Microsoft is once again ringing the death knell of Office 2021, this time with an End of Support for Office 2021 reminder.
  • elucubra@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    3 hours

    I installed 2021 for a client last year, because of the pay once model. I guess I should have installed 2024. This guy was using some really ancient version, and is really tech illiterate, the kind that writes procedures in a notebook, instead of learning why he does them. I installed LO first, to see if he could use it and be free of Office, but he got really nervous, so I got him the closest thing to what he had. Now I have to find out a way to resolve this. I guess I’ll get a key from one of the key sitees, or do a massgrave. Thanks MS.

  • Toga77@lemmy.worldEnglish
    7 hours

    Idk man Libreoffice on Linux replaced my Windows setup 6 months ago at work and even my coworkers started using it unprompted.

  • endofline@lemmy.caEnglish
    8 hours

    Self hosting nextcloud… It runs on 2gb nicely for your own instance

    • sanitation@lemmy.todayEnglish
      7 hours

      Opencloud is much better.

      But self hosting is not an option for 99.95% of illiterates

    • nitroemdash@lemmy.wtfEnglish
      8 hours

      Based on Microsoft’s proprietary OOXML format and still makes you dependent on Microsoft’s will. LibreOffice better.

    • kalpol@lemmy.caEnglish
      7 hours

      You’re correct. The worst thing is just that buttons are in different places, and I just look up those places on the Internet because support is good.

      • Noxy@pawb.socialEnglish
        2 hours

        Difficulties maintaining a sufficient number of active developers and code contributors to keep the project viable have persisted for several years. This has led to persistent problems providing timely fixes to security vulnerabilities since 2015. In March 2026, the Apache Security Team raised OpenOffice’s security risk status to “red” due to unfixed vulnerabilities over 365 days old.[9]

      • Coldgoron@lemmy.zipEnglish
        3 hours

        They do offer extensions for a range of things also, I have several grammar checkers I’m testing now.

      • pastermil@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        4 hours

        For one, they’re still actively developed, instead of being stuck in the early last decade.

  • adarza@lemmy.caEnglish
    20 hours

    it isn’t being “killed”, it’s just EOL, on schedule. the death-blow comes if windows version has a similar digital certificate expiry baked-in like office mac does. which would be a first on windows, because old (even really old) office versions do still work–just don’t get security fixes once EOL.

    • HeyJoe@lemmy.worldEnglish
      18 hours

      Good to see the correct response to this post. Nothing about what they are doing is off. Im still using office 2019 personally since i got it really cheap like a year before it went EOL. I use it so infrequently for personal use it doesnt bother me, but its nice to have.

      On top of this there is office 2024 which if you did still need to move to another version thats equivlant then this is what you want. I am honestly shocked more people dont just buy the stand alone office over 365 subscriptions. Is it because Microsoft stopped advertising that they exist? 1 time fee over monthly anyday.

      • BananaTrifleViolin@piefed.worldEnglish
        9 hours

        Yeah, I had Office 2010 and used that for years - probably up to 2022. It allowed installs on 3 devices at a time, and included Word, Excel and Powerpoint. I only switched to Office 365 when my work made it freely available, and I have it set up inside a windows VM on my Linux desktop for the very rare times I need to use office at home. Work are paying for all the redundant tools no one at work uses - like copilot. Don’t see it as my problem.

        But I can’t recommend Office 2024 when it costs £120 for a license with online activation and install restrictions to one PC. Not when the alternative Libre Office is free, unlimited installs on all devices, and does everything a home user would ever need. Joplin is also a superb alternative to One Note.

        I personally would never buy another version of Office; I have libre office installed and use that for my personal documents (like my budget spreadsheet and occasional word processing) and Joplin for my notes. And while Libre office doesn’t have integrated cloud storage, all you need to do is add your preferred cloud storage system to your file manager in Linux or Windows.

