7 ms·

Microsoft Office 2010: Can’t be activated anymore?

72 points by pndy 5y ago

RedShift1 5y ago
This was always the fear when product activation was first introduced. And rightfully so, we are now living in that future.
bluerival 5y ago
Its 11 years old. Is this a surprise?
- Waterluvian 5y ago
  Unsurprising. Still completely outrageous.
- jsnell 5y ago
  It kind of is. Expecting support for such old software is indeed unreasonable. But this is not asking for support, bug fixes, running on new platforms, or anything like that. It's people wanting to continue using the software they bought fair and square (rather than getting for free or subscribing to), and would still be able to run without this license check. How is that an unreasonable expectation? If MS doesn't want to keep the activation servers running, then they should release a patch that removes the license check. By coincidence, my dad was just telling me this week that he'd recently bought a shrink-wrap copy of Office 2010 or 2013, couldn't activate it automatically, and while MS phone support was reluctant to activate it they eventually found some kind of a workaround.
- lbruder 5y ago
  It is. Software doesn't rust. My old copy of Office 2000 still works perfectly fine -- with Wine. Windows 2000 and Office 2000 were the last versions I bought. When M$ switched to activation-based "copy protection", I moved on to Linux and never looked back. But the thing is: You pay for something, and it works. Then, just 11 years after the sale, the product suddenly stops working, just because someone said so, even though it's still in perfect condition. That's a nope from me. Imagine you buy new shoes, and after a while you suddenly can't put them on anymore. Or an oven doesn't work anymore after just 11 years. With M$ stuff it seems to have become a new "normal"...
- MiddleEndian 5y ago
  I bought my computer chair about 15 years ago. The furniture company did not sneak into my house and smash it because it was too old.
dbg31415 5y ago
I don't get the outrage. Really don't.
- vorticalbox 5y ago
  Because you paid for software you can no longer use.
- mrweasel 5y ago
  You buy a car, after owning it for 11 year the manufacturer shows up at your door, takes your car keys and leave you with a perfection fine car you can no longer start. Do you see the problem in that?
  - lbriner 5y ago
    You buy an 11 year old car without keys and ask the manufacturer to give you some new ones. They say no. I would think that is a closer analogy. Anyone who writes software knows that supporting older systems starts becoming more and more expensive. For many companies, one-off licensing is simply not viable in the long term, at some point, if they are not actively updating the software, they lose developer expertise and end up with a system only supported by older and retired engineers since the youngster only learn ruby/python/c# or whatever. It is annoying sometimes but it shouldn't be surprising.
    - wizzwizz4 5y ago
      > I would think that is a closer analogy. How? The software was bought 11 years ago, and the license keys are in the possession of the licensee.
    - nixass 5y ago
      Nobody is asking for support, but for right to use the piece of software they own 100%
      - Markoff 5y ago
zinekeller 5y ago
Is it? I don't know why it's problematic in Germany, but both online and phone activation here still works. Oh one note, there's some TLS settings you need to change if you're doing this in Win7 or earlier (and needs a "hacked" XP (to be precise, with updates for POS Embedded also installed) because XP is so old). Alternatively, phone activation still works, at least here. Update: Just done a phone activation to verify, and it's automated, plain simple, and it's done painlessly. Office 2010 Home and Student (on Windows 7, which I think is irrelevant here). So unless there's a phased deactivation happening, then I'm scratching my head to be honest, especially that weird editions of Windows XP (like the "64-bit Edition" for Itanium and Media Edition <insert year variant>) are still available for telephone activation. Update 2: this is not in Germany, but in (a country in) Asia, using the official toll-free hotline as listed here https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/licensing/existing-customer/activation-centers https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/licensing/existing-customer/...
- mrweasel 5y ago
  The article says that others have call Microsoft, to do phone activation only to be told "... that an activation is no longer possible under any circumstances."
  - zinekeller 5y ago
    Just done a phone activation to verify, and it's automated, plain simple, and it's done painlessly. Office 2010 Home and Student (on Windows 7, which I think is irrelevant here). So unless there's a phased deactivation happening, then I'm scratching my head to be honest, especially that weird editions of Windows XP is still available for telephone activation.
    - mrweasel 5y ago
      Also in Germany? I wonder if there's something weird with Office 2010 and Germany. Perhaps there's something broken in certain Office activations, and given the activation software is over decade old Microsoft support just doesn't care to deal with it. They just tell the customers that activation isn't possible, because they no longer have the tools or infrastructure to fix what ever is misbehaving.
