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16 Sep 2025 - by 'Maurits van der Schee'
Windows 11 has poor privacy and features like Recall show how bad things have gotten. Microsoft Office is pushing OneDrive a little too hard and has poor compatibility between different Office versions. This would drive people to Linux and LibreOffice if it weren't for the ridiculous low prices of Microsoft's digital licenses. This is what I am talking about:
Source: On Allkeyshop.com you can search the product and find a discount code. Then, on Wincdkey.com you can buy the license with the discount code.
There are lots of discussions online on whether or not these licenses are valid/legal, but all I know is that Microsoft is winning because of them. If these weren't available, then looking for a free alternative would be much more important. And the free alternatives are so much better!
You can check whether or not you have a Digital License in Windows in the Activation Settings. Look under Activation State and if it says "Windows is activated with a digital license", you have a digital entitlement. A digital license can either be bound to the hardware or to a Microsoft account. If it is bound to a Microsoft account it says "Windows is activated with a digital license linked to your Microsoft account". Even when it is not bound to a Microsoft account it is bound to the hardware should automatically re-activate the license after you clean install the same edition and choose "I don't have a product key".
Recently Linux Mint 22.2 has been released and it is a very polished experience. It comes with LibreOffice and Firefox and has everything you need in an operating system. It is secure and easy to use and best of all: it respects your privacy. If you are appalled by the Windows 11 privacy policies then you could give this a try:
Download: https://www.linuxmint.com/
LibreOffice is a free Office suit with Word, Excel and Powerpoint compatibility. It is available for Windows, Mac and Linux. For most users it has a better user experience than Microsoft Office as it is does not have ribbons in the UI and has great compatibility with all versions of Microsoft Office. Oh.. and did I mention it was free?
Download: https://www.libreoffice.org/
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