Pirated software installed by college (!)

[Xanthippe_Voorhees]

At least you don’t have to deal with meltdown patch in compatible with the Antivirus, got a bunch of Bsod, requiring reimaging. And an audit is coming up.

I am grateful every day that I ditched Windows a decade ago. I ran Linux for a while and then when I met my husband I got a used Mac because I wanted to be lazy.

My family (parents and siblings) still use windows. The last patch was chaos. My brother thought his 6mo computer was dead…but it turns out the patch just stopped working because he had his Microsoft brand Bluetooth mouse plugged in.

Ick!

 

[Xanthippe_Voorhees]

Xanthippe_Voorhees:

And seriously, use Google Docs. Their presntation software is just as robust and useful, if not more so.

That is a good point. You could use Google Docs. Personally I generally don’t because I don’t trust Google with my private data. But for something like this I’d use it.

It’s a school report, not an advanced financial statement. My husbands in software engineering. We use Google docs with data of varying levels of private information…mostly because once a computer is connected to the internet–however briefly–it is no longer secure in any way.

 

[Rhubarb]

Microsoft offers their office suite to colleges to use, and it’s licenced. There’s no reason your college would have unlicensed versions. That would open the entire district to a huge lawsuit.

I know my Jr. College offered like, 10 dollar copies of Windows and Office Student through the bookstore. And my University allows their students 5 licences for the entire Office Suite, and it seems those free student licenses are in perpetuity because I’m 3 years out of college and still can get the software from my student files. Point being, it is more likely that your school has licensed software than not.

 

[Jestersage]

I am going to blame VLK screw up. Happens a lot around here; you campus probably have 1000 devices, and depend on how it is set up, they will need to inventorize it… and if someone didn’t inventory the usage of keys, situation like this tend to happen. Combine with the F up with Meltdown (affect bootloader), and we are never out of task

Put it this way: As your company/campus is government funded, there will be audit, and thus will be extremely unlikely to use illegal software. We tend to be understaff and overwork, and a missing license is nothing compare to a bunch of BSoD off site. I actually found my confession is less on my struggle with porn and more on anger with work.

 

[TheLittleLady]

Are you going to an accredited school in the US?

 

[Joe_5859]

That was my first question. In the U.S., this simply would never happen. In other countries, I’m not so sure.

I don’t think the OP is in the U.S. Even so, I think much of the above advice still applies with regards to doing one’s due diligence.

 

[guanophore]

I checked Office too. It’s says that it is unlicensed and it has to be activated soon.

Trial periods are not illegal. You should use the software that is most appropriate to complete your coursework.

The only atlernative would be to drop out of the college

I think any student who has this level of scruples about trial periods of software should consider investing in their own laptop and software. There are student versions of MS office that are very affordable.

In the U.S., this simply would never happen.

On the contrary, it happens every day to millions!

 

[Joe_5859]

On the contrary, it happens every day to millions!

I meant it wouldn’t happen that a university would be complicit in pirating software in their computer labs. I can’t see that happening. I’m sure there are plenty of individuals who do.

 

[AlNg]

If you believe that something wrong has occurred, I would say to report it anonymously. There are various ways to report pirated software anonymously.

 

[Gorgias]

And seriously, use Google Docs. Their presntation software is just as robust and useful, if not more so.

I like placing graphics behind text in slides: the first slide has the graphics in full color, and the subsequent slides (which continue discussing the topic of the graphics) has the graphic as a muted background to the text. Google Slides can’t do this.

 

[Xanthippe_Voorhees]

Xanthippe_Voorhees:

And seriously, use Google Docs. Their presntation software is just as robust and useful, if not more so.

I like placing graphics behind text in slides: the first slide has the graphics in full color, and the subsequent slides (which continue discussing the topic of the graphics) has the graphic as a muted background to the text. Google Slides can’t do this.

You can just save the image twice after changing the colors in the photo editor. It’s an extra step but not impossible.