Office 2019 to support Windows 10 ONLY (but also MacOS)

[LAwLz]

Have they given any reason for this? Like, Office 2019 will be an UWP app which won't run on anything but Windows, or something along those lines? It seems foolish to me to artificially limit your market just to try and sell and get more people onto Windows 10.

 

 

 

3 hours ago, ShredBird said:

At what cost though?  With cyber threats at an all time high we can't keep band-aiding the Windows 7 kernel.  There is no reason to stay on Windows 7, especially in the age of virtualization.  Everything still works on 7 except for security.  Unless MS forces people to Windows 10 the world is less secure from a cyber perspective, they have every motivation to move people to Windows 10 from a global cyber security stance alone.  I wish we lived in a world where malicious participants weren't a thing and using a non maintained OS wasn't a big deal, but we have to think big picture.

When it comes to infrastructure, out with the old and in with the new in my opinion and do it as fast as you can.  Giving people "chances" and delaying EoL ends up prolonging the problems.

Do you have any evidence to support the claim that Windows 10 is more secure than Windows 7? Newer does not necessarily mean more secure, especially not in the case of Windows since the potential attack surface is much larger in 10 than in 7.

Newer != more secure

[mr moose]

2 minutes ago, LAwLz said:

Have they given any reason for this? Like, Office 2019 will be an UWP app which won't run on anything but Windows, or something along those lines? It seems foolish to me to artificially limit your market just to try and sell and get more people onto Windows 10.

 

 

 

I imagine they just did the math and decided that is the sweet spot between lost custom and the cost of keeping office working on older OS's versus new income from people upgrading to 10 before they intended. 

 

Pretty much as I said in another thread about MS, they are desperately trying to get away from legacy,  I really think the idea of maintaining XP (even though companies are paying for it) is still a thorn in their side.    I think they also like the idea of everything becoming a service, which would be harder to do while people are still needing office to be compatible with 7 or 8.

[Jasco1997]

Moves like this are why people use cracked copies or free alternatives.

 

I also don't see any compelling reason why I should upgrade from Office 2010.

[asus killer]

i'm much more concerned they are gonna end the MSI for Office than it's gonna be a windows 10 support only. Either way they will still release MSI for servers and i guess that will be pirated to the end of the world and you can install it on any windows version even if there is no Microsoft support which i doubt it because the MSI enterprise version will have to be installed on all those windows 7, XP,... most governments and companies still use and that's money MS can not afford to lose.

 

I guess this is just another move to the "pay subscription/games as service/..." BS everyone wants to jump in. It will have to be Windows 10 only because previous versions don't support the "app" crap i guess.

[GoodBytes]

4 hours ago, LAwLz said:

Have they given any reason for this? Like, Office 2019 will be an UWP app which won't run on anything but Windows, or something along those lines? It seems foolish to me to artificially limit your market just to try and sell and get more people onto Windows 10.

I think people are miss interpreting this leak.

OSX and web will always be there. It is just that prior version of Windows won't be able to use it, assuming the leak is true.

That would indicate that indeed it is a UWP app. Like I said, I believe it will replace the current UWP app on Windows 10, which made no sense to have 2 version of under Windows 10. Office desktop app, and Office UWP app, why have both?

 

[LAwLz]

1 hour ago, GoodBytes said:

I think people are miss interpreting this leak.

OSX and web will always be there. It is just that prior version of Windows won't be able to use it, assuming the leak is true.

That would indicate that indeed it is a UWP app. Like I said, I believe it will replace the current UWP app on Windows 10, which made no sense to have 2 version of under Windows 10. Office desktop app, and Office UWP app, why have both?

 

But the MacOS version won't be UWP. If they wanted to cut down on the number of versions they maintain then why not scrap the UWP one, which most different from the MacOS version?

[GoodBytes]

29 minutes ago, LAwLz said:

But the MacOS version won't be UWP. If they wanted to cut down on the number of versions they maintain then why not scrap the UWP one, which most different from the MacOS version?

MacOS version is already separate. But probably is that MS wants to showcase UWP, and well, really wants drop Win32. The big up side for MS, is that the UWP app runs in a sandbox environment, so the security holes exploits diminishes significantly, potentially ruling them out, and now anything found would be more on the side of UWP platform over anything else... at least at the short term and maybe medium term.

 

In addition, this allows users of future devices that don't have WIn32 support at all (say, some sort of convertible phone/tablet device that MS is making so many patents about), would give these users the full Office, and not a cut down one like now.