threatripper 5y ago
Is it legal to crack the activation code if you cannot use the software using any official method?
- hughrr 5y ago
  I’ve run out of fucks when it comes to software licensing. I’ve cracked at least three things I paid for in the past when the activation or licensing system no longer worked.
- wizzwizz4 5y ago
  In the UK, I'm pretty sure it's legal to crack the software full stop; if you're authorised to use it, you're authorised to use it. (Distributing the cracks, or really conveying any information you've learnt from disassembly, is still very illegal, though.)
pzmarzly 5y ago
I kept an installation of Word 2010 in Wine for years, as I had that one document that wouldn't format correctly in LibreOffice, office.com, Google Docs or even the latest Word for Windows (Office 365). I edited and printed that document about once a year, and if Office is being run so seldomly, it requires reactivation on launch (or maybe it's only when started under Wine?). Which was fine until I tried to do it this year. So it's not only the clean installs that are affected, I "lost" my installation there as well. In the end I recreated the document from scratch in LibreOffice. I should have done it years ago to be honest. EDIT: I didn't try changing the system date or fiddling with TLS settings, though. Maybe the situation wasn't as hopeless as I thought. But well, it's too late now.
- danlugo92 5y ago
  > In the end I recreated the document from scratch in LibreOffice. I should have done it years ago to be honest. If it's really important, Recreate in Latex or HTML+CSS if possible, more future-proof this way.
ajsnigrutin 5y ago
The version from piratebay still works. It's sad when pirates provide a better product than the official vendor. And it's not just software... unskippable ads on dvds, ads on paid streaming platforms, series/movies removed, books removed from ereaders, obsoleted mediums,.... Piracy solves all that, even when not taking the price (free) in cosideration. Netflix was the one to "solve" piracy with movies/series, where you'd pay a small fee to one company, and get "everything" on one platform, but now, with many streaming services, showing exclusive series/movies, and the need for many subscriptions to watch what you want, they're destroying that too, and making piracy a better option for many users. I kinda wishes businesses would slowly move off microsoft to other solutions but yeah... 2022 will surely be the year of linux desktop! ...wont it?
- tester756 5y ago
  How about malware?
  - ajsnigrutin 5y ago
    Oh yeah, i forgot about malware on music cds https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_BMG_copy_protection_rootkit_scandal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_BMG_copy_protection_rootk...
    - tester756 5y ago
      that's arguing gymnastics I do seriously ask because I avoid pirating stuff because I'm never sure what's there and yes, I do believe that shady sites are more likely to add some fancy stuff like coin miners to their stuff than actual e.g game vendors like CDPR and similar.
      - ajsnigrutin 5y ago
        The risk is always there... but you can always check the hash of the iso, if it's the same as on microsofts site, and then check the crack/patch/activator/... on virustotal. Movies, series, music,.. are usually in file formats not really suitable to carry malware (unless you click on the movie.mp4.exe, but most tech-savy users, who know how to pirate, also know not to do that).
madars 5y ago
So glad there are KMS emulators like py-kms or vlmscd that are open-source and work offline (though there is still pinging home which "Turn off KMS Client Online AVS Validation" group policy setting should disable).
tyingq 5y ago
It doesn't mention the rather hard to describe "online phone activation". This has worked for me (for other MS products) when the normal activation wouldn't. This website guides you through the process: https://getcid.info/ https://getcid.info/ It's basically just a bit more friendly UI to generate all the URL params for this site. An example: https://microsoft.gointeract.io/interact/index?interaction=1461173234028-3884f8602eccbe259104553afa8415434b4581-05d1&accountId=microsoft&loadFrom=CDN&appkey=196de13c-e946-4531-98f6-2719ec8405ce&Language=English&name=pana&CountryCode=en-US&Click%20To%20Call%20Caller%20Id=+17142064889&startedFromSmsToken=3jUenpr&dnis=26&token=0Yr8Nd https://microsoft.gointeract.io/interact/index?interaction=1... Edit: The gointeract.io url is controlled by Microsoft, despite how shady it looks. From what I can tell, the getcid.info site is a 3rd party, so take whatever caution you believe you need to there...though it is an easier UI.
- Nexxxeh 5y ago
  Anyone using getcid.info, using Capture2Text will save you having to manually write out the code. http://capture2text.sourceforge.net/ http://capture2text.sourceforge.net/
- ac29 5y ago
  "German blog reader Tobias has now had the unpleasant experience that this required activation no longer works – neither the online activation, nor a telephone activation"
