Topic: Microsoft is intentionally bricking all Office for Mac 2019/2021 installations

[Nemesis]

Link to full article

You’re a smart cookie, so you opted to buy a copy of Microsoft Office for macOS back in 2019 or 2021, eschewing the Office 365 subscription, so you could keep on using Office 2019/2021 forever if you wanted to. Just like in the old days.

I’ve got some bad news.

    Microsoft Office 2019 and 2021 for Mac view-only conversion (2026) is a scheduled remote degradation of perpetually-licensed Microsoft Office software for macOS and iOS, set for July 13, 2026 when a license-validation certificate used by the Office apps expires. After Office 2019 for Mac reached end of support in October 2023, Microsoft assured customers their installed apps would “continue to function.” The July 13, 2026 conversion instead drops the apps into a Microsoft-defined “reduced functionality mode,” in which files can be opened and viewed but not edited or saved. By May 30, 2026, the original 2023 end-of-support page had been re-dated and rewritten on Microsoft’s site; the “continue to function” clause was removed.
    ↫ Consumer Rights Wiki

Microsoft’s advice to the users they’re stealing from is to keep using the applications as mere viewers, switch to the free Office 365 web applications, pay for a 365 subscription, or buy a brand new regular copy of Office 2024. None of these make any sense, and clearly, all of this should be illegal, but it’s not because the software industry is a clown show.

Proprietary software is unethical.

So much for the whole "Microsoft is the good guy now.  They aren't like the used to be" crowd.  Same old same old. 

[Javora]

I’ve wondered for a while now, if it would be safer to keep a second computer with a fresh install of software completely off the internet.  Something that can handle writing and printing documents and other non-Internet dependent software or games.  Probably the biggest problem would be finding printers that can handle older computers after a while.  I knew as soon as companies started offering the subscription model of their software that this day would happen.  Being internet connected is not always a good thing, never was.  Like I’ve said a few times here, just because you can put something on the internet, doesn’t mean you should.

Linux users should be happy about this news…

[Nemesis]

I remember asking if they would just take the XP authentication off line preventing people from using XP and was told "Of course not, they made a commitment".  Well they made that commitment here and people paid specifically for the commitment and they broke it. 

[Panzergranate]

<So much for the whole "Microsoft is the good guy now.  They aren't like the used to be" crowd.  Same old same old. >

"A Leopard cannot change its spots, nor can Microsoft change its ways".