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.
“I am altering the deal. Pray I don’t alter it any further.”
Stop Killing Games !
No, EULAs are. Software EULAs are the modern equivalent of those rotten tenancy agreements of old that contained whatever absurd clauses the landlord wanted to impose on tenants (before governments stepped in and imposed standardized tenancy agreements). Maybe governments need to step down and impose standardized software EULAs too.
Also, I hope Microsoft gets sued for this, but I bet there is something in the EULA that says they can unilaterally “update” the EULA in whatever manner they want. Ah, the joys or non-standard (aka rotten) agreements.
step down = step in (sorry)
Note that, in thematically keeping with prior precedent around which EULA terms are enforceable in the EU, there was an ECJ Right to Repair ruling that said it was OK to break DRM to restore the functionality present at time of purchase.
kurkosdr,
If the allegations are true, this seems class action worthy. Then again, the use of software time bombs isn’t illegal per say and I don’t think civil lawsuits can force Microsoft’s hand to change the software. Is there precedence for this? It reminds me of apple’s claim that the government can’t coerce apple to change their software in the san bernedino shooting case, which was actually a criminal case. So Microsoft might prefer loosing the lawsuit over letting users keep their never-ending version of office: leave their time bombs in place and just pay a few bucks per instance for breach of contract.
kurkosdr,
Do you remember Turbo Pascal and the “Book” license
It used to be “you own the software, you can do whatever you want with it, as long as you don’t copy”
Now even if you buy, it is just an indeterminate leased license.
(I’m still angry at Sony/Crunchyroll buying Funimation, and cancelling all our purchases. “Sorry, we bought the company, but none of their obligations. You are free to stay by paying $10 per month for a smaller catalogue”)
“You will own nothing….” even if you buy it.
This, again.
Very bold of them to suggest the Office 2024 “perpetual” license as a way out of this. They have just shown that they do not believe in or respect the idea of “perpetual” licenses. It would seem reasonable to assume that this “perpetual” license is only for some rather finite number of years as well.
As long as they don’t ask payments for reading and printing their formats for free in their apps in AppStore, they probably won’t get any trouble for this.
Time to come back to venerable Office 2000 🙂
There is nothing wrong with Office 2000, but I think that Office 2016 continues to work as well.
Of course, so do all the now many Open Source alternatives.
Word 2000 has some *vey* nasty bugs when working with larger documents.
I distinctly remember one case where I had to help my mother by duct-taping in some pages last-minute for a document where any attempt at editing would crash word. Luckily, it was still possible to print-as-pdf. A well-known bug at the time that was never fixed.
Time for the EU to step in.
I bet they are doing this to the Mac version first to test the waters, and then do the same to the Windows version.
Try out Only Office or LyX as replacement. Or even use pen and paper (no kidding).
I might give Euro-Office a try. I’m not in Europe but I feel I can tell people who send me incompatible files that it’s not my problem.
The support article now says “Although you’ll still be able to use Office 2019 for Mac, you will no longer receive security updates and bug fixes after October 10, 2023.” This implies that the product will continue to work. Did they change the wording?