  - tyingq 5y ago
    The online telephone activation is a third option, different from either of those. You don't actually call anyone.
bigyikes 5y ago
If you’re Microsoft, why not just make it 100% free? It’s 11 year old software that’s so irrelevant that they can’t be bothered to support anymore, right? What’s the harm? Oh wait, for 99% of users there is no difference between Office 2010 and Office 365. In fact, the only significant difference I can think of is the pricing model. If the old office were free, there would be almost no reason to use the latest version. Thanks, Microsoft. /s
- Asooka 5y ago
  Make it free for personal use, but unavailable for institutions.
- gbrown 5y ago
  When it works, the collaborative editing features are nice. It’s good to be able to do that in the native app rather than a browser.
  - wizzwizz4 5y ago
    > When it works, the collaborative editing features are nice. It rarely works – but it's miles better than “this file has been locked for editing by somebody else”, so I'd still call it an improvement over 2010. (Just not an improvement over its competitors.)
    - gbrown 5y ago
      Within an institution where everyone has the same desktop app version, it’s ok. Especially if nobody is using the malignant cancer that is EndNote. I have a few collaborators with whom it’s not really feasible due to incompatible versions, but mostly it works for me.
- ptsneves 5y ago
  Because not fighting for your intellectual property has legal value, and even more PR value. Given the /s i am not sure this was not a joke.
canistel 5y ago
Libreoffice to the rescue... On a serious note, the Libreoffice suite has been more than sufficient for the needs of our family. It has also got far stabler over years... When it comes to office work though, where you need fine-grained compatibility with MS Office formats, it might fall short once in a while...
- Markoff 5y ago
  Uhm no, as fan of open source tried to use that POS unable to even open linked pictures. Sorry, but I am not that rich to use free software which significantly affect my productivity, and that's just tip of the iceberg. Same goes for other software (I use daily for work) exporting files in XLS which doesn't work with anything but Excel installed. Heck, I tried it even for my father and it could not even render properly his simple documents/charts.
flowerlad 5y ago
I'd be pretty pissed if I bought a copy of the product with a perpetual license, and the seller switched it off by turning off "activation". It is not a good idea to install Office executables on your personal computer in any case, because it is a vector for hacks. Many attacks work by getting you to download and open an office document or a PDF file. Office and Acrobat are very old products written in languages without memory safety, which means they are an easy vector. If you need to open Office documents create a OneDrive account and upload the file. Now you can open the file for free, in an browser, without exposing your computer to any attacks.
- danlugo92 5y ago
  > I'd be pretty pissed if I bought a copy of the product with a perpetual license, and the seller switched it off by turning off "activation". I delayed paying for a certain piece of software I really needed (Tripmode for MacOS) because it uses online activation. Having software NOT require online activation (I don't care if there's offline activation) makes me 1000x more likely to pay for it, honestly.
a5withtrrs 5y ago
Microsoft (or any other company) wants to shut down the activation servers/match making servers/<servers on which the product relies> because it's no longer profitable and the app/game/whatever is no longer profitable? Please! By all means, go ahead. But on the way to the shutdown command, if you could please release an official patch so I don't need to visit the piratebay to activate software I've already paid for. That would be much appreciated by those who, for whatever reason, are still using that software. I'd like to think that positive actions taken by developers to be considerate of customers, even if they are 10+ years old, will be of benefit to them in the future. I highly doubt many people are running 10 year old software because they refuse to upgrade, rather there's usually something specific about it that wasn't included/built for/whatever in newer versions.
tonyedgecombe 5y ago
I wonder when XP will get added to the list of non-activatable software.
wegs2 5y ago
For business continuity: open source > proprietary > proprietary with activation servers > SaaS All of those have bins within them too. For example, Google SaaS, or bootstrap startup, will be lower continuity than vendors known for LTS. Business continuity also changes the buy-build dynamic in ways not always factored in.
Vingdoloras 5y ago
Aren't both MAK and KMS keys for volume licenses, ie not relevant to consumers? Any end user trying to use a KMS or MAK key got scammed by whoever sold that key to them...
- detaro 5y ago
  Reselling parts of a volume license to consumers is entirely legal in the EU, first sale doctrine applies. This has been exhaustively litigated to the highest courts.
sys_64738 5y ago
Word 97 doesn't have this problem.

