back to article Office 2024 unveiled for Microsoft 365 refuseniks

The Long Term Service Channel (LTSC) version of Microsoft Office 2024 is being joined by a version aimed at consumers and small businesses that want to avoid paying subscription fees. Microsoft strongly prefers that users opt for Microsoft 365, yet it is also aware that a sizeable proportion would rather choose what is …

  1. keithpeter Silver badge
    Windows

    "While Office LTSC 2024 can run completely disconnected – a requirement for many commercial users – Office 2024 requires both a Microsoft account and an internet connection."

    I wonder what they think that Microsoft will gain from this requirement?

    1. Lazlo Woodbine Silver badge

      My Microsoft account is free and uses an anonymous email address that is only used to log into my home installation of my work Office 365 account. I can't see what MS gain from this beyond ensuring each licence is only installed on one machine (or 5 for the small business version)

      1. Pascal Monett Silver badge

        You can't see doesn't mean that Redmond doesn't benefit.

      2. CowHorseFrog Silver badge

        THey might not know your official email and the matching details, but they are reading all your files. So unless your files are full of fake info, they "know" everything about you.

    2. elsergiovolador Silver badge

      They will be able to turn off the servers in the future and stop people from using Office.

    3. mark l 2 Silver badge

      So if you're in a location with no internet connection such as on a plane will Office 2024 refuse to function until it can phone home to the MS mothership? Or is an internet connection just required during the installation to activate the software and then it can work offline?

      1. Gene Cash Silver badge

        It depends on how long it's been since it's last phoned home. If it's been a couple weeks, you'll get the "sucks to be a MS user" popup.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          re: "sucks to be a MS user"

          That's why you have a copy of LibreOffice on your machine ready to go.

          Alternatively, just forego Orifice and save a load of cash and keep MS our of your life.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Depends on whether you're using a cracked copy or not.

        If you do get stuck and your Office doesn't work on a plane, just speak to one of the people on the flight that are able to work...they'll probably give you the crack.

    4. karlkarl Silver badge

      Nothing. It will be cracked on the first day of release.

      In UK, we are allowed "cracks" for integration, so we will likely be using it for our offline labs.

      1. The Oncoming Scorn Silver badge
        Pint

        Grey Market licenses ahoy!

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Yo ho yo ho!

  2. Jou (Mxyzptlk) Silver badge

    But the important parts are not fixed.....

    Sometimes converts .CSV silently to "tab delimited" on save.

    If you have, on a German Windows, IP numbers in the format of *.[0-9][0-9][0-9].[0-9][0-9][0-9].[0-9][0-9][0-9], i.e. three triple digits after the first number, it STILL silently converts it to a number. Even if you disable autocorrect.

    So 10.200.20.200 is let alone, cell content is "10.200.20.200". But 10.200.200.200 is silently converted to 10200200200 - to add to the confusion it DISPLAYS it as 10.200.200.200, but the cell content isn't...

    Among many other over-eagernes-we-at-Microsoft-know-better problems.

    Libreoffice does it right, and if not select "Text" when opening the .CSV to avoid too much intelligence. Libreoffice, for example, converts a cell with "FALSE" to the number "0", and "TRUE" to 1 if you let it be at "Standard"...

    1. AbominableCodeman

      Re: But the important parts are not fixed.....

      Or "any field with a slash in it is a date"

      Or "lt looks like you're tring to input a long/lat, let me mash it with a float for you"

      Or Copy paste adding arbitary CR/LF to the copied cell contents depending on if MOD(RND)=7

      $org is trying to save £24M, yet wont consider LibreOffice, I suspect mainly because of M$ marketing warfare...it certainly can't be because O365 is actually good.

      1. Jou (Mxyzptlk) Silver badge

        Re: But the important parts are not fixed.....

        > Or "any field with a slash in it is a date"

        Yeah, exactly the same for the German notation 22.8 or 22.8.94, which is the 22nd September (1994)...

        > Or "lt looks like you're tring to input a long/lat, let me mash it with a float for you"

        Don't you E-9 me!

        > Or Copy paste adding arbitary CR/LF to the copied cell contents depending on if MOD(RND)=7

        I did not have that yet... I always hit F2 before pasting INTO a cell. But now that you mentioned, it will happen next time I use it.

