Does anyone know what the licensing requirements are for Microsoft Office Online Server ?
So far all that I found is that you can download it, install it and run it free of charge but that canāt be right (?). Thereās no fee at all for using this product in a commercial setting ?
Perhaps this is the correct answer. Please read also the following posts in the thread.
Sorry i do not use Microsoft Office.
you sure that youāre on the right forum? As your question has absolutely nothing to do with Nextcloud - the forum where you are just posting.
Maybe you want to ask this question in any of the several microsoft-forums worldwide or directly at a ms-stuff-vendor?
@JimmyKater @gtech1
I think if Nextcloud program an interface to a commercial software it would be nice to find a hint or link to the needed license on the website from Nextcloud.
no. absoultely not.
NC delivers a tool for ppl with an existing MS Office Online-Server licence to be able to connect to NC.
By all other means NC and itās concept is the complete opposite of what MS and their concepts stand for. So noā¦ any further information is needed about how to get your own copy of some MS/BS-code
Yes. But it it think it is only a link to a Microsoft Website.
Yes and no. Have you seen the Nextcloud Conference and the talks from Frank to free and commercial software?
nope - what was the point there?
I would be really suprised to find any difference to what I was saying above.
Microsoft Office 365 vs. Nextcloud. Functions in Nextcloud to use OneDrive, Sharepoint, Online Office. (only few minutes, link start at correct position):
OK, thanks for sharing this part of the conferenceā¦
But why?
Frank exactly says what I was saying. They donāt encourage ppl to buy a licence but sometimes someone needs to collaborate with ppl who are forced to use existing MS-licencesā¦ (because of their evironment which was installed by their company or whatever).
Frank repeatedly strongly recommended using Open Source software and thus Nextcloud. Because they are competitors on the same market.
What was your summary of the things he said?
Summary is that Nextcloud does not really like it but support it. A hint to license of O365 would be nice.
@devnull ummm. noā¦ they donāt really support MS-products. They just adopt to reality where MS-products are used very often. And thus they connect to MS-products.
No hint to any licence necessary. Itās none of NCās interest. Why should ppl spend money on something they donāt really need? try to see it from NCās side.
Iām sorry if this was not the right forum. I just thought that other people that implemented this feature could give me an insight into how the licensing went.
The MS License page for Office, available at this page says:
> External users donāt need an Office suite license to view or edit Office documents on an Internet browser. Primary users of an Office licensed device with active Software Assurance may also access Office Online*** service to view and edit Office documents**
**> **
**> External users are those users that are neither your or your affiliatesā employees, nor your or your affiliatesā on-site contractors or on-site agents.
MS Office Online Server canāt be licensed separately, itās part of a VL (volume license) agreement
Thatās the official line. The unofficial is a bit different but not a topic for this forumā¦
I have access to VLSC but we donāt have a KMS server nor another Office instance, etc. I was able to download the software but I just want to make sure Iām not breaking any laws here.
It seems I am just able to fire it up and use it but I donāt want to leave this to chance.
I was hoping that other users of NC could shed some light on how they got it connected, from a license point of view
If you have access to it (can download), can install and make it work without āworkaroundsā - you are entitled to have and use itā¦
And the document you linked to above proves there are no CALs for OOSā¦
Thatās what I understand as well, Iāll try and reach out to them again as well and find out. It just seems too good to be true ( aka, un-Microsoft like 
Not to mention that there could be a difference between free-to-use ( view & edit ) vs free-to-profit-from which might still be restricted somehow
I donāt think Microsoft stopped being evil, they just acquired designer sheep clothingā¦
The threat of OnlyOffice & Co. is real, especially in the European market that is much more hostile to the FAAGs today. Hence, their ācharitableā looking policiesā¦
Once again I apologize if this is going so off-topic - maybe a Mod can move this to a general discussion area ?
Can you elaborate a bit about OnlyOffice ? They were another alternative we were contemplating but found their claim to be āmore compatible with the Office formatā than Microsoft, a bit dubious.
OnlyOffice has a checkered history with Nextcloudā¦
A few days after NC introduced the ābuilt-inā version of it, OnlyOffice removed editing abilities.
People find ways to pull the source files and recompileā¦ OnlyOffice is trying to prevent itā¦
I believe OnlyOffice has one advantage over other office packages - itās HTML5-based and pushes the rendering job to the usersā browsersā¦ Makes scaling much less resource-demandingā¦
I canāt comment on āmore compatibleā claimsā¦