Microsoft to release one-time purchase Office for Windows, macOS in 2021
Microsoft has announced a new one-time purchase version of Microsoft Office that will debut later in 2021 for Windows and macOS.
Credit: WikiMedia Commons
The company said it plans to release both a Long-Term Servicing Channel variant of Microsoft Office and a version designed for consumers and small businesses. Like the previous Office 2019 release, both versions are designed for those who don't want to pay monthly for the cloud-based Microsoft 365 service.
Microsoft said that the LTSC version will include new updates like Dark Mode and accessibility improvements, as well features such as Dynamic Arrays and XLOOKUP in Excel. It's likely to include those features in the consumer Office 2021 too, but Microsoft is holding off on adding any details until closer to the release date. The company did say that it doesn't plan to change the one-time purchase cost.
Additionally, there's a new change to the support window for Office 2021 LSTC. The window is being bumped up to five years, instead of the seven years that it has typically provided. The cost is also increasing by 10%.
The Office 2021 LTSC will become available as a preview version in April, but the consumer version won't. Microsoft is eyeing a release in the second half for LTSC, though it isn't clear if it's planning the same for Office 2021.
Credit: WikiMedia Commons
The company said it plans to release both a Long-Term Servicing Channel variant of Microsoft Office and a version designed for consumers and small businesses. Like the previous Office 2019 release, both versions are designed for those who don't want to pay monthly for the cloud-based Microsoft 365 service.
Microsoft said that the LTSC version will include new updates like Dark Mode and accessibility improvements, as well features such as Dynamic Arrays and XLOOKUP in Excel. It's likely to include those features in the consumer Office 2021 too, but Microsoft is holding off on adding any details until closer to the release date. The company did say that it doesn't plan to change the one-time purchase cost.
Additionally, there's a new change to the support window for Office 2021 LSTC. The window is being bumped up to five years, instead of the seven years that it has typically provided. The cost is also increasing by 10%.
The Office 2021 LTSC will become available as a preview version in April, but the consumer version won't. Microsoft is eyeing a release in the second half for LTSC, though it isn't clear if it's planning the same for Office 2021.
Comments
Don't you mean, "dropped down to five years, instead of the seven years that it has typically provided."?
The last stable and functional version of Access I used was Access '97. The later versions I attempted to use were unstable, losing foreign key definitions being the most obvious problem. Back then, I was certain Access needed to be rewritten from the ground up to remove all the underlying hack code that made it unstable.
Is Access a dead-end product for MS? It's offered only on PC versions of Office. From my perspective, it's the only desktop level database that has reasonable functionality. No other product has a reasonable relational db back end, and a nicely integrated front end. Claris is awful from every vantage point: functionality, cost, value.
The result of no viable fully functional integrated desktop DBMS is we're relegated to using spreadsheets which isn't the same thing at all.
No it would not. It is not as simple. That is also reason why some software could not work when Apple moved to from HFS to APFS. I wonder how much work expereince you have in migrating software and retesting. Probably not much. I have seen this attitude "recompile and run" few times in business over three decades in IT now and it was not too good. Mostly this is idea of young and immature people.
You prediction is based on past when Apple didn't have their own processor team to create M1 CPU/GPU against Intel's years of entrenched processor design capability. Now Apple do. When apple decides to go into creating hardware/software platform or gadget; with such talented large team than in past, Apple thinks through not for near future but very long term. Time will tell but not to worry what Apple is doing with M1. Going forward, it will be high performance, low power consumption, well integrated platform and for Apps, will take time to port most but will be their.
Don't listen to the others... They are discounting the FACT that M$ already has Office Apps for iPad/iOS and so it IS a matter of re-compiling, TO A DEGREE. You see, the new Mac M1 is ARM's based and is on the same chip architecture as the iPad/iPhone/Apple TV, so if you have an iOS App version, porting it over is actually pretty simple, when compared to porting from Intel to Arm... BUT again, this is assuming they have an iOS/iPad version of Office, which they mostly do. Now I DO agree with others, it's not just a straight forward port, you always have to Alpha test, Beta test, update for mouse/screen, etc. but we are not talking about a complete re-write.
I like Panic's approach -- buy the version you want when you want it, get support for a year, and keep it as-is after. If you want new features or new support, renew it at a discount. Rented software is not the only solution.