        > $org is trying to save £24M, yet wont consider LibreOffice

        The problem is that excel is insanely versatile. Starmaker Office comes quite close, but Libre is faaar away. See my pet bug for xyz chart which Excel can since 1992. Couldn't get that chart type with earlier versions of Excel, of I simply failed to make it work with earlier versions. Other thing I miss in Libre and Starmaker / Excel have: An actually versatile "cell format depending on X" method.

        1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

          Re: But the important parts are not fixed.....

          Following the link it appears to be regarded as an enhancement and not meny people are asking for it. You need to get a few more users to request it.

          1. Jou (Mxyzptlk) Silver badge

            Re: But the important parts are not fixed.....

            The reality is: They all give up and use alternatives. Not necessarily Excel or SOFTMAKER office (not Starmaker, my bad), there is enough out there to create such graphics. It would be nice to have a direct gnuplot connection though, that would work well.

        2. David 132 Silver badge
          Happy

          Re: But the important parts are not fixed.....

          >…22.8 or 22.8.94, which is the 22nd September (1994)…

          Really? Those wacky Germans. I’d have interpreted that as 22nd August, but what would I know :P

          1. Jou (Mxyzptlk) Silver badge

            Re: But the important parts are not fixed.....

            :D got me there! I blame it (wait rolodex) cold fingers.

      2. Blackjack Silver badge

        Re: But the important parts are not fixed.....

        It is because they are probably very heavy Excel dependant.

        1. AbominableCodeman
          Mushroom

          Re: But the important parts are not fixed.....

          Not for want of trying to stop users shoehorning Excel to be a database, we've got edicts from on high not to use it in such a way, legal regulations regarding such behaviour, and a development department ready to satisfy evey data and application need.

          I think introducing miscreant's fingers to 'the bench vice of enlightnment' is may be the only option.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: But the important parts are not fixed.....

            Wouldn't nuts work better?

            If they really won't listen, ending their ability to procreate (other, post vice, than in 2D) could be A Good ThingTM..

            1. collinsl Silver badge

              Re: But the important parts are not fixed.....

              These days not all developers are issued with the requisite equipment for that to be a standard. Much better to stick with their abilities to type.

          2. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: But the important parts are not fixed.....

            "users shoehorning Excel to be a database"

            Yup, that makes my piss boil...but using Access as an interface for an MSSQL ODBC connection to ultimately create an XLS makes my piss go super critical.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: But the important parts are not fixed.....

      Can you not set the field type in power query editor? I'm sure it used to be import options.

      1. This post has been deleted by its author

  3. Bebu
    Windows

    When did businesses...

    stop supplying the products customers knew they wanted?

    Now it's pretty much the Python Cheese Shop sketch [video] except lacking the satisfactory conclusion.

    I would have thought if a customer were prepared to pay you $100-$200 for your tat but without any further connection with your business you would take their money and speed them on their way.

    Fortunately home users that don't need the full brain damage of Office have a few alternatives to choose from - both paid and libre.

    If MS manage to BSOD users' PCs with an unsolicited Office2024 update even the most loyal MS disciple might turn apostate.

    1. Blackjack Silver badge

      Re: When did businesses...

      When laws and regulations made it easy to not do so and keep earning money.

      Microsoft has ALWAYS done this. Step one kill the competition by any means needed. Step two, now that there is no competition waste as less time and effott into our products as possible because we are the only option. Step 3 Profit!

      1. Terry 6 Silver badge

        Re: When did businesses...

        It's more, I think, than just profit.It's an almost psychopathic determination to control how people do stuff, to make us do stuff their way, not just with their tools.

        So much of the last couple of decade's changes seem to be about controlling what we do.

        The Start menu becoming successively less easy to modify and organise. The loss of the control over Office menus with the introduction of the Ribbon. Even demanding a Microsoft account to use their software has elements of this ( they probably don't need it just to snoop on our data).

        I'm guessing there's envy of Apple's control and consequent ability to make money from a walled garden that might be part of this (So still about profit). And some of that may be the flop that was Windows phone (which was a damned good phone too) and Windows 8. Their attempt to replicate Apple's success.

        And of course there's still the echoes of the shock they got when they failed to foresee the rise of the internet.

