this post was submitted on 23 Feb 2025
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I can see a lot of smaller companies (and maybe one or two reasonably big ones) opting for air-gapped networks of old operating systems and older versions of Office. A fool's errand, sure, and for a number of reasons, but it's cheap, and upper management likes cheap.
Problem for them is under the current subscription model, the apps need to periodically phone home to check the license status or else they cease work.
The alternative is paying Microsoft for an expensive perpetual license of the last set of offline-only apps, which are from 2021.
I mean has a word processor really changed much since 2021?
I think the question is more "Will Microsoft ever make an offline release again?"
I’d say yes given that Office 2024 (perpetual) and the LTSC versions have already been released. Trying to find the FAQ again where they said they reconsidered and will still release perpetual offfline versions.
At that point I'd just use one of the tools to bypass checks. Would still have legitimate licenses and everything.