Microsoft unveils a Universal version of Office for Apple silicon
- Reference: 1605206410
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/11/12/mac_office_2019_universal/
- Source link:
A tweet from Microsoft principal software engineer Erik Schwiebert told Mac Office insiders to start their engines and, sure enough, a fresh Universal build for those picking up Apple's latest and greatest chippery dropped a few hours later.
MSFT plans to push a Universal build of Mac Office 2019 to the Beta Channel (formerly “Insider Fast”) by the end of today.
We don’t have a public date or version for a final release; this is an initial peek for customers to test on hardware they may be acquiring this week... :) — Erik Schwiebert (@Schwieb) [1]November 11, 2020
[2]According to Apple , "a universal binary runs natively on both Apple silicon and Intel-based Mac computers, because it contains executable code for both architectures." So no troubling of the Rosetta translation layer.
While very much "an initial peek", the impending arrival of a universal build of Mac Office 2019 has generated [3]a little gnashing of teeth from some Windows users, noting that Microsoft appeared to be favouring platforms other than its own.
It does, after all, have form. Just ask the Windows Phone users who glumly watched competing platforms prioritised while their own favoured mobile operating system withered and died. Even those with new Surface Duo devices have had to look on as [4]Samsung phones were the first to gain multi-app support in Microsoft's Your Phone.
It is fair to say that [5]Windows on Arm has not been the highest priority for Microsoft. Its own browser, Chromium Edge, arrived late to the game and developer darling Visual Studio Code has only turned up in recent months.
A fully native version of Office has yet to put in an appearance, although Microsoft 365 [6]will deposit a release "optimized to run on a Windows 10 PC on an ARM-based processor" if asked.
Those wishing to run the perpetual licensed version of Office 2019 will unfortunately have to go down the full Intel emulation route, which is currently 32-bit only (although Microsoft has said that 64-bit support would be turning up in the not too distant future.)
Users with long memories will recall the Surface RT devices of yesteryear that featured a fully native version of Office as well as numerous compatibility issues.
The more hybrid approach of today (for Office 365), where some system components run natively while others maintain the backward compatibility to which Microsoft is committed, should avoid a repeat of the RT fiasco even if all the performance gains of a fully native Arm version of Office has yet to be realised. For that, it seems, you'll need an Apple Mac. ®
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[1] https://twitter.com/Schwieb/status/1326568648543100928?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
[2] https://developer.apple.com/documentation/xcode/building_a_universal_macos_binary
[3] https://twitter.com/smnhdy/status/1326660348745805824
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2020/08/06/microsoft_previews_android_apps_on_windows/
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2020/10/15/even_2020_cannot_bring_forth/
[6] https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/surface/surface-pro-arm-app-management
[7] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
This puzzled me a bit
Those wishing to run the perpetual licensed version of Office 2019 will unfortunately have to go down the full Intel emulation route, which is currently 32-bit only (although Microsoft has said that 64-bit support would be turning up in the not too distant future.)
The Version of Office that is on my MacBook Pro is 64bit. MS took heed of the warning that Apple put out some years ago about the demise of 32bit support on MacOS with Big Sur
Excel report Version 16.41 and the System Information app reports that it is 64bit. This is the non Orifice 360 version.
Do you mean that the Intel Emulation route is 32bit only or do you mean something else?
Couldn't the Apps for MacOS (Intel) be run through the Rosetta App and then run on MacOS (Apple SI)?
Re: This puzzled me a bit
Yeah, all my macOs boxes which need Office, have the latest purchased iteration available to them. The lack of Outlook on some of them is annoying, but Mail can be configured acceptably, even if the corporate server prefers the former. I won't be buying a new client, if it has to be cloud-based 365, regardless if it has nice optimizations. None of the Office apps should be stressing modern hardware enough to be substantially degraded by a Rosetta process.
To be perfectly honest, ARM is going to be where everyone else besides gamers go eventually anyway. No surprise that M$ is producing universal binaries.
Now if they'd just put out native Office for Linux...
Re: This puzzled me a bit
I think it means that, on Windows, only the subscription version of Office currently provides ARM binaries.
The pay-once version is still a strictly-Intel build, and for running Intel code on ARM Microsoft supports only 32-bit binaries.
So as per the thrust of the article, Microsoft seems to be putting a lot more effort into supporting ARM processors in Macs than in PCs.
Apple have approx 9% of the PC & laptop market with their MacOS machines.
That 9% of the market is definitely moving to Arm (assuming that Apple's market share does not shrink).
In the Windows 10 market, I assume that Arm based machines is a tiny percentage of the market, probably < 1%.
So it makes sense for Microsoft to put more effort into Office for MacOS on Arm than into Office for Windows on Arm because there will be vastly more users of the Office for MacOS on Arm product.
Of course Microsoft is ignoring their own platform, Satya doesn't want an OS, just a 'cloud' platform. So preferencing other platforms will push people away and naturally destroy their own platform, which is seen as a money sink to him.