    2. collinsl Silver badge

      Re: When did businesses...

      > I would have thought if a customer were prepared to pay you $100-$200 for your tat but without any further connection with your business you would take their money and speed them on their way.

      And many businesses operate that way. However, there is also an absolutely huge market in trying to retain custom at your business by maintaining ongoing relationships with clients, hence the proliferation of rented things (from software to streaming services to even car heated seats). This proves to the banks and credit houses supporting the business in question that they have an ongoing profit stream which can be credited against, making the financial institutions money because they have lent money to a business which has a business case and other proofs to show they can be reasonably expected to return said monies.

      This ongoing revenue stream for a business also looks good for shareholders and other interested parties, as well as making business planning easier as you can see your expected revenue stream month on month. And, if you get your pricing right, you can also make a profit from people paying for things they don't actually use, effectively giving you "money for old rope". This can also give you a competitive advantage against your business rivals as you can use this predicted income to slash your costs compared to theirs, offer products at below market value and/or at a loss for a period of time, and once the competition is eliminated you have created your own ecosystem of customers to exploit.

      And once you have people locked into your ecosystem you can start forcing changes on them, knowing they can't/won't go elsewhere as there either aren't any (reasonable) alternatives, or the competition is doing the same as you anyway.

  4. MiguelC Silver badge
    Black Helicopters

    Re: "Although the exact content of the suites might differ, the retirement date for Office 2024 and Office LTSC 2024 is the same – October 9, 2029"

    And what does Microsoft mean by "retirement"? It's an unusual wording if they just mean end of support...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Everyone wants to go full subscription mode. Microsoft can't do that with Office because to be frank if you aren't doing basic spreadsheets without complex macros or using lots of data office365 is effing useless. Maybe they think one day it will be ready? Who knows?

    2. Roland6 Silver badge

      Once upon a time MS included 10 years of support in the price with no extension, now it’s only five (if you are lucky), however, you do have the now well established practise of up to 3 years of paid support beyond this point, if you desire.

      I suspect “retirement” is the new MS word for this situation.

      1. CJatCTi

        Office 2016

        By your rule MS should have stopped "updating" my Office 2016 years ago, but it keeps changing. I want them to leave it alone but they don't seem capable.

    3. Ken Moorhouse Silver badge

      Re: October 9, 2029

      In view of the fact we are talking about Microsoft here: Are you sure it's not the 10th September 2029?

  5. ComicalEngineer

    I bought several copies of Office 2010home and student some years ago.

    I still have 2 licenses left :) which will see me past retirement.

    In the meantime LibreOffice is nearing full compatability with Word unless you have some complex formatting.

    1. DoctorPaul Bronze badge

      That's what I thought, but then when I needed to do a reinstall I found that Microsoft had switched off the activation server. You might be in for an unpleasant surprise.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Office 2007 \ 2010

    Try installing old Word or Excel from ancient Office CDs on modern hardware. It is funny how fast they operate without all the modern bloat.

    I will still put these onto modern hardware for the oldies who just want to write the odd letter to the council. They can't get their heads around something new like Libre Office so classic Word is still perfect.

    And it is so refreshing seeing it start almost instantly instead of taking a minute to connect to all the clouds and AI's of the current mess from Microsoft.

    Why is it the faster computers have got, the slower applications start?

    1. CowHorseFrog Silver badge

      Re: Office 2007 \ 2010

      YOur observation is true of many other non computer things as well.

      Take roads, the more you build to supposedly improve traffic and travel times, the actual result is the opposite. Another example is income, ...

    2. Jurassic.Hermit

      Re: Office 2007 \ 2010

      Good idea, but isn't WordPad enough for that?

      It's a great pity MS got rid of MS Works, 80% of users didn't need more than that.

      They put everyone on Office, but now they dumb it down because they no longer have Works, and end up alienating pro users.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Office 2007 \ 2010

        Wordpad is being deleted by MS... so that option is now gone.

        Also installed Works a few times this year.

    3. bigphil9009

      Re: Office 2007 \ 2010

      On my fairly humble Core i5 laptop with 16 GB RAM Excel (latest version whatever its called) opens in about 3 seconds.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Office 2013 via Installation CD

    Still works, even on a brand new PC.

