The next perpetual version of Office for commercial customers is built specifically for organizations running regulated devices that cannot accept feature updates for years at a time, process control devices that are not connected to the internet in manufacturing facilities, and specialty systems that must stay locked in time and require a long-term servicing channel.

Microsoft deems the Office LTSC for Windows and Office 2021 for Mac products as being device-based perpetual-license products designed for use by 'commercial and government customers.' They should just be used when frequent software updates can't be tolerated by an organization, according to the announcement: Perpetual licensees don't get access to the new feature updates that arrive to Office users who pay via recurring Microsoft 365 subscriptions. One characteristic of the perpetual-license model is that organizations pay for the Office product in one lump sum. These Office productivity suites include the traditional Excel, PowerPoint and Word applications (plus Visio Pro and Project Pro for Windows users) and will get sold under so-called 'perpetual licenses,' rather than subscriptions. The previews are just intended for testing purposes and shouldn't be used in production environments, Microsoft indicated. The previews for Office LTSC for Windows and Office 2021 for Mac 'will be available from Apthru January 17, 2022,' the FAQ indicated. It means that this preview is not for consumer Office users.

The so-called commercial preview term is explained in this FAQ document. Microsoft last week announced that 'commercial preview' versions of the new Microsoft Office long-term servicing channel (LTSC) for Windows product and the Office 2021 for Mac product were released.

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