Microsoft...
Is at it again...
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.
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.
Article, HERE from OSNews. h/t Steve
Sigh... I was one of those ‘smart people’...
Guess I’ll be loading Libre Office, HERE. I’ll be dipped if I will use/pay for MS 365 after Microsoft pulled this crap on me.
Grumble... At least this will get rid of the last MS anything I had on any system. I left Windoze in 2019, and I’m glad I did. I find the Apple/Mac systems much more robust and easier to upgrade, and are not connected in any way with Google’s Android.
It's very much against the law and someone needs to start spanking the FTC until someone over there starts enforcing the law. A class-action lawsuit would probably help too. I have much older versions of MS-Office (because I HATE the ribbon). I also hate every and any MS app that talks to any other machine than MINE. MS put a lot of illegal back doors into stuff. MS Corporate and Board should all be swinging from lampposts for this behavior. SaaS needs to be banned and punishable by death.
This is why I went to OpenOffice a few years ago. MS can pound sand.
Unfortunately, this is also affecting my work use, and my ISD isn't renewing the license. I'll have to us Google Docs there.🤢