[captain_to_fire]

39 minutes ago, GoodBytes said:

The big up side for MS, is that the UWP app runs in a sandbox environment, so the security holes exploits diminishes significantly, potentially ruling them out, and now anything found would be more on the side of UWP platform over anything else... at least at the short term and maybe medium term.

I don't think that sandboxing requires UWP as there are a lot of Win32 applications that run on a restricted sandbox environment. Google Chrome has been doing it very well since Chrome 1 and now Firefox as well.

Since Office 2010, .docx, .xlsx, and .pptx files downloaded from the internet are sandboxed which Microsoft calls "Protected View". 

'

 

Also, sandboxing has its limitations when it occasionally needs to access the system like accessing an image from the hard drive or uploading another file. Macros for instance are the typical vectors of Office vulnerabilities and it would've been so much better if Microsoft would just get rid of Macros instead of making Office a Windows 10 exclusive under the pretense of alleged security. 

[Misanthrope]

6 hours ago, LAwLz said:

Have they given any reason for this? Like, Office 2019 will be an UWP app which won't run on anything but Windows, or something along those lines? It seems foolish to me to artificially limit your market just to try and sell and get more people onto Windows 10.

You'd think that'd be painfully obvious, but we're talking about a company that has been making Direct X exclusive to their latest windows version for what, 17 or 18 years? Last I checked they did it again for DX12 and Win10 so as foolish as it sounds, it's what they do.

[Misanthrope]

59 minutes ago, GoodBytes said:

MacOS version is already separate. But probably is that MS wants to showcase UWP, and well, really wants drop Win32. The big up side for MS, is that the UWP app runs in a sandbox environment, so the security holes exploits diminishes significantly, potentially ruling them out, and now anything found would be more on the side of UWP platform over anything else... at least at the short term and maybe medium term.

 

In addition, this allows users of future devices that don't have WIn32 support at all (say, some sort of convertible phone/tablet device that MS is making so many patents about), would give these users the full Office, and not a cut down one like now.

Actually maybe I'm way off but I'm thinking that since this is developed in a sandbox environment, cloud-based deployment (in house by MS or big companies making it available on their own network) would also be helped because of this? Really not sure but it seems logical at face value.

[GoodBytes]

4 minutes ago, Misanthrope said:

Actually maybe I'm way off but I'm thinking that since this is developed in a sandbox environment, cloud-based deployment (in house by MS or big companies making it available on their own network) would also be helped because of this? Really not sure but it seems logical at face value.

Very true. Another point for them in deciding in going to UWP.

[NelizMastr]

Not supporting Win7 and 8.1 is in some ways logical. Let me elaborate:

 

When it comes to Exchange server and Outlook support, Microsoft has a rule of 3 versions of support (mostly backwards support by the way, newer will typically work fine). Exchange 2016 supports Outlook 2016, 2013 and 2010. Exchange 2013 supports 2013, 2010 and 2007.

 

If you look at Windows 10's version history, one could argue the RTM version and the current version are quite different iterations in many ways. So we've reached the end of Windows 7 for sure and so 8.1 should be the minimum requirement, but my thinking is that looking at the market share for Win8.x Microsoft just decided not to bother. They're not the first company to more or less abandon 8 (AMD stopped driver support after july 2017 for instance).

 

I don't really think this is a big deal from any way you look at it. Windows 7 support ends in less than two years and current Office products will be supported way beyond that anyway. The most impressive things new Office versions typically offer is broken macros and dropped features you will only find after migrating.

[GoodBytes]

31 minutes ago, hey_yo_ said:

I don't think that sandboxing requires UWP as there are a lot of Win32 applications that run on a restricted sandbox environment. Google Chrome has been doing it very well since Chrome 1 and now Firefox as well.

 

 

 

Also, sandboxing has its limitations when it occasionally needs to access the system like accessing an image from the hard drive or uploading another file. Macros for instance are the typical vectors of Office vulnerabilities and it would've been so much better if Microsoft would just get rid of Macros instead of making Office a Windows 10 exclusive under the pretense of alleged security. 

So instead of using a sandbox environment that a lot of resources has been implemented, you suggest that they ignore this, and to reinvent the wheel albeit an inferior one?

An interesting idea.. already done in Office since several versions ago... while it is something, it isn't great.

