The reasons I don’t like Microsoft 365

I'm still using Office 2007 products, which I believe may have been the last buy it once stand alone version of Office that didn't need verification to install that they had.

As soon as they went to the subscription service I stopped upgrading. It all still suits my needs, which aren't as much as they used to be, and it all works fine.

I don't like any of the cloud services, I keep all of my stuff locally. Sure I've had to add more hard drives to my system, but I'll take that any day over leaving my stuff in the cloud on some unknown (to me) computer. Not to mention for reasons like that article mention.

Yup i am using an old version myself and there is an update you can add free for the new file extensions. They are always looking for ways to keep digging in yo back pocket

So am i still using this version, it gets the job done.

Using Office 2007 here too. Rather than going the Microsoft Office subscription route, I would opt for LibreOffice, a free and open source office software program that includes the same basic programs found in Microsoft Office with different names, Writer (word processing), Calc (spreadsheets), Impress (presentations) Draw (Graphics), Base (database)

With my first PC after starting with a shareware word processor [PWrite maybe?], I bought WordPerfect at the educational price. This was when it was a product from Utah with amazing phone-in customer service and was even before WYSIWYG. I've updated at least a couple of times and still use it. Thankfully it has the ability to open many other formats including Word. I see no need to switch and no need to even have the latest version of WP

been using Excel from way back in the 70's and still using and old version.

I just don't use the facility to put my files anywhere else save on my own computer.

I get Microsoft 365 gratis from work. But while I do store my files locally, some I sync between my devices so I always have the latest version.

I use LibreOffice, not Microsoft 365, but why would subscribers want to have Multi-Factor Authorization to log in to their 365 accounts? Is it because without setting that, anyone who has your password can see all your documents etc.? Are they all stored in the cloud? Do employers require MFA?

@lost anyway

I use my hotmail/microsoft accounts as burner emails. On any given day I can log in to review activity. I see no less than 50 attempts from all over the world trying to gain access. No doubt this is a result of information obtained from numerous data breaches. I do have 2fa enabled - had these accounts for 20+ years now.

As for cloud computing, it just means your data is on someone else's computer. Zero trust in the cloud here. Everything is local. Even have my own equivalent of google drive (nextcloud) where files are store locally but accessible via vpn.

Still using quicken 2013. I do have office 2019 installed, but it's the local version, not online. The youngins' have something to learn about cloud reliance.

A couple of years ago I bought Office 2021. This isn't a subscription, just a one time purchase. I know there is an Office 2024 you can purchased outright.

The only reason I upgraded to 2021 from 2007 (I was a long time user of 2007) is I needed support for Word documents larger than 512MB.

.....most subscription software is pervasive in that you end up with soo.. many payment that you could almost make a car payment.

We have kept multiple older laptops to be able to read past files that become incompatible with newer versions of software. Office may not be one, but Filemaker certainly is, and others.

I still have Office 2013 on my laptop, but did subscribe to 365 for $99/year.

One good thing is that you can have as many as 5 users on one account.

Cluster%$#@ ... local only for me

nah... visicalc

Not even that is likely. VisiCalc initial release date October 17, 1979, running on Apple II only at first.
Excel waited until 1985, even though it seems to have been around forever.

My personal oldie spreadsheet experience was on Borland.

May be off on the date. but my first copy was on a floppy Disk

I recall being annoyed that the 5.25 inch floppies were a downgrade from the 8 inch floppies. Now the 3.5 inch ones that showed up about the time of Mac were not even floppy.

my 8 inch floppy was running on Zilog "micorcomputer"

Yup, same here using MS Office Pro 2021. When necessary I will buy the standalone version again, assuming that are still offering it at that time, hopefully many years from now. Forced to use 365 at work and I'm not a fan.

I like it when you you had the Microsoft program on your computer, you bought it and it was yours. When an update came out, you could choose to purchase it.

Absolutely I d/l the Office 2021 complete and paid only once

I paid something like $500 for Adobe Photoshop (well, actually a larger package which included PhotoShop).

But when I upgraded to a 4K monitor, my elderly Photoshop gives me a very nearly unusable user interface. No, Adobe has not made a patch to that version available. They won't even sell me a new version. Just something with an annual subscription.

The subscription virus has been spreading...

Wife is using a later Office version Than I..
I'm using 2007 and we haven't encountered anything Unusual...
On my iPhone, I'm using the free version of WPS Office and that allows us to see/share files, too

Regarding Adobe... I used to upgrade the CS suite yearly, but ceased, staying at CS6 Master Suite..
Which I'm still using to this day - without an issue...

I agree, I hate subscriptions. I like the buy it once and own it software.

These companies hit on a great way to have the the money rolling in. You have to continue to pay just to access the program. It is all greed. Just like these companies that are implementing surge/demand pricing schemes.

For years it has been called S.A.A.S., software as a service.

I have a different problem with all the different versions of Word. I used to (ancient history) help run an organization that put on large meetings and published refereed papers. Machine readable Word papers were sometimes completely incompatible between versions and generally partially incompatible. Complicated graphics seldom crossed the border between versions well. The very worst was that blind refereeing needed to be really blind. Folks would finish their paper, delete their byline, and submit the paper. Sometimes one referee with a different Word version would open the document and their version would somehow miss the last entry in the undo queue (the deletion) so the author's name was there. Another version would differently interpret the deletion and present it differently: with the byline crossed out! My lesson was that Word is good for creating paper documents but terrible for document interchange. I hope that it has gotten better.

...it has. For several years I used Microsoft 365 in book editing. Not once did my employers encounter an issue where an edit I made failed to show.

Since I do not have to pay for my copy of Microsoft 365 I can't comment on people's like or dislike of it because of its software as a service status. But if push ever came to shove, I have both a copy of Office 2003 Student & Teacher and a copy of Office 2010 Professional Plus I can install. I have copies of Office 97 and 2000 as well, but I would have to set up virtual machines to run them. If none of my copies of Office were a viable option, I would install LibreOffice.

OfficeXP
Adobe '8' versions

very old versions of development and compilers
That which I maintain is Fortran, dataflex, and cobol,
nobody else even knows the languages

SAAS, like renting the dictionary

I think the original intent of the PDF document format was that it be suitable for interchange.

It's all about the money

About Adobe!

You are obviously correct. Wondering why we didn't do that I found this line in Wikipedia ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDF ) "Much document processing software including LibreOffice, Microsoft Office 2007 (if updated to SP2) and later,[73] WordPerfect 9, and Scribus can export documents in PDF." 2007 was the year that I retired.

I think PDF was one of the good fruits of the good Adobe.

On all fronts.

I have Office 2013 on one box and Office 2016 on another. When I get a new laptop I'll put my copy of Office 2016 Pro on it. I despise subscription software.

Of course I also still have a long list of never-been-used genuine install codes for Windows 7. Not much use anymore.

I'm using Office 2019 locally.