In a move likely to attract legal attention, Microsoft gave a paltry 30 days notice that they intend to “brick” existing “perpetual license” installs of Microsoft Office for Macintosh. That means that as of July 13 this year, if they follow through, Mac users with older perfectly usable Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint installs on older Mac hardware will find themselves suddenly unable to create new documents, or save changes to existing documents — as though the software had never been purchased (in this mode, users can still open and read existing documents).
The issue of course — aside from being a grab to force users to upgrade — is that the original license was sold as a “perpetual” license, without expiry date. While obsolete, there is not much precedent for intentionally breaking software with this kind of license, and I’m sure the lawyers will bring this up.
Users who are running a new enough Mac OS have the option of purchasing a new Office 2024 “perpetual” license, becoming an Office 365 monthly subscriber — or using one of several alternatives to the Microsoft product suite, such as LibreOffice, which we recommend highly.
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