 

Also, you just ignored the other points. and like Misanthrope suggested, is to ensure that everyone is running on the latest version, as Office 2016/365 is cloud based, where like MS is doing with Windows 10, you have continued feature releases, and not just security updates. So with the Store system they can push updates easily that way. Not to mention that when security issues are found, they can ensure everyone is on the latest version.

[Eduard the weeb]

Rip ever school district and office still on Xp, Windows 7, and 8 getting the latest Office still 

 

Think this may bring up the number off people on Google Docs and slides personally.

[GoodBytes]

4 minutes ago, Eduard the weeb said:

Rip ever school distract and office still on Xp, Windows 7, and 8 getting the latest Office still 

 

Think this may bring up the number off people on Google Docs and slides personally.

Well, older Office version is still supported. And they'll upgrade to Windows 10.  Schools are on a membership with MS. Meaning they can get the latest and greatest version of Windows without having to pay extra per year, as it gets released. They pay a flat rate for all systems that they have, and enjoy access to the latest Office and Windows.

 

Also, formats are backwards compatible since the "X" variant format (*.docx, *.pptx, etc) , so it is also a none issue.

[Eduard the weeb]

10 minutes ago, GoodBytes said:

Well, older Office version is still supported. And they'll upgrade to Windows 10.  Schools are on a membership with MS. Meaning they can get the latest and greatest version of Windows without having to pay extra per year, as it gets released. They pay a flat rate for all systems that they have, and enjoy access to the latest Office and Windows.

 

Also, formats are backwards compatible, so it is also a none issue.

Oh okay I didn't know that

 

my school district has almost 90% moved to Google, a few middle schools are still on Windows because the school distract bought some surface 3's 2-3 years ago, but now for convenience and being easier to collaborate with for the most part most of us use google docs over word etc.

[Misanthrope]

4 minutes ago, GoodBytes said:

Well, older Office version is still supported. And they'll upgrade to Windows 10.  Schools are on a membership with MS. Meaning they can get the latest and greatest version of Windows without having to pay extra per year, as it gets released. They pay a flat rate for all systems that they have, and enjoy access to the latest Office and Windows.

 

Also, formats are backwards compatible since the "X" variant format (*.docx, *.pptx, etc) , so it is also a none issue.

Fully backwards compatible? Like how do you handle pivot slicers on Excel if you open them on 2007?

[asus killer]

3 minutes ago, Eduard the weeb said:

Oh okay I didn't know that

 

my school distract has almost 90% moved to Google, a few middle schools are still on Windows because the school distract bought some surface 3's 2-3 years ago, but now for convenience and being easier to collaborate with for the most part most of us use google docs over word etc.

it is really distracting that you write school distract and not school district  it took me some time to understand you

[Eduard the weeb]

Just now, asus killer said:

it is really distracting that you write school distract and not school district  it took me some time to understand you

sorry lol

[asus killer]

2 minutes ago, Eduard the weeb said:

sorry lol

it was just some humor, no sorrys needed

[Doobeedoo]

Surprised? So what...

W10 is out for a while, makes sense to support latest. Also Office 2016 is still there for all versions and new enough anyway. Office 2019 makes sense to be for W10 only, no need to drag support for decade old OS and old stuff. It's primarily designed for organizations that don't use Office 365 too.

[GoodBytes]

13 minutes ago, Misanthrope said:

Fully backwards compatible? Like how do you handle pivot slicers on Excel if you open them on 2007?

You are not going to have access to the newer feature. But, the data is still there.

[Deletist_Jerk]

Surface Pro is the only machine running Office in my house. 

 

My ex girlfriend introduced me to OpenOffice, and that seems to be working fine for most home related documents and work. 

At work, I don't know how the Navy is going to integrate Office 2019, should they upgrade...since upgrading to Windows 10 has caused major disruptions to some security controls.  

[AlTech]

I'm sorry but why is this news @Ryan_Vickers ? Windows 7 & Windows 8.1 are on life support because they have an obligation to existing customers to not screw them over.

 

Also, Office 2019 is rumored to be the last time Office can be purchased as a Perpetual License. Also, Office 2019 will have a super short lifespan (will be EOL at the same time as Office 2016).

 

 

[AlTech]

 

Quote

Edit:

It looks like the article in the OP mentions that Office 365 won't get updated on older versions of Windows (If I'm reading it right)

Yes but that's not an issue because Microsoft is artificially limiting Office 2019 support lifecycle. Office 2019 will be EOL at the same time that Office 2016 is EOL.