"This extension does not change the five-year support policy for other Office for Mac products, including future versions," a Microsoft product manager said at the time.Īlthough Microsoft does not make an enterprise-class Office suite for Mac, the more expensive Office Home & Business 2016 for the Mac is aimed at office workers, as it includes the Outlook email client, a staple in business. In the first instance, Microsoft made clear the support postponement was not a change in policy. In 2009, the company extended support for Office 2004 for Mac by 27 months to give users additional time to upgrade to Office 2011 it did the same this summer by adding 21 months to Office 2011's support, again to give customers the promised "2 years after the successor product is released." Consumer-grade software receives Mainstream support only.Īt times, as the FAQ indicated, Microsoft has been flexible about Office for Mac support. Meanwhile, Extended delivers security updates only. The former includes not only security patches, but also feature changes and non-security bug fixes. Microsoft breaks its usual decade of support into two five-year parts: Mainstream and Extended. "Extended Support is not offered for Consumer software and Multimedia products with the exception of Windows Desktop Operating system." "Microsoft will offer Mainstream Support for either a minimum of 5 years from the date of a product's general availability, or for 2 years after the successor product (N+1) is released, whichever is longer," the same FAQ reads. Meanwhile, consumer software gets shorter shrift. "Microsoft will offer a minimum of 10 years of support for Business, Developer and Desktop Operating System (consumer or business) Software Products," the company states on its support lifecycle FAQ. The difference means a shorter support span for Office on Mac. ![]() At the same time, it categorizes all editions of Office on OS X as consumer products. ![]() Microsoft has long considered all editions of Office for Windows as business products, no matter that some - like Home & Student - cannot be used for commercial purposes. This support-glass-half-empty trait goes back years.
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