Support Lifecycle Policy: Please Fix Office 2004

[BBCWatcher]

Version: 2004
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Intel

Microsoft recently announced the end of Mainstream Support for Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac on October 13, 2009. This announcement is a violation of Microsoft's own Support Lifecycle Policy, posted here:

<http://support.microsoft.com/gp/lifepolicy>

Please clarify whether Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac is a "Business" or "Consumer" product. It should be classified as the former, at least for Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac Professional Edition. (Any product with the word "Professional" in the title obviously indicates a business product.)

That said, for both "Business" and "Consumer" products, Microsoft's policy is to offer Mainstream Support as follows:

"...[minimum of] 5 years from the date of the product's general availability, or for 2 years after the successor product (N+1) is released, whichever is longer."

Office 2004 became generally available on May 11, 2004. Office 2008 became generally available on January 15, 2008. Therefore, the 2 year rule applies (the longer period), and the earliest expiration date for Mainstream Support for Office 2004, according to Microsoft policy, must be January 15, 2010. The October 13, 2009, date does not reflect Microsoft policy and is in clear error.

Please fix this announcement. Thank you.

 

[Diane Ross]

Please fix this announcement. Thank you.

We are your peers. We can't fix anything. Send feedback to Microsoft.

When working in Office, you can use the ³Send Feedback² option under the
Help menu in all of the Office applications or visit

<http://www.microsoft.com/mac/suggestions.mspx>

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

Version: 2004
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Intel

Microsoft recently announced the end of Mainstream Support for Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac on October 13, 2009. This announcement is a violation of Microsoft's own Support Lifecycle Policy, posted here:

<http://support.microsoft.com/gp/lifepolicy>

Please clarify whether Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac is a "Business" or "Consumer" product. It should be classified as the former, at least for Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac Professional Edition. (Any product with the word "Professional" in the title obviously indicates a business product.)

That said, for both "Business" and "Consumer" products, Microsoft's policy is to offer Mainstream Support as follows:

"...[minimum of] 5 years from the date of the product's general availability, or for 2 years after the successor product (N+1) is released, whichever is longer."

Office 2004 became generally available on May 11, 2004. Office 2008 became generally available on January 15, 2008. Therefore, the 2 year rule applies (the longer period), and the earliest expiration date for Mainstream Support for Office 2004, according to Microsoft policy, must be January 15, 2010. The October 13, 2009, date does not reflect Microsoft policy and is in clear error.

Please fix this announcement. Thank you.

I can't speak for Microsoft, but in the past the practice has been for
MacBU to support the current and previous versions of Mac Office.
Personally I would expect to see MacBU support 2004 with at least
security updates until the next major release of Office. That doesn't
mean they will, but it wouldn't surprise me if that's what they do.

When the next version comes out I will move to it as soon as I can. I'm
happy that VBA will return (hopefully with speed improvements for Intel)
and I am also hopeful the new sharing features that have been talked
about for Windows office will find their way to the Mac. I hope we never
see the awful ribbon thing. We don't need to be dumbed down, I hope.

-Jim