Office for Mac Home and Student lists for $140, while the for-commercial-use Home and Business sells for $220.Ĭustomers, however, have less than three more years before Office for Mac 2011 falls off Microsoft's support list in January 2016. They can also opt for a 'perpetual' license of Office for Mac 2011, the traditional kind that is paid for once, but can be used as long as wanted. The consumer subscription plan, Office 365 Home Premium, costs $100 per year. Yesterday, MacBU recommended that customers running Office for Mac 2004 migrate to Office 365, the line of subscription plans that lets users install Office for Mac Home & Business 2011 on up to five Macs. Office for Mac 2008 dropped support for Visual Basic macros, but that support was restored in Office for Mac 2011. Microsoft extended support for Office for Mac 2004 to allow its users, many of whom relied on Visual Basic-based macros, time to migrate to the impending Office for Mac 2011, which launched in October 2010.

'This extension does not change the five-year support policy for other Office for Mac products, including future versions,' a senior product manager said then. But Microsoft's last-minute reprieve of Office for Mac 2004 was a one-time deal, as the MacBU made plain at the time. The speedy retirement of Office for Mac 2008 is not new: Users faced the same five-year support lifespan for Office for Mac 2004, which was shut down in January 2012.Īdmittedly, that was over two years later than the original deadline. For consumer software, meanwhile, it states: '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.'

'Microsoft will offer a minimum of 10 years of support for Business and Developer products,' the company says. On its support lifecycle FAQ, Microsoft explains support for business and consumer software. At the same time it categorizes all editions of Office on OS X as consumer products.

For some reason, Microsoft considers all editions of Office for Windows as business products, no matter that some - like Home and Student - cannot be used for commercial purposes.

Office mac home and student 2008