72 points by pndy 5y ago

This was always the fear when product activation was first introduced. And rightfully so, we are now living in that future.

bluerival 5y ago

Its 11 years old. Is this a surprise?

Waterluvian 5y ago
Unsurprising. Still completely outrageous.
jsnell 5y ago
It kind of is. Expecting support for such old software is indeed unreasonable. But this is not asking for support, bug fixes, running on new platforms, or anything like that. It's people wanting to continue using the software they bought fair and square (rather than getting for free or subscribing to), and would still be able to run without this license check. How is that an unreasonable expectation? If MS doesn't want to keep the activation servers running, then they should release a patch that removes the license check. By coincidence, my dad was just telling me this week that he'd recently bought a shrink-wrap copy of Office 2010 or 2013, couldn't activate it automatically, and while MS phone support was reluctant to activate it they eventually found some kind of a workaround.
lbruder 5y ago
It is. Software doesn't rust. My old copy of Office 2000 still works perfectly fine -- with Wine. Windows 2000 and Office 2000 were the last versions I bought. When M$ switched to activation-based "copy protection", I moved on to Linux and never looked back. But the thing is: You pay for something, and it works. Then, just 11 years after the sale, the product suddenly stops working, just because someone said so, even though it's still in perfect condition. That's a nope from me. Imagine you buy new shoes, and after a while you suddenly can't put them on anymore. Or an oven doesn't work anymore after just 11 years. With M$ stuff it seems to have become a new "normal"...
MiddleEndian 5y ago
I bought my computer chair about 15 years ago. The furniture company did not sneak into my house and smash it because it was too old.

dbg31415 5y ago

I don't get the outrage. Really don't.

vorticalbox 5y ago
Because you paid for software you can no longer use.
mrweasel 5y ago
You buy a car, after owning it for 11 year the manufacturer shows up at your door, takes your car keys and leave you with a perfection fine car you can no longer start. Do you see the problem in that?
- lbriner 5y ago
  You buy an 11 year old car without keys and ask the manufacturer to give you some new ones. They say no. I would think that is a closer analogy. Anyone who writes software knows that supporting older systems starts becoming more and more expensive. For many companies, one-off licensing is simply not viable in the long term, at some point, if they are not actively updating the software, they lose developer expertise and end up with a system only supported by older and retired engineers since the youngster only learn ruby/python/c# or whatever. It is annoying sometimes but it shouldn't be surprising.
  - wizzwizz4 5y ago
    > I would think that is a closer analogy. How? The software was bought 11 years ago, and the license keys are in the possession of the licensee.
  - nixass 5y ago
    Nobody is asking for support, but for right to use the piece of software they own 100%
    - Markoff 5y ago

zinekeller 5y ago

Is it? I don't know why it's problematic in Germany, but both online and phone activation here still works. Oh one note, there's some TLS settings you need to change if you're doing this in Win7 or earlier (and needs a "hacked" XP (to be precise, with updates for POS Embedded also installed) because XP is so old). Alternatively, phone activation still works, at least here. Update: Just done a phone activation to verify, and it's automated, plain simple, and it's done painlessly. Office 2010 Home and Student (on Windows 7, which I think is irrelevant here). So unless there's a phased deactivation happening, then I'm scratching my head to be honest, especially that weird editions of Windows XP (like the "64-bit Edition" for Itanium and Media Edition <insert year variant>) are still available for telephone activation. Update 2: this is not in Germany, but in (a country in) Asia, using the official toll-free hotline as listed here https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/licensing/existing-customer/activation-centers https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/licensing/existing-customer/...

mrweasel 5y ago
The article says that others have call Microsoft, to do phone activation only to be told "... that an activation is no longer possible under any circumstances."
- zinekeller 5y ago
  Just done a phone activation to verify, and it's automated, plain simple, and it's done painlessly. Office 2010 Home and Student (on Windows 7, which I think is irrelevant here). So unless there's a phased deactivation happening, then I'm scratching my head to be honest, especially that weird editions of Windows XP is still available for telephone activation.
  - mrweasel 5y ago
    Also in Germany? I wonder if there's something weird with Office 2010 and Germany. Perhaps there's something broken in certain Office activations, and given the activation software is over decade old Microsoft support just doesn't care to deal with it. They just tell the customers that activation isn't possible, because they no longer have the tools or infrastructure to fix what ever is misbehaving.

