The speedy retirement of Office for Mac 2008 is not new: Users faced the same five-year support lifespan for Office for Mac 2004, which was shut down in January 2012.Īdmittedly, that was more over two years later than the original deadline.
For consumer software, meanwhile, it states: "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." "Microsoft will offer a minimum of 10 years of support for Business and Developer products," the company says. On its support lifecycle FAQ, Microsoft explains support for business and consumer software.
At the same time it categorizes all editions of Office on OS X as consumer products. But it will not be served with security updates after April 8.įor some reason, Microsoft considers all editions of Office for Windows as business products, no matter that some - like Home and Student - cannot be used for commercial purposes. Office for Mac 2008 will not suddenly stop working next week it will launch, and let users create, edit and print documents. The older Office Student and Teacher 2003 retires down the road, too, in April 2014, alongside Windows XP.Įven the Mac suite that's clearly business-oriented, Office 2008 for Mac Business Edition, loses support in a few days. Office Home and Student 2007, for example, which launched in late January 2007, a full year before Office for Mac 2008 appeared, will be supported until October 2017, more than four years from now. Microsoft supports the Windows versions of Office, even those that target consumers, for 10 years, or twice as long as it does Office for the Mac. The MacBU's note was yet another reminder that Microsoft shortchanges customers running OS X.
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