Free access to Microsoft Office for SA School Learners?

[RVQ]

Anyone heard of the below? Is it legit?

Microsoft South Africa and 2enable are partnering up to offer all South African school learners (ages 8+) free access to Microsoft Office across all your devices as well as 1TB of OneDrive.

http://www.mahala.ms/

 

[sajunky]

Something very new. Domain created in February this year.
https://www.whois.com/whois/mahala.ms

Domain Name: mahala.ms
Domain ID: 470598-CoCCA
WHOIS Server: whois.nic.ms
Referral URL:
Updated Date: 2017-02-06T13:15:08.16Z
Creation Date: 2017-02-06T13:14:49.347Z
Registry Expiry Date: 2018-02-06T13:14:49.410Z
Sponsoring Registrar: Key-Systems
Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited
Registrant ID: 470594-CoCCA
Registrant Name: Ariel Dlamini
Registrant Organization: Intervate Solutions
Registrant Street: T-Systems South Africa (Pty) Ltd, International Business Gateway, New Road
Registrant City: Midrand

 

[bchip]

If your looking for a free Office why not use WPS?

http://www.techradar.com/reviews/wps-office-free


http://www.techradar.com/news/the-best-free-office-software

 

[raind33r]

It's just a front end to -> https://products.office.com/en-GB/student/office-in-education?tab=schools&ms.officeurl=education
That's where their FAQ redirects.

Office 365 Education.
You'll need Internet access.

 

[mister]

It's just a front end to -> https://products.office.com/en-GB/student/office-in-education?tab=schools&ms.officeurl=education
That's where their FAQ redirects.

Office 365 Education.
You'll need Internet access.

for the initial download, but office 365 works offline?

 

[raind33r]

I Don't use it, so don't know.

 

[GreenAvitus]

100% legit. Just saw a post on FB from a friend who works at MSFT about it

 

[mister]

I Don't use it, so don't know.

Correction: it works offline but needs to contact the server every 30 days to check the licence

 

[Jaco.Benade]

Yes it is.

Any school kid (or parent) can visit https://mahala.ms/ and sign up.
Extract from the site:

About Mahala

Microsoft South Africa and 2enable are partnering up to offer all South African school learners (ages 8+) free access to Microsoft Office across all your devices as well as 1TB of OneDrive.

 

[backstreetboy]

If your looking for a free Office why not use WPS?

http://www.techradar.com/reviews/wps-office-free


http://www.techradar.com/news/the-best-free-office-software

Or Google Docs...

 

[backstreetboy]

Do you need an edu email addy for this?

 

[DearHeart]

Do you need an edu email addy for this?

Yip, educational organisations need to register their domain.

 

[DearHeart]

Correction: it works offline but needs to contact the server every 30 days to check the licence

Hang on, where did you get the info? According to the website you only get the online versions of Office, the same as what anyone can get with a MS account. Then there seems to be some educational add-ons available, and 1TB - 5TB OneDrive storage. So, online only isn't it?

PS Except if you get the E5 subscription.

 

[mister]

Hang on, where did you get the info? According to the website you only get the online versions of Office, the same as what anyone can get with a MS account. Then there seems to be some educational add-ons available, and 1TB - 5TB OneDrive storage. So, online only isn't it?

PS Except if you get the E5 subscription.

Well the link says the following:

Get Office 365 for free

It's not a trial! Students and teachers are eligible for Office 365 Education, which includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote, plus additional classroom tools.

And I have Office 365. You run an installer that downloads it to your PC and it works the same way as normal office does, except that it needs to connect once a month to check the license.

 

[DearHeart]

@mister: I get what you are saying, but if you look at the MS site you can see that the free plan only includes the online versions of Office.

 

[mister]

@mister: I get what you are saying, but if you look at the MS site you can see that the free plan only includes the online versions of Office.

Looks like you are correct... I didn't read the whole page - sorry

 

[PingboyZA]

Good Morning all, this is Damian from Microsoft the project owner of Mahala.MS. I can confirm for you that this is completely and 100% legit, we are simplifying the process to ensure that all students have access to the tools that they need. Also just one correction, not only do you get Word, Excel, PowerPoint through the web browser but we have also included the offline version of Office, for PC's and Mac's tablets and phones. So this means YES you can download and install Office, and yes every 30 days it will check the Mahala.MS Office 365 tenant to make sure the license is still valid. Hope this helps to clarify. Thank you for the feedback we will be updating some of the FAQs to clarify this, also one last note, you can sign up for the service with your personal email address, no need for the EDU domain.

 

[DearHeart]

Welcome to the board Damian, and thanks for the explanation. Just to clarify, when I go the current FAQ page, it states the following:

The service includes Office Online (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and OneNote), unlimited OneDrive storage , Yammer, and SharePoint sites. Some schools allow teachers and students to install the full Office applications on up to 5 PCs or Macs for free. If your school provides this additional benefit, you'll see the Install Office button on your Office 365 home page after you complete sign-up.

The info states that the full installs are for "some schools". Now, since you state that the applicants email address is not tied to an institution, and secondly all applicants then receive the offline versions, does this mean that a special allowance has been made to SA institutions?

 

[PingboyZA]

Welcome to the board Damian, and thanks for the explanation. Just to clarify, when I go the current FAQ page, it states the following:



The info states that the full installs are for "some schools". Now, since you state that the applicants email address is not tied to an institution, and secondly all applicants then receive the offline versions, does this mean that a special allowance has been made to SA institutions?

Good Afternoon, yes that is correct. We are also busy updating the FAQ to speak directly to the Mahala.MS platform instead of the generic Office 365 for Education FAQ. If anyone has any questions please feel free to reach out to me directly on here and i will revert as soon as possible.