        Office 2024 doesn’t really offer a good value proposition. And if you’re really in the market for Office, then ebay to get valid licenses for Office Professional Plus 2019 or 2021is better value; £40 for the full suite (inc Access, Outlook, Publisher) is far better value than a direct license from MS for 2024. But it’s just a product key card, so there is always the risk a license and access to downloads gets revoked eventually.

        • HeyJoe@lemmy.worldEnglish
          7 hours

          Yeah I hear you. I was just stating for people who do want to continue using it. I got mine off of https://shop.lifehacker.com/ which idk if its better or worse than ebay, but I don’t really trust ebay very much and this seems to offer similar discounted pricing.

      • ranzispa@mander.xyzEnglish
        9 hours

        I have no reason to pay for the office suite when LibreOffice Is nowadays a very valid alternative which is completely free.

        365 on the other hand, despite being a steaming piece of shit, is something to which a real alternative does not exist. I really hope an alternative comes up, hopefully this euro office becomes something usable.

      • adarza@lemmy.caEnglish
        18 hours

        Is it because Microsoft stopped advertising that they exist?

        yea. pretty much. they certainly don’t make it known that it does exist.

        1 time fee over monthly anyday.

        as far as pricing. if you’re gonna pay for cloud storage somewhere, anyway…

        i know it kinda sucks ass, but you’re basically paying for that extra onedrive space and getting office ‘free’ while you do.

        so it does make sense for some users.

        but for the love of clippy, don’t share a cheaper 1 user/5pc ‘personal’ plan with other people because they also share your onedrive space. that can get messy and/or really awkward, really fast. get the one you can share with other users and add their msa to your 365 sub.

        • HeyJoe@lemmy.worldEnglish
          16 hours

          I absolutely agree if you need cloud storage it could be worth it, but I definetly don’t. I am pretty dull, local storage and backup to a NAS is fine for my simple life haha.

    • BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.todayEnglish
      19 hours

      I’m the only person in the world that still uses Publisher, and they’ve announced the end of support for that, too, at the same time, I assume. I don’t use it for anything online, I just use it to create documents and posters and stuff, and I never use online resources.

      I don’t expect anything from them, and I don’t hook it up to the Internet, so it will keep working, right?

      • BananaTrifleViolin@piefed.worldEnglish
        10 hours

        Have you tried Scribus? It’s a good open source alternative to Publisher and if it meets your needs it could spare you having to do a lot of faff around trying to keep Publisher going into the future.

        But I get wanting to stick with something familiar. It’s unlikely you’ll lose access to Publisher in the short term. But I’d consider moving to something else now so you’re not scrambling should Publisher stop working for whatever reason.

      • adarza@lemmy.caEnglish
        18 hours

        publisher just flat-out got the axe. it’s even getting taken away from ‘365’ subscribers in a few months. i have a few users that will be affected. they are not happy campers.

        if you have it as part of your particular edition and version of (perpetual) office, yea. it should continue to function.

        • BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.todayEnglish
          8 hours

          I just want it to function like it does. I don’t expect online help, or to go to their online pre-Y2K clip art library, I just want to move text boxes around.

          I’ve been using it for 30 years, I’m a bit of an expert. I have lots of favorite tricks I’ve figured out. I don’t want to learn new tricks.

        • Wispy2891@lemmy.worldEnglish
          13 hours

          For testing I installed a perpetual version of publisher 2019 in a VM (only publisher, edited the XML setup file) and activated with massgrave. It has a banner on top that says that on October it will automatically uninstall and there will be no way to open the proprietary files anymore

          I hope it’s just that they didn’t test the message and that it was meant only for office 365 and not all the perpetual versions

    • MML@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      9 hours

      I’m almost certain you could “fight back” by using the 2016 version, if somehow they sneaked in a way to ruin it through updates, I’d bet my third testicle someone has released fixed versions.

      • db2@lemmy.worldEnglish
        8 hours

        Real men edit the information on disk directly using magnets taped to their fingers.

    • minkymunkey_7_7@lemmy.worldEnglish
      9 hours

      Now is a really great time for Xerox get into this market for all that Microsoft theft at the start. No subscription.