    Writing letters has not evolved so much that I need to upgrade.

    1. ThatOne Silver badge

      Re: Office 2013 via Installation CD

      > Writing letters has not evolved so much

      Either has writing books. People even managed to do it before MS Office!

      There isn't really a reason to use MS Office, except maybe for opening MS Office documents you get sent (and LibreOffice usually manages quite well)..

    2. CowHorseFrog Silver badge

      Re: Office 2013 via Installation CD

      Yup must be true, writing has evolved so much you cant actually list a single valid example.

  8. Terry 6 Silver badge

    And of course..Publisher's gone

    The "killer app" for the home user and small business user so MS have been gunning for it for years- It's not been in the Home versions, where it's most useful, for years. Now it's gone completely.

    Of little use to IT or publishing pros, it was perfect for the home and small office.

    It's what we use to create a little price list for a small shop, a menu, a newssheet or an A4 poster for the school/church/synagogue/mosque/temple etc fete.

    Or to make a little, fun, greetings card for some family occasion. And so on.

    i.e. it's just useful for the SOHO user. Whereas Powerpoint.........

    So of course they dump Publisher and boost PowerPoint.

    Fuckwits.

    1. Korev Silver badge
      Boffin

      Re: And of course..Publisher's gone

      You'd be surprised (or maybe not) at the number of scientific conference posters "designed" in Powerpoint.

  9. Martin-73 Silver badge
    Pint

    Yeah, no thanks

    Office 97 still works on windows 11, (you may require a USB cd drive lol) and the .docx incompatibility isn't really a problem. All modern versions of turd..sorry word, can read .doc, and if someone sends me a .docx, not hard to read it with freeware.

    Edit... it would become a chore if i used and edited dozens of .docx files a day, but that is not my use case, YMMV

    1. Jou (Mxyzptlk) Silver badge

      Re: Yeah, no thanks

      I can confirm that. Got my c:\Office97 (installed in Win10 x64 in 2018) on my Win11. Still works. Though not everything works, Outlook and Access for example.

      To install I installed in a Server 2000 VM, and then transported it over since the installer from MY CD is 16 bit.

  10. Roland6 Silver badge

    “ Excel features improved performance along with new text and array functions.”

    So does that mean it now has improved support for AI/ML matrix maths and thus make it easier to create DIY AI/ML; taking the ‘abuse’ of Excel to another level…

    [Aside: Did a quick Google and it seems using Ecxel for AI/ML is quite a thing. For example: ” Machine Learning with Microsoft Excel? Yes, PLEASE!” ]

  11. Herby

    It needs an internet connection?

    This is BAD, really BAD. There are some places where an internet connection is NOT possible (or allowed) (don't ask). You need a true stand alone version of the software. Thankfully there are alternatives, but some people are too stuck on software from Redmond, that they don't know better. Hopefully they will learn, and more hopefully not the hard way.

    Sorry, no internet connection here. Leave smart watches and cell phones at the door!

    1. collinsl Silver badge

      Re: It needs an internet connection?

      In your case Microsoft will be happy to sell you the LTSC enterprise version of Office 2024 for $$$$$ (rather than $$$) which can be used totally offline.

    2. CowHorseFrog Silver badge

      Re: It needs an internet connection?

      Amazing how you couldnt think of simply ignoring the latest release... its almost like some people have no self will.

  12. Groo The Wanderer

    People still pay for Microsoft Orifice?

    -- Happy LibreOffice user

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      They do, for one reason and one reason alone that winds me up every time I hear it.

      "I want to make sure I can open all the files people send me".

      In the decades I've been using LibreOffice (and ancestors), I've never had a problem opening up any document...ever...so I don't know where this line of thinking comes from...other than on Linux, you get weird formatting problems...but they are easily resolved by installing the Microsoft font suite.

      The only time I have problems with documents and formatting is when they were created and formatted by a numpty that doesn't understand how to properly format a document and does whatever it takes to get it "looking" right.

      LibreOffice has no compatibility issues, but it does expose your fraudulent claims when it comes to "office skills".

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        ...formatted by a numpty that doesn't understand how to properly format a document...

        AKA "just about everyone except professional secretaries". Word is an absolute pig to "properly" format a document with.

