Extended Support: Office 2004 for Mac;New Support Lifecyle for WSUS
Microsoft Extends Mainstream Support for Office 2004 for Mac until January 10, 2012
Microsoft is extending the Mainstream Support retirement date for Office 2004 for Mac to January 10, 2012, instead of October 13, 2009, as originally scheduled.
This decision was made to ensure continuous cross-platform compatibility for Office 2004 customers that are still reliant on Visual Basic for Applications (VBA). Office 2008 for Mac shipped without VBA support. Since release of Office 2008 for Mac, Microsoft has announced that it will include the VBA functionality in the next release of Office for Mac. To bridge this gap, Microsoft is extending Mainstream Support for Office 2004 Mac to January 10, 2012. With this additional support, customers running Office 2004 for Mac will continue to enjoy all the benefits provided during Mainstream Support, including no-charge security hotfixes, until January 10, 2012. >
Note, this extension does not reflect any change to the Microsoft Support Lifecycle policy for other current or future-release Microsoft products, including Office for Mac. As per the Policy, Macintosh products will continue to receive a minimum of five years of Mainstream Support, at a supported service pack level.
The Microsoft Support Lifecycle (MSL) policy provides transparent, predictable information regarding the support lifecycle of Microsoft products. More information is available on the MSL Web site http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle.
http://support.microsoft.com/gp/lifean44
New Support Lifecycle: WSUS
Microsoft Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) to follow new support lifecycle upon WSUS 3.0 Service Pack 2 release
Microsoft is announcing a change regarding the Support Lifecycle of Windows Server Update Services (WSUS).
WSUS shipped out-of-band in the past and did not take a Support Lifecycle typical of many Microsoft products. Starting with WSUS 3.0 Service Pack 2 (SP2), WSUS will be classified as both a component of Windows Server as well as a service. However, since WSUS component functionality is wholly dependent upon access to the Windows Update or Microsoft Update services, WSUS must be regularly updated to provide compatibility with those update services.
While the Windows Server Update Services component will be supported for the life of the Windows Server version on which it is installed, customers must apply WSUS updates within 12 months of their release in order to allow WSUS to maintain compatibility with the Microsoft Update services in order to be able to distribute the latest product updates in customer environments.
In order to help customers maintain compatibility with update services, Microsoft will provide 12 months support overlap period for the prior version, beginning with WSUS 3.0 SP2.
Customers are encouraged to update promptly to WSUS 3.0 SP2 to avoid compatibility issues when accessing update services.
For the WSUS Lifecycle and Roadmap FAQ, please visit http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/wsus/bb980625.aspx. Additional information on WSUS requirements can be found at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/wsus.
The Microsoft Support Lifecycle (MSL) policy provides transparent, predictable information regarding the support lifecycle of Microsoft products. More information is available on the MSL Web site http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle.
http://support.microsoft.com/gp/lifean43