A preview of Office 2024 will be available in April after months of development and internal testing. The first version of the office suite for local installations will be the LTSC commercial edition for companies, the consumer version should arrive at the end of the year.

The Redmond company has been promoting the cloud version of Microsoft 365 for years, and many of us thought that it would cancel the on-premise version after its launch. It is not so. Microsoft wants all the users it can get and not leave the way open to alternatives that exist and are very good, especially what comes from LibreOffice.

In this way, even though in the announcement of the first preview of Office 2024 however, we recommend the cloud versionunderstand that there are clients “with specific usage scenarios that require a truly long-term service channel” This version is aimed at them for local installations, under a perpetual license with one payment and no mandatory subscriptions.

Office 2024, updated but without AI

The new version will include main application productivity suites, Word word processor, Excel spreadsheet, PowerPoint presentations, databases, Access and others such as Outlook email client. Let’s say it won’t include Publisher, as that tool will be discontinued, and it won’t include Teams, which will be offered as a separate download.

Microsoft promises that the new suite will offer “significant improvements” compared to the previous version of Office 2021, but at the same time draws attention to its shortcomings. As an on-premises product, it does not offer the cloud capabilities of Microsoft 365 apps, such as real-time collaboration. They won’t even have AI technologies which are added to the cloud version.

And the cloud version is much better: it offers more applications; better integration between them; enables storage and better collaboration; It offers all the features of the suite and is quickly and conveniently updated with both features and security. Or as Microsoft points out: “The future of work in an AI-driven world is in the cloud. In most customer scenarios, Microsoft 365 provides the most secure, productive and cost-effective solution, enabling customers to unlock the transformative power of AI with Microsoft Copilot..

Still, for those who need a cloud version, let’s say Office 2024 will be available for Windows and Mac and in 64 and 32-bit editions. The first public preview will be published in April and will correspond to the commercial edition of LTSC. Microsoft has confirmed that it will launch a consumer version as well, and at the same price as the launch of Office 2021. Don’t forget that we offer you great deals on Office as well as Windows from time to time.