threatripper 5y ago

Is it legal to crack the activation code if you cannot use the software using any official method?

hughrr 5y ago
I’ve run out of fucks when it comes to software licensing. I’ve cracked at least three things I paid for in the past when the activation or licensing system no longer worked.
wizzwizz4 5y ago
In the UK, I'm pretty sure it's legal to crack the software full stop; if you're authorised to use it, you're authorised to use it. (Distributing the cracks, or really conveying any information you've learnt from disassembly, is still very illegal, though.)

pzmarzly 5y ago

I kept an installation of Word 2010 in Wine for years, as I had that one document that wouldn't format correctly in LibreOffice, office.com, Google Docs or even the latest Word for Windows (Office 365). I edited and printed that document about once a year, and if Office is being run so seldomly, it requires reactivation on launch (or maybe it's only when started under Wine?). Which was fine until I tried to do it this year. So it's not only the clean installs that are affected, I "lost" my installation there as well. In the end I recreated the document from scratch in LibreOffice. I should have done it years ago to be honest. EDIT: I didn't try changing the system date or fiddling with TLS settings, though. Maybe the situation wasn't as hopeless as I thought. But well, it's too late now.

danlugo92 5y ago
> In the end I recreated the document from scratch in LibreOffice. I should have done it years ago to be honest. If it's really important, Recreate in Latex or HTML+CSS if possible, more future-proof this way.

ajsnigrutin 5y ago

The version from piratebay still works. It's sad when pirates provide a better product than the official vendor. And it's not just software... unskippable ads on dvds, ads on paid streaming platforms, series/movies removed, books removed from ereaders, obsoleted mediums,.... Piracy solves all that, even when not taking the price (free) in cosideration. Netflix was the one to "solve" piracy with movies/series, where you'd pay a small fee to one company, and get "everything" on one platform, but now, with many streaming services, showing exclusive series/movies, and the need for many subscriptions to watch what you want, they're destroying that too, and making piracy a better option for many users. I kinda wishes businesses would slowly move off microsoft to other solutions but yeah... 2022 will surely be the year of linux desktop! ...wont it?

tester756 5y ago
How about malware?
- ajsnigrutin 5y ago
  Oh yeah, i forgot about malware on music cds https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_BMG_copy_protection_rootkit_scandal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_BMG_copy_protection_rootk...
  - tester756 5y ago
    that's arguing gymnastics I do seriously ask because I avoid pirating stuff because I'm never sure what's there and yes, I do believe that shady sites are more likely to add some fancy stuff like coin miners to their stuff than actual e.g game vendors like CDPR and similar.
    - ajsnigrutin 5y ago
      The risk is always there... but you can always check the hash of the iso, if it's the same as on microsofts site, and then check the crack/patch/activator/... on virustotal. Movies, series, music,.. are usually in file formats not really suitable to carry malware (unless you click on the movie.mp4.exe, but most tech-savy users, who know how to pirate, also know not to do that).

madars 5y ago

So glad there are KMS emulators like py-kms or vlmscd that are open-source and work offline (though there is still pinging home which "Turn off KMS Client Online AVS Validation" group policy setting should disable).

tyingq 5y ago

It doesn't mention the rather hard to describe "online phone activation". This has worked for me (for other MS products) when the normal activation wouldn't. This website guides you through the process: https://getcid.info/ https://getcid.info/ It's basically just a bit more friendly UI to generate all the URL params for this site. An example: https://microsoft.gointeract.io/interact/index?interaction=1461173234028-3884f8602eccbe259104553afa8415434b4581-05d1&accountId=microsoft&loadFrom=CDN&appkey=196de13c-e946-4531-98f6-2719ec8405ce&Language=English&name=pana&CountryCode=en-US&Click%20To%20Call%20Caller%20Id=+17142064889&startedFromSmsToken=3jUenpr&dnis=26&token=0Yr8Nd https://microsoft.gointeract.io/interact/index?interaction=1... Edit: The gointeract.io url is controlled by Microsoft, despite how shady it looks. From what I can tell, the getcid.info site is a 3rd party, so take whatever caution you believe you need to there...though it is an easier UI.

