was president. After that, every three to five years, when Microsoft revved the product, I'd pull out my wallet and pay Redmond for the new shiny bits.
At least until about eight years ago. That was when Microsoft turned Office into a subscription service. I've been making regular payments on Office 365 ever since. Apparently, I'm not the only one. In July 2017, Microsoft announced[1] that revenues for Office 365 beat out that of traditional Office licenses. Then, in October, the company predicted[2] it will have two thirds of all Office users in the cloud by this coming summer.
Also: What is Microsoft 365? Microsoft's most important subscription bundle, explained[3]
But what if you don't want to be part of the cha-ching[4] flow that keeps Clippy in caffeine? Sure, you could look to one of the excellent Office alternative distributions, like LibreOffice[5]. But what if you want to use real Office, but for free?
As it turns out, there are a few legitimate ways to use Office 365 without paying for it. Not all solutions apply to everyone, but for some of you, the following words may get you to the point where you can excel.
1. Free, online Office apps
If you're willing to use slightly feature-limited online versions of the venerable Office applications, you can. Just open your browser and point it to this link[6].
As you might imagine, this free offering is Microsoft's direct