The Home User Program was an initiative between the NHS and Microsoft that enabled NHS employees to obtain Microsoft Office software. The user was required to prove that they worked for the NHS (usually provide an NHS email address) and then pay a sum to cover administrative and distribution costs , after which they would receive a copy of the latest Office Suite for use at home. The user did not buy the software. The user received a licence to install it on a computer at home. One of the rules was that when they left the employment of the NHS, they had to uninstall it.
In June 2010, the agreement was not renewed (details on e-health-insider.com ) and subsequent to that, people who took advantage of the HUP arrangement are required to uninstall the software. Details are on the Microsoft web site.
Alternatives to Microsoft Office
For windows
alternatives to Word,Excel and Powerpoint
- Open Office ( Opensource and therefore free) Word processor ('Word'), Spreadsheet ('Excel') and presentation ('Powerpoint') software, plus database, drawing, and formula applications.
- Lotus Symphony ( Opensource and therefore free) Word processor ('Word'), Spreadsheet ('Excel') and presentation ('Powerpoint') software only.
Both these programs will read documents written initially using MS Office, and will save in MS Office format (as .doc, .xls , and .ppt) as well as a variety of other file formats. OO has the useful ability to save documents in the .pdf format.
alternatives to Outlook for email
if you use outlook at home , and collect mail from your ISP using POP or IMAP there are several choices
- thunderbird , from the same people who do the Firefox web browser.
- Evolution , originally part of the linux/gnome desktop now has a windows installer. it is probably the most 'Outlook-like' package around.
For Mac
- Open Office produces a version of its office software for Mac OSX. It has the same functionality as the Windows version. Updates of OpenOffice are synchronised across all the supported operating systems - Windows, Mac, Linux, and Solaris. OO is released under the LGPL licence, and is primarily financed by Oracle with contributions from IBM, Novell, and others. It is free to users.
- NeoOffice uses the OpenOffice code to produce a suite of office software specifically for Mac OSX. It is released under the GNU General Public License (sic) and is virtually identical to OpenOffice in use, although this author believes it really does open files more quickly (as claimed), and certainly does not have the annoying bug that plagues OO's spreadsheet on his MacBook Pro. NeoOffice is supported financially by voluntary donations from users. Donors get some (non-essential) functionality not available to those who choose not to make a donation. One of the obvious advantages of NeoOffice is the way it highlights text in the standard OSX manner; OO does not do this. On the other hand NeoOffice does not support 'Universal Access', the functions that facilitate computer use by those with impaired hearing or vision.
- Lotus Symphony is also available, free, for Mac OSX.
There is more information about OpenOffice, NeoOffice, and Lotus Symphony on their respective web sites whence the software may be downloaded. The downloads are 160 to 180MB. As always, it is important to ensure that your system meets the specification required by the software package.