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MicroSoft Plans to Screw Mac Users of Office 2011

Microsoft tells some Mac Office users to pass on Apple's High Sierra

Microsoft warns Office for Mac 2011 users not to upgrade to Apple's macOS High Sierra when the new operating system launches in September.

MicroSoft didn't want to get left of of the plans Adobe stared of sending you a bill ever month for the use of their products. They want that information on you, your credit card, name and address, and mostly that email address. And of course they want your money every month.

I've used MicroSoft Word and Office for decades but personally, I'll be saying goodbye to MicroSoft and their attempt at extorting more money out of me.

https://www.computerworld.com/article/32...

BTW, I'd sure buy a little app that would get around this extortion attempt if someone wants to write it.

I going to have to be the one to break it to all my customers that upgrade to High Sierra and don't know that MicroSoft has done this. I'm sure that MicroSoft is not going to make a big deal out of telling people and Apple probably won't either. Maybe some tiny warning in very fine print. You just suddenly won't be able to open your word and excel documents and be forced to pay again for what you already paid for. Man, do I love Corporate America and their ethics.

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You could buy Office 2016 or switch to Windows :P

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There's probably hack. Just like there is for Adobe's products. If I had a Mac I could upgrade to high Sierra I'd try to find it.

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@alexniculescu I've already PAID for Office, why would I want to buy it again, just because MicroSoft wants more money from me. When I buy a car I don't expect it to stop running in 6 years just because the car company wants to sell me a new one.

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But you can't keep old & outdated software forever, can you?

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I don't agree that one should run old software forever, but that's up to the owner of the machine and the person who paid for the license. Not the vendor of the software.

At some point the company may cut it off for support, but it should run forever. I ran 10.6 up until 10.9 came out, so I effectively used an old version of OS X for ~5 years. I gave up on it once application support started to move away from 10.6 and towards 10.7+.

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@mayer - I'm torn here...

As a user of Office I'm angry just like you as it's been my word processor of choice for years.

But... Microsoft is also a company that needs a flow of cash to keep it self running. So the real issue here is if Microsoft going to come out with a newer version of the older Office for the Mac?

Remember, we are talking like the bean counters here who need to justify the project and the given market. As it sounds they don't think it will cover its costs in updating it (and make a profit) and like many apps these days once you hit the pinicle of design and function it's hard to sustain it when your base is happy with what you have already sold to them until the OS is altered and they don't maintain it. Which is the case here.

Sadly this is the bad side of capitalism in the technology space. Time to brush up with Pages or buying Office 365 or the more expensive Office 2016 product.

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As Microsoft is only an Application creator in the Mac space there is no lost leader option with some other paid app. If that where the case there might have been a possiblity, the other option would be if Apple forked over some cash. While not widely known there is a bit of payout going between companies when an app is thought of as being important in the sales of the hardware. As Apple created their own competing Office suite I don't see than in the cards.

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Remember about 1997 when Bill Gates moves in and bought $150 million in Apple stock? I had to look this one up for an answer and it seems Bill not as smart as we might have thought: https://www.engadget.com/2014/05/20/what...

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I got P.O.ed at Apple when they wanted me to pay again for iWorks for my iPad and iPhone, while MicroSoft was giving their word and excel apps away on those platforms. But I refuse to let Bill Gates extort me, so I'll pay the pittance to Apple and move everything over to iWorks. I just hope all the code I did in 1993 on my excel invoices and other spreadsheets will export. Relearning that coding after a quarter of a century would be a PITA. It doesn't feel that long ago that I wrote that code but it is. I just looked at it and I only remember part of it. stuff like =IF(G23="","",SUM(G23*E23))

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@mayer - I remember it well! It was at MacWorld here in Boston when the deal was disclosed. A lot of people in the audience boo'ed!

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You guys may want to consider Google's (free) products. Their about 90% as professional as office. Of course office stuff is still a little better, but I didn't want to pay for it any more so I switched to Google docs and spreadsheets. You can use them in the browser or download Google drive that includes a desktop version of the software. It's got almost everything that office does. Docs is clearly styled after word, just simplified. Same with Excel.

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mayer will be eternally grateful.