Microsoft Office 2019 Will Be The Last Offline Productivity Suite, Users Will have To Adopt To Office 365 After Support Ends?

Microsoft Office version 2019 will be the last offline productivity suite with an onsite installation and system license. The company appears to have confirmed that MS Office 2019 will not have a successor. Simply put, Office 365 will now be the only option for users who want an office productivity suite from Microsoft. Incidentally, Microsoft has already begun to push users towards the cloud-based productivity suite and other products that reside on remote servers and can be accessed on any device with an internet connection.

Microsoft Office, which includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, Outlook, OneNote, and many others, has always been very popular and widely deployed. The productivity suite can be configured or tailored as per the requirement of the business. Moreover, individual installations too can be specifically customized to offer an optimized productivity suite. But, Microsoft has decided that Microsoft Office 2019 will be the last such software suite that can be installed on computers running Windows operating system. The company has already taken steps to ensure Office 365 will become popular, and eventually the only choice for business users who have always relied on MS Office.

As expected, users of offline version of Microsoft Office productivity suite could try and hold on to their licenses, but the company has indicated there won’t be any more feature additions through Service Packs. However, it will send out security updates until the software’s service life is valid.

Microsoft Does Not Want Users To Buy MS Office 2019 And Use Office 365 Instead:

It might come as a surprise, but Microsoft is indirectly urging the dedicated users of MS Office not to buy the latest offline version, which is Microsoft Office 2019. The business and office productivity suite is quite comprehensive and includes all the tools that businesses today could possibly need to conduct their digital activities including communication and data management. However, Microsoft is putting up a rather compelling argument that suggests customers must switch over to the cloud-based version of MS Office, which is called Office 365.

The Twin Challenge, an interesting article on the Microsoft 365’s official blog penned by Jared Spataro, corporate vice president of the cloud-based productivity suite, mentions how the remote-hosted version is better than the offline version. He outright mentions how “Office 365 is crushing Office 2019 because it keeps getting better over time, with new capabilities delivered every month, while Office 2019 apps are ‘frozen in time.’ They don’t ever get updated with new features, and they’re not cloud-connected.”

Microsoft has already dropped MS Office 2019 from its Home Use Program (HUP) for its Software Assurance business customers. The company is pushing a discounted subscription to Office 365 to the concerned and affected parties. Simply put, it is amply clear that Microsoft wants users to switch over to Office 365.

Microsoft Won’t Make Any More Offline And On-Site MS Office Installations:

Microsoft Office 2019 appears to be the last version of MS Office that all users, including personal and business, can install on their computers. In short, the MS Office 2019 productivity suite will not have a successor. Moreover, Microsoft is scaling back software support, security updates and feature additions.

The company has implied that there won’t be any Office Service Packs either. These cumulative updates to Microsoft Office installations were once highly anticipated as they brought with them several new features in addition to bug-fixes and stability improvements. Moving ahead, Microsoft will only support the MS Office installations with only security updates. In essence, the features that are currently within Microsoft Office 2019 will remain unchanged, and the installation will never have any new features before its end of support life.

Users of Microsoft Office 2010, one of the most popular offline versions of MS Office are facing a tough choice. Support for Office 2010 ends on October 13, 2020. Just like Windows 7 OS users, they too won’t have any extended support after 2020. After MS Office 2010 support ends, users should switch directly to Office 365, suggests Microsoft.

What About Companies Who Need An Offline Productivity Suite?

It is important to note that cloud-based version of MS Office, the Office 365, is quitecapable, versatile and efficient office productivity suite. Its usage is steadily climbing. It will eventually surpass all offline installations of all MS Office versions. Moreover, Office 365 is continually developed and new features are added regularly. Simply put, Office 365 is a very attractive choice for corporates. Companies can use their subscriptions on multiple devices and even run applications on a web browser. The Office 365 works seamlessly across most major operating systems including smartphones. Combined with cloud-storage, employees can be productive anywhere.

However, several companies simply want an offline installation of MS Office that works well without an internet connection. Moreover, companies are increasingly worried about large corporations like Microsoft, Google, Apple, Amazon, etc. “listening”. Such companies could download and use LibreOffice, suggests ZDNet.