Microsoft has already announced the coming of the latest version of their Office software and the update is expected to launch on September 22. (Photo : Reuters)
The Microsoft Office 2016 for Mac might share identical features as the one released in Windows but there is one glaring difference; support. The Windows version of Office 2016 gets 10 years of support while the Mac variant only gets five.
According to Computer World, Office 2016 Home and Student version is assured to get security patches until October 2025. On the other hand, the Mac version of the same versions will only receive security support up until October 2020.
The difference pointed by Microsoft means that Mac users will receive shorter support span compared to its Windows counterpart.
Microsoft also stated on the products frequently-asked-question, "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. Extended Support is not offered for Consumer software and Multimedia products with the exception of Windows Desktop Operating system."
Microsoft will offer its usual 10-year support into two 5-year part called Extended and Mainstream. The Mainstream support includes security patches as well as patches for features and non-security bugs. The Extended support will only cover patches and updates for security. For consumer-grade software, it will receive the Mainstream support only.
According to CNeT, the 2016 Microsoft Office is priced at $400. However, users have the option to purchase each tool included in the suite for an individual price of $110 each. This means that if potential users only need Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel, they only need to pay $220 instead of paying the full $400 for the whole suite.
