So why did I buy a perpetual license, If it expires?

What an awful decision from Microsoft to screw its customers.

Just install Libre Office and move on.

Smells like a class action suit

I came from a background where piracy is paramount and nobody buys a single license of software, including government. All government software like Windows, offices and whatnot is pirated. Well it was when I lived there, decades ago, and I won’t be surprised to learn things didn’t change. It took me a long time to get the idea of buying software. (Frankly, I failed at it, because I prefer open source now, mostly out of principle.)

What strikes me is how easier piracy is. Throughout my younger years, I had a full blown Microsoft everything (before I learned there’s Linux) and never paid anything to them. (They are okay with it, as apparently I had to grow up being a Microsoft guy, lol. First thing I did when I earned my own money, I bought a MacBook Pro.)

It’s funny to discover things like this. Microslop and Adobe. Turned out their software is shit, and someone buys it, lol. Just imagine buying a Microsoft Office license! A perpetual one!

I won’t lie, still difficult for me. Like, are all these people for real? I hope you just rofl like everyone else, and it’s sarcasm. You must be trolling us all!

[enshittification intensifies]

How the heck will the software know to not allow editing documents after a certain day - did they just vibe code in a kill-switch into a recent update?

If so, could users roll back to an earlier version without this bullshit, or play with the local time settings to appear as though it’s before July 13?

If the answer is yes to either of these, it’s only a matter of time before someone figures out a way to patch out this bullshit. Which will work fine for personal users, but will likely fuck over SMEs that will likely be forced over to Office 365.

…and I actually prefer Excel over the Google/Libre/Apple alternatives, but seriously - fuck Microslop for this bullshit.

Add it to the list of reasons not to buy perpetual licenses. As long as companies like MS, TeamViewer, Arlo, etc. are allowed to continue getting away with this, they will.

Worse, it's Office 2021 too:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/update-microsoft-365-or-office-on-your-macos-or-ios-device-f418ae5d-bb5f-4078-b3d9-9340f5dd084e

They baked license server checks into their local installed apps, so now they can just "flip a switch" to disable access.

Planned obsolescence.