cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/48806122

A license verification certificate expires and when it expires, Microsoft Office for Mac assumes it’s unlicensed even if it has been fully paid for.

So, any idiot who paid for Office 2019 for Mac “perpetual” will lose access to it next month.

The same will happen with Office 2021 and Office 2024 in the future.

Pirates are unaffected, only who paid for the product gets punished

Good job 👍🏻

  • Victor@lemmy.world
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    7 天前

    Idiots?

    I’m not one of them, but what makes them idiots? Seems kind of uncalled for.

        • acockworkorange@mander.xyz
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          7 小时前

          Weird. Works fine for me. Here’s the text:

          Disclaimer: I wrote “idiot” to describe someone who paid for the product not because they’re actually idiots, but it’s because Microsoft is treating them like that: their official solution on the website is “simply subscribe to the latest and greatest or buy a new “perpetual” license to office 2024 to continue using what you paid for”

      • mspencer712@programming.dev
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        7 天前

        Agreed. I don’t know if this is the term for it, but I’ve been thinking of all this as “signaling disrespect,” a deliberate attempt to make people think of their peers as lesser, as other.

        I feel like either people have been conditioned to do this online all the time for some reason, or maybe there’s some directed attack against civility. I don’t know. But I refuse to let myself be affected by it. I won’t hate people.

      • NateNate60@lemmy.world
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        7 天前

        A: gets scammed by company

        B: You’re so stupid, you should have known that company was going to scam you.

        • wltr@discuss.tchncs.de
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          7 天前

          As if Microsoft was founded just yesterday and wasn’t scamming everyone at everything for like decades, right?

          • accideath@feddit.org
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            7 天前

            They don’t have a history of undoing perpetual licenses though. I mean, I know people who still use a licensed copy of office 2000

            • wltr@discuss.tchncs.de
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              7 天前

              Now they have. The point is, if you trust that company for whatever reason, it’s your problem. What makes you believe they’re to be trusted? That they changed? There’s nothing that indicates that, yet people keep not just using their unprofessional incompetent code glued stack, they pay money for it.

              • accideath@feddit.org
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                7 天前

                Oftentimes it’s not a choice. Microsoft office is a de facto standard in many professional contexts.
                I personally avoid using Microsoft products whenever I can but that doesn’t mean everybody has that luxury.

                And I cannot blame anyone buying a perpetual licence when the alternative is a subscription.

          • NateNate60@lemmy.world
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            7 天前

            I’m not defending this action from Microsoft, but for most people, they buy a Microsoft product and then happily use it for years, none the wiser to any of Microsoft’s other nonsense happening in the background.

            • wltr@discuss.tchncs.de
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              7 天前

              Coming from a background where software is usually pirated and not paid for (which I don’t support now), it’s a special kind of weird to pay for that shite. I mean, who could have guessed? Me personally, I have no empathy for those. Go buy the next license from Microsoft, I guess. Till they screw you again.

              If you pay for something, pay for quality. I understand people who buy Apple stuff, it’s not even overpriced when you consider all the factors. Windows people are fooling themselves, and it’s really fun to watch. ‘Idiots’ is the right word in my book. So I vibe with the title, it’s more correct than the Verge’s one.

        • Railcar8095@lemmy.world
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          5 天前

          Fool me once, shame on you.

          Fool me multiple times since the 90s, that’s on me.

          /s

          Non sarcastic take, only MS is to blame.

        • AbsolutelyNotAVelociraptor@piefed.social
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          7 天前

          Not saying that I agree with the title, just explaining what I think was the reason.

          Although one could say that trusting microslop to keep their word after what we’ve seen them do in the last years is… foolish to say the least.

    • stylusmobilus@aussie.zone
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      7 天前

      That’s what I’m thinking

      I bought the win version, because I have a five year old win 10 computer I’m using until win 10 is no longer supported, and I can’t get office for free anymore.

      When win 10 is no longer supported, that’s a Linux computer.

      Would I be an idiot, if they cancelled support for mine? I guess so. I’m waiting for some edgelord to tell me I am, probably accompanied by y0u sH00d jUsT g0 LinUx n0w

      • Victor@lemmy.world
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        7 天前

        Yeah, no rush.

        Come on over to the Linux side when it suits you. You’re welcome to the family when you’re ready and that computer is ready. 🤟

        • stylusmobilus@aussie.zone
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          7 天前

          Certainly will be, this is definitely the last windows I’m running. Cheers.

          It was my sons school computer and it’s running education which for win 10 I have been happy with. One son has ditched win 11 and is running Bazzite now. The other is wound back to win 10 I think, but he’ll move

          I’m in the process of deciding which distro to move on; I manage my sons NDIS so that’s front and centre; security of federal government records and claims.

