That's not corporate PR, I've been a Tableau developer for many years. If you're trying to analyze data or build a visualization to drop into a PowerPoint report the standalone version will do it, free. If you want to host a report for multiple people to use you need to purchase a server installation. You use the exact same Desktop application to make the report, you just don't have a server to host the report on.

I have a laundry list of things I don't like about Tableau or Salesforce, but the fact that they charge for an enterprise installation isn't one of them because duh doy, of course they do. The patent is bullshit, we already established that, but they're an enterprise oriented company, mf'ers aren't setting up a Tableau server for their family to share power usage reports to show them the need to turn lights off when they leave a room...