Nexxxeh 5y ago
Anyone using getcid.info, using Capture2Text will save you having to manually write out the code. http://capture2text.sourceforge.net/ http://capture2text.sourceforge.net/
ac29 5y ago
"German blog reader Tobias has now had the unpleasant experience that this required activation no longer works – neither the online activation, nor a telephone activation"
- tyingq 5y ago
  The online telephone activation is a third option, different from either of those. You don't actually call anyone.

bigyikes 5y ago

If you’re Microsoft, why not just make it 100% free? It’s 11 year old software that’s so irrelevant that they can’t be bothered to support anymore, right? What’s the harm? Oh wait, for 99% of users there is no difference between Office 2010 and Office 365. In fact, the only significant difference I can think of is the pricing model. If the old office were free, there would be almost no reason to use the latest version. Thanks, Microsoft. /s

Asooka 5y ago
Make it free for personal use, but unavailable for institutions.
gbrown 5y ago
When it works, the collaborative editing features are nice. It’s good to be able to do that in the native app rather than a browser.
- wizzwizz4 5y ago
  > When it works, the collaborative editing features are nice. It rarely works – but it's miles better than “this file has been locked for editing by somebody else”, so I'd still call it an improvement over 2010. (Just not an improvement over its competitors.)
  - gbrown 5y ago
    Within an institution where everyone has the same desktop app version, it’s ok. Especially if nobody is using the malignant cancer that is EndNote. I have a few collaborators with whom it’s not really feasible due to incompatible versions, but mostly it works for me.
ptsneves 5y ago
Because not fighting for your intellectual property has legal value, and even more PR value. Given the /s i am not sure this was not a joke.

canistel 5y ago

Libreoffice to the rescue... On a serious note, the Libreoffice suite has been more than sufficient for the needs of our family. It has also got far stabler over years... When it comes to office work though, where you need fine-grained compatibility with MS Office formats, it might fall short once in a while...

Markoff 5y ago
Uhm no, as fan of open source tried to use that POS unable to even open linked pictures. Sorry, but I am not that rich to use free software which significantly affect my productivity, and that's just tip of the iceberg. Same goes for other software (I use daily for work) exporting files in XLS which doesn't work with anything but Excel installed. Heck, I tried it even for my father and it could not even render properly his simple documents/charts.

flowerlad 5y ago

I'd be pretty pissed if I bought a copy of the product with a perpetual license, and the seller switched it off by turning off "activation". It is not a good idea to install Office executables on your personal computer in any case, because it is a vector for hacks. Many attacks work by getting you to download and open an office document or a PDF file. Office and Acrobat are very old products written in languages without memory safety, which means they are an easy vector. If you need to open Office documents create a OneDrive account and upload the file. Now you can open the file for free, in an browser, without exposing your computer to any attacks.

danlugo92 5y ago
> I'd be pretty pissed if I bought a copy of the product with a perpetual license, and the seller switched it off by turning off "activation". I delayed paying for a certain piece of software I really needed (Tripmode for MacOS) because it uses online activation. Having software NOT require online activation (I don't care if there's offline activation) makes me 1000x more likely to pay for it, honestly.

a5withtrrs 5y ago

Microsoft (or any other company) wants to shut down the activation servers/match making servers/<servers on which the product relies> because it's no longer profitable and the app/game/whatever is no longer profitable? Please! By all means, go ahead. But on the way to the shutdown command, if you could please release an official patch so I don't need to visit the piratebay to activate software I've already paid for. That would be much appreciated by those who, for whatever reason, are still using that software. I'd like to think that positive actions taken by developers to be considerate of customers, even if they are 10+ years old, will be of benefit to them in the future. I highly doubt many people are running 10 year old software because they refuse to upgrade, rather there's usually something specific about it that wasn't included/built for/whatever in newer versions.

tonyedgecombe 5y ago

I wonder when XP will get added to the list of non-activatable software.

wegs2 5y ago

For business continuity: open source > proprietary > proprietary with activation servers > SaaS All of those have bins within them too. For example, Google SaaS, or bootstrap startup, will be lower continuity than vendors known for LTS. Business continuity also changes the buy-build dynamic in ways not always factored in.

Vingdoloras 5y ago

Aren't both MAK and KMS keys for volume licenses, ie not relevant to consumers? Any end user trying to use a KMS or MAK key got scammed by whoever sold that key to them...

detaro 5y ago
Reselling parts of a volume license to consumers is entirely legal in the EU, first sale doctrine applies. This has been exhaustively litigated to the highest courts.

sys_64738 5y ago

Word 97 doesn't have this problem.