        Voice of experience - I put together some 300+ pages of a group project report in Wordperfect in less than two hours, one of the other members struggled to pull together ~75 pages of an earlier report for the same project in Word in less than a whole day in class. Both were from source pages split fairly evenly across the group.

        1. Ken Moorhouse Silver badge

          Re: Wordperfect

          When I presented WordPerfect training courses it was a joy to teach people how to do tabs properly. With a lot of classroom tuition there is the notion that students are afraid to touch the keyboard in case they screw up something that is on a knife-edge of stability. The visual cues, even with WordPerfect for DOS were second to none. So any woopsies are a doddle to correct.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Hmm. Yes.

        Documents that my missus gets from Girl Guiding are always horribly cobbled together* and opening them in LO makes stuff misbehave badly- even worse than in Office, though even that often isn't great.

        *Whoever creates this stuff-** mostly forms for Guide leaders and parents to fill out- thinks they're going to be printed out and completed by hand. So they don't know or care that the formatting falls apart when the recipients try to fill them out on the screen.

        **Still living in the 20thC

      3. WakeTheGimp

        I agree with everything you've said.

        The only time I've had push-back about LibreOffice compatibility, is people freaking out that other people (that use MS Office apps) won't be able to open the files they've created in LibreOffice.

        That is, until I show them that you can set the default save options in LibreOffice, to save docs, spreadsheets and presentations, automatically in the MS equivalent formats without having to manually do it when you save the files.

        Viola.

        Oh, and eM Client is an excellent (Windows or Mac) alternative to Outlook (free for personal use with less than 2 email accounts) but worth the money to buy a license if you need it for business (you can buy a lifetime license or subscription).

        I run my IT Support business on both.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          I've been aware of lots of alternatives to Outlook for a long time, but the problem is Microsoft constantly has to fuck around with it's authentication / session management. Quite a few mail clients that support Office365 integration will randomly stop receiving email without producing any errors...and you have to go through the soft shoe shuffle of re-authenticating to get it working again.

          At the moment, I use the latest version of Thunderbird (I'm on Linux, so I can't really use many of the fancier clients out there) and the new UI is actually quite nice. I used to use Evolution, but my god is that a heavy application to run...it absolutely chews through CPU cycles in the background...I really don't care about my email being indexed for faster search...we've reached a point now where SSDs are quick enough that you don't need an index for searching to be fast...we need to drop this bullshit ASAP...the difference between searching a none indexed inbox vs an indexed one is barely noticeable on an SSD, if you didn't compare them, you wouldn't notice at all.

  13. Locomotion69 Bronze badge

    I noticed the phrase locked-in-time

    You pay now $ 149 / € 149 / £ 149/ .... for a product famous for not wearing out or losing its existing functionality. Until you hit some arbitrary date in the future and pooofff! It's gone.

    It all feels not logical to me.

    To this day I operate software bought decades ago on an old W98 laptop and it still works fine to this day. It will die the day when the laptop decides to cut out.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Whenever I hear weird Microsoft decisions...

    ...I think of that Werner Herzog penguin documentary and that poor penguin running the wrong way.

  15. martinusher Silver badge

    Lacking Trust

    I try not to use modern software not because I'm set in my ways but rather I just don't trust software vendors any more. Most, if not all, of the features we use everyday were fixed 25 years ago or so so everything since then seems to be an exercise in meaningless tail-chasing combined with a concerted effort to actually stop things from working.

    So, for example, my venerable copy of Office 2000 and something still works because it was sold back when you owned what you purchased. It doesn't need ongoing subscriptions to keep it running and there's no danger of it being obsoleted by some maintenance update. (Usually these just rendered the package unusable but in recent years its switched to (just straight stop it working).

    Microsoft isn't the only, or even the worst, offender.

    Incidentally, I don't use the old Office any more because Libre does the same job and understands various file formats. Microsft's always changing the file formats as one of its tools to enforce planned obsolescence -- its irritating because we all know its unnecessary.

  16. Grunchy Silver badge

    Libre Office

    It’s not very compatible, but for my purposes it’s good enough. If I need 100% compatibility I can fire up virt-manager, boot into Win10, and run my olde Office 2007 which still runs same as ever.

    I hate Microsoft now, I’m not updating anything anymore. I’m going FOSS.

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