My friend works for a company which requires her to use Microsoft specific application, she didn’t really want to switch to Win 11 and choose to just use Wine Linux package and install a 2016 version of MS office on her Linux laptop. That’s all well and good, but this company she is working for servers other clients at pretty high up places and she is terrified that she using the pirated version of MS would create a liability for her company as if Microsoft wants to target pirated software, they hunt for organisations rather than individuals.

So, what should she do? Is there a way you can hide the fact that the excel sheet was created on pirated software, is it even possible to tell excel sheets apart which are using pirated software?

PS: If there is a way to destroy all metadata related to the excel sheets, it would be very helpful.

edit: Thanks to everyone who chipped in for an answer, gonna suggest her to either ask her employer to give her the necessary software + hardware and if denied quit. I now realize this is not the norm in any company but hers. Anyways, thanks everyone.

  • 𝘋𝘪𝘳𝘬@lemmy.ml
    94·
    8 months ago

    My friend works for a company which requires her to use Microsoft specific application

    So the company needs to provide said friend with all the needed software.

      • 𝘋𝘪𝘳𝘬@lemmy.ml
        21·
        8 months ago

        Absolutely!

        I don’t know for other countries but here in Germany the employer - by law - has to provide the employee with everything the employee needs to do the job he’s hired for.

        I boldly assume this is the case in most countries.

  • Guenther_Amanita@feddit.de
    36·
    8 months ago

    Maybe ask the company if they can get you an O365-Account, so you can just use the web version of it or install that as webapp.

    Sorry to say, but employees cost so much money in salary, those few bucks for software licenses are just minor.

  • Ulu-Mulu-no-die@lemm.eeEnglish
    361·
    8 months ago

    she didn’t really want to switch to Win 11

    On which computer? Her own?

    Does not the company provide a PC with the tools needed? If yes, she has no right to decide what goes on it, the company does and she should respect that, doing what you want on a company PC can get you in serious trouble, way more serious than finding out you’re using a pirated version of Office.

    If the company expects her to use her own PC, they should at least provide the needed software licenses, Office365 can be used on the web, no need to install anything and it can be used on Linux no problem.

    BUT the serious problem remains of having company data on her own PC, the best thing to do in such a case would be creating a VM, encrypting the file system and keeping all company data contained inside the VM.

    Tho in such a case I would change company, no serious company today would expect employees to keep company data freely on whatever personal PC, that could lead to data breaches, I would never want to be involved in case like that, tho I live in EU, we have very strict laws about data integrity and privacy, dunno about other countries.

  • FalseMyrmidon@kbin.run
    21·
    8 months ago

    Are they not providing the hardware and software for this? If so she should just use what they provide for work.

  • Jako301@feddit.de
    19·
    8 months ago

    Can they find out?

    No, not really. The Metadata doesn’t have a “pirated” flag and something like the product key doesn’t get saved. Microsoft themselves probably know due to their telemetry but even they can’t be bothered about it. I would bet that even you send a pirated document to the Microsoft CEO, they wouldn’t notice or even care enough to look for it.

    But as always there is the important rule of “don’t fuck with work stuff, ever”.

    It’s already questionable why she is editing company documents on here private PC without either a dedicated and remotely managed work particition + VPN or an O365 online work account. These documents fall under far stricter data safety regulations and the way it is right now, she is personally liable for any data leaks.

  • auth@lemmy.ml
    18·
    8 months ago

    Fun fact: MS was onced caught using pirated audio software to create an audio file for (I think) Windows XP

  • stoy@lemmy.zip
    121·
    8 months ago

    PS: If there is a way to destroy all metadata related to excel sheets, it would be very helpful.

    No, it would look like she is hiding something far worse.

    It is an insane suggestion to even concider, it is far, far worse to have zero metadata than to have a bit of odd metadata.

    If the sheets are tagged as being crested by a pirated version of excel then she could feign ignorance and pretend she has zero idea of what is going on, if the meta data is gone, she would be known as someone with something to hide.

    Also, why the fuck is she editing company documents on her personal computer?

    That is by far the main problem.

  • LeFantome@programming.dev
    9·
    8 months ago

    If Office 365 online has enough features for her, maybe just do that. It works just fine on Linux. The web versions are not that feature rich but honestly they have more features than most people use.

    Another option is running a Windows VM on Linux with the latest office installed. You probably do not need much RAM.

  • 0xtero@beehaw.org
    7·
    8 months ago

    I think she should use company provided software and hardware for company related work.

    Pirating stuff when your employer offers you supported way to work is just… beyond stupid.

  • nothacking@discuss.tchncs.de
    6·
    8 months ago

    I don’t think so, unless the pirate left a calling card. If you want to make sure, just make the same sheet in pirated and non pirated versions, and compare the file. (They are zip archives, so that will let you see the raw XML)

  • Kawawete@reddeet.com
    61·
    8 months ago

    To answer your first question : no, there’s absolutely no wat to determine if a version of Office is cracked or not by looking at the files made with said version. Tho Microsoft can see if a cracked version sends telemetry but they don’t care about it. You can use it freely. And honestly, LibreOffice is 1 to 1 compatible, you just have to install Microsoft’s proprietary fonts.

      • morras@jlai.lu
        81·
        8 months ago

        It’s rather the other way around, Word is not 1 to 1 compatible with LibreOffice Writer when it comes to document editing. Writer is far better on that aspect.

    • Anonymous_TorPerson@lemmy.mlOP
      21·
      8 months ago

      I love FOSS but LibreCalc sucks! Word is good, I did a project with it, I am pretty sure you can get the hang of it. Not sure about anything else tho

      • Kawawete@reddeet.com
        1·
        7 months ago

        Yeah I must admit that once you have used Excel, it’s hard to use anything else… But Writer is honestly less finnicky to use than Word imo.

  • haui@lemmy.giftedmc.com
    4·
    8 months ago

    Its actually the first time I hear of this and I work in IT. Still possible it flew over my head but I never imagined this to be the case. Pretty sure a million more people would be in jail if that were the case.