          • KryptonBlur@slrpnk.net
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            7 天前

            Unless you have a specific use case in mind, or have a particular distribution that interests you, I can wholeheartedly recommend Fedora (GNOME or KDE version, either is good). I’ve not had any issues with it for a few years (I think I had some trouble with it in 2022, but nothing since then).

            • stylusmobilus@aussie.zone
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              7 天前

              Thank you, not exactly no, just stable and secure.

              I don’t game on it, just book keeping and I do a bit of correspondence. But yeah I need security because the federal government require me to keep records and I make claims through their portal. That’s particularly important now that what I’ve been doing for the last five years will soon become federal law.

              The other thing is I’m not fond of allowing the American tech giants access to those parts of my records. Fortunately excel isn’t required for it. At this time the only American tech involved with it is MS.

    • woelkchen@lemmy.world
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      7 天前

      I’m not one of them, but what makes them idiots? Seems kind of uncalled for.

      It’s obviously a play on the common phrase that the honest guy ends up being the idiot. Not because the honest guy is stupid but because the honesty ends up backfiring. It’s used all the time in video game DRM contexts.

      • Victor@lemmy.world
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        4 天前

        How is it sarcastic? I don’t get it, please explain, and please explain how that makes it better somehow.

        • ViscloReader@lemmy.world
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          4 天前

          It’s sarcastic because you obviously aren’t an idiot for buying a lifelong license to a product.

          If anything most of the time it’s supposed to be the right choice (I’m only talking about licenced product, not ownership).

          Especially if it’s a tool you use regularly.

          At no point these people where supposed to “know better and not buy this”. Microsoft just did a rugpull.

          I wasn’t aware of all the bullshit these companies were doing back in 2019, but I recall it wasn’t full blown enshittification yet.

          For your second ask, it doesn’t make it better or lesser, it just adds shock value, engagement baiting.

          • Victor@lemmy.world
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            3 天前

            You’re presenting an argument here which is purely based on logic. I think OP is not sarcastic, but actually believes people are idiots for simply buying Microsoft products. They are just being elitist. That’s my interpretation.

            Could (hopefully) be wrong though! If OP gives another explanation I’m sure that’ll be true.

  • Passerby6497@lemmy.world
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    7 天前

    Rossman posted a video a while ago about how Microsoft updated their site without noting they updated it to gaslight their customers into thinking it’s always said that.

    There’s a reason these companies are trying to kill the archive sites, it lets people call them on their bullshit.

    Edit: YouTube source

  • neon_nova@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    5 天前

    This is pretty wild to see. Based on Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Microsoft_Office

    Some people could have purchased this as late as early October 2021.

    If companies are going to literally steal things from the user, then why would I buy anything from them in the future?

    This is a clear sign to everyone to not buy anything from Microsoft moving forward, because they clearly think they can just take it back at any time.

  • Zephorah@discuss.online
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    7 天前

    Not sure why they’re idiots, trying to go the non-sub option is smart, doesn’t vote for subs. Microsoft is the asshole here.

    • CerebralHawks@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      7 天前

      Not sure why OP is sitting here tanking these hits, but I don’t think OP meant to call people who bought perpetual licenses to Office idiots. I think they’re saying that Microsoft thinks they’re idiots. Still, OP should have clarified that or at least answered at least one person who asked.

      • wols@lemmy.zip
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        7 天前

        Because it’s a repost.
        If you go to the original, OP actually has the top comment explaining exactly that: “idiots” refers to MS treating their customers as such, not a judgement by OP.

  • Th4tGuyII@fedia.io
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    7 天前

    I’d argue trying to avoid yet another subscription by paying upfront was an honest and good faith strategy. The problem was assuming Microsoft also acts in good faith, and wouldn’t just take the money and run like they have just 7 years in.

    Honestly for things like this, I would struggle to be convinced that these folks aren’t entirely within their right to take back what they already bought in good faith by pirating it.

    After all, perpetual means you bought a license to use that program for life, regardless of whether Microsoft wants to uphold that or not.

  • Epzillon@lemmy.world
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    7 天前

    Victim-blaming is the real stupidity here. Microsoft harasses its customers (again) and now the customers are the idiots?

    This is the same type of propaganda Nvidia is trying to push. Jensen Huang saying “people should have planned better, the rising prices of hardware was imminent” is the exact same tactic of being the cause of the problem and still putting the blame of everyone else.

  • FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world
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    7 天前

    I’m not sure I’m cool with calling people ‘idiots’ in this scenario. We don’t blame the victims of con men when they’re stolen from, and this is the same thing, just on a bigger scale.

    That said, here is the obligatory linking to LibreOffice: https://www.libreoffice.org/

    It’s free and a better choice.

