News, info, and opinion by Mac users, for Mac users.

August 2, 2007

updates

Microsoft is out of the Office until 2008

Posted Aug. 2, ’07, 8:08 AM PT by Dan Moren
Category | Software » Updates

Office 2008 delayI spoke too soon. Yesterday, I wrote about the beta release of Microsoft’s Remote Desktop client:

Microsoft: as good as their word. How’s that for a sentence you never thought you’d see on MacUser?
I would like that remark stricken from the record. In fact, I would like it stricken from time itself.

Turns out it was just the old bait-and-switch. Today, the Redmond-based firm announced that Office 2008 has been delayed until—wait for it; wait for itttttt—January 2008. Ah ha! The versioning system all becomes clear now. See, even if they delay it, they can still just say: “Hey, we said 2008.” Tricksy.

The original release date was supposed to land somewhere in the second half of 2007, so it’s hard to say just how much of a delay we’re looking at. But this doesn’t mean it’s not a big deal: Office is a major piece of software on the Mac, and it’s one of the few premiere packages that is still not a Universal Binary. By the time the release is nigh, it will have been two years since the first Intel-based Macs rolled off the line, and two and a half years since the announcement of the transition. What have you go to say for yourself, Microsoft?

“We made the decision to do this so we could give users the type of quality that they deserve,” said Craig Eisler, general manager of the Macintosh Business Unit. “This is a quality-driven decision.”
Sure, it sounds reasonable, but what other excuse are they really going to give? “Oh, we totally forgot we were supposed to be working on Office, because we were all playing the Halo 3 demo. Our bad!”

So for those of you looking forward to making the transition to an Intel-native version of Office, mark Macworld ‘08 on your calendars. Me, I’ve never owned a copy of Office, and I’m not about to start now.

[via Macworld]


4 Comments

33Nick said:

Which proves to show we should stop giving them free publicity.

It's been a fifteen year thing. They always do the same thing.

Maybe we could finally do the right thing, treat them the way they should have always been treated, by ignoring them.

Wow, does that make me an MS hater? No. Just scarred :)

August 2, 2007 9:34 AM
Paul said:

How about Quicken? At least Microsoft announced a Intel native product.

August 2, 2007 10:27 AM
Brian Little Author Profile Page said:

I rarely ever say this, but for my money, they could cut features in the initial release, save them for point revisions, and just get the damned product out the door. The MacBU is typically better than this, and the delay means I'm going to get stuck testing/deploying a major OS update and a major app update at the same time.

Thanks, Microsoft, for complicating my life. Again.

August 2, 2007 12:05 PM
alex said:

How do you go about avoiding the purchase of Office? Im a college student and this is my first Mac, and would like to delay or avoid buying this for as long as possible :)

I know you can save Pages and Keynote files as .doc and .ppt but can you open MS Office files without having the app? Excel?

August 2, 2007 5:11 PM

Leave a comment

 



Visit other IDG sites: