<p>Office 365 for students offers a good value, but Microsoft must get its act together.</p><p>A month or so ago, I condemned Microsoft's Office 2013 cloud subscription model because the company is not Adobe, which can bundle all sorts of expensive products into one irresistible deal. My argument was there was no real value added with the Office Suite.</p><p>Now, I must admit that I was hasty with my analysis. I should not have looked beyond the simple aspect of pricing. Microsoft has actually managed to copy Adobe and make the offering a good deal. In fact, if you need to stay modern, the regular subscription pricing, maximized by the ability to use the programs on multiple machines, is not a bad deal at $20 per machine for five machines per year. Unless, of course, Microsoft never upgrades the product, ever. ZDNet columnist Ellen Yu expresses this fear in an article titled, "Office 365 subscription price needs relook."</p><p>More interesting is today's news that Microsoft is offering students six months of Office 365 for free. Office 365 University bundles all of the latest Office applications, plus 20GB of SkyDrive storage and 60 minutes of Skype calls each month, for $79.99 and makes them available on up to two PCs or Macs.</p><p><a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2416468,00.asp">Keep reading...</a></p><p>Read also:</p><p><a href="http://techcrunch.com/2013/03/11/microsoft-wants-students-to-give-office-365-a-try-gives-them-up-to-6-free-months-of-office-365-20gb-of-extra-skydrive-storage/">Microsoft Wants Students To Give Office A Try, Gives Them Up To 6 Free Months ...</a> (TechCrunch)</p><p><a href="http://www.redorbit.com/news/technology/1112800763/microsoft-office-365-skydrive-free-students-031113/">Students Get Microsoft Office 365 and SkyDrive Free For 90 Days</a> (RedOrbit)</p><p><a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyclay/2013/03/11/microsoft-offers-office-365-to-students-for-free/">Microsoft Offers Office 365 To Students For Free</a> (Forbes)</p><p>Explore: <a href="http://news.google.com/news/more?ncl=dpkJhGdPA5vPy6MBFcAZFj1tEHoBM&ned=us">36 additional articles.</a></p>