    • architect@thelemmy.club
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      7 天前

      We need to quit focusing on stuff like this. If somebody calls you a fucking idiot so fucking what?

      And we do blame the victims constantly. The people that blame the victims do nothing but fucking win.

      • FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world
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        7 天前

        I read it as someone kinda being a dick, but it’s the Internet. Meaning isn’t always well-conveyed electronically. That’s why we have the sarcasm tag.

        • Simon_Shitewood@lemmy.ml
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          6 天前

          Had you gone as far as the article you would have seen the disclaimer that makes it clear it’s sarcasm.

          • FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world
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            6 天前

            I did.

            The title of the article is ‘Microsoft is disabling Office 2019 for Mac next month’, which makes it pretty clear that the editorializing of the title here on Lemmy was intended to be a bit dickish, at least to me.

            If I am wrong, cool, but it’s not because I didn’t look at the article.

    • Theoriginalthon@lemmy.world
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      6 天前

      And for anyone who says in excel I can create a spreadsheet sheet that does this amazing company defining process, I’ll counter that with you can make a calculator in Minecraft. Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.

    • architect@thelemmy.club
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      7 天前

      Seem to have worked for this fucking shitty ass president. And his shitty ass fucking party. And I’ll be honest it seems to work for every major corporation.

      The victim blaming definitely works, Just ask anybody who was raped.

    • Railcar8095@lemmy.world
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      5 天前

      That’s EOL and they won’t do any additional support. Renew certificates is 1 hours of intern effort and 20 bucks, so fuck you.

      *effort and cost made up, but l considering they made billions with office, it’s basically equivalent.

  • Dvixen@lemmy.world
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    7 天前

    Not surprised in the least. It’s all about maintaining incoming cash flow.

    They cancelled my Win11 (from purchased Win10 eligible upgrade) key earlier this year when I replaced a failed motherboard.

    Happy to be free of their ecosystem. Should have jumped free long ago.

      • Dvixen@lemmy.world
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        6 天前

        Thanks! Still having some problems with sound popping, but had that under Windows. >.<

          • Dvixen@lemmy.world
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            6 天前

            Mint. I’ve gotten the popping/crackling to a minimum, but it’s still happening occasionally. (Oddly it happens most often with games that have sound disabled both by OS and via in game)

            • Scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech
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              6 天前

              It was annoying enough I saved it, I highly recommend starting some sort of docs setup so future you can remember how you fixed things. This fixed it for me, granted I was on pop but both Ubuntu based so same layers underneath.

              Audio Crackling

              You can fix this by increasing the minimum audio buffer size, which, in turn, will increase the overall audio latency.

              It’s not good for real-time professional audio recording, but it won’t hurt the general gaming and multimedia experience unless you use a very high value to the point it leads to a noticeable desync with video. Test with a greater minimum quantum

              This takes effect immediately, but it won’t persist across reboots.

              This worked for me

              pw-metadata -n settings 0 clock.min-quantum 2048
              

              Increasing the minimum quantum permanently

              The default is 1024.

              cat << EOF > ~/.config/pipewire/pipewire.conf.d/fix-crackle.conf context.properties = { default.clock.min-quantum = 2048 } EOF
              systemctl --user restart pipewire wireplumber
              

              You can revert this by just deleting the file. Alternative method

              This will improve the handling of low-latency audio at the expense of overall higher CPU usage and with that, power usage.

              sudo kernelstub -a threadirqs reboot

  • Zorcron@lemmy.zip
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    7 天前

    OOP’s comment on the original post that the cross-poster should have shared:

    Disclaimer: I wrote “idiot” to describe someone who paid for the product not because they’re actually idiots, but it’s because Microsoft is treating them like that: their official solution on the website is “simply subscribe to the latest and greatest or buy a new “perpetual” license to office 2024 to continue using what you paid for”

    • BillCheddar@lemmy.world
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      6 天前

      So that means Microsoft doesn’t need to honor their contracts with users?

      Interesting legal strategy, cotton.

    • Scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech
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      6 天前

      That’s all it is, which is why it’s so obvious they just want people to subscribe now. Very issue is the smallest thing they could do, and they can’t be bothered.

      Folks tell your Mac friends about Libre Office

        • Scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech
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          6 天前

          This isn’t that some architecture isn’t supported or there’s some new unseen dependency that failed, it’s a cert expiry. Something that happens millions of times per day and can be completely automated.

            • Scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech
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              6 天前

              Seeing how it’s a trillion dollar company, I think they can spare the few pennies to renew a cert, even 50 years later to keep the “lifetime” license going for everyone. They’re not asking for new features or individual support. We’re all saying it’s a cert. Take the few minutes to renew it.