Big Microsoft October 2018 Changes

It is official, Office 2019 and Windows Server 2019 are now included on the Microsoft October 2018 Product Terms and the 2016 versions have been removed.

Make sure to visit https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/licensing/product-licensing/products.aspx and pull all the latest Microsoft licensing documents.

There is one interesting change in the October Product Terms, Microsoft is retiring on January 1, 2019 the right for M365 E3 and E5 FROM SA customers to run Office Professional Plus.  Of course, for those customers who have active EAs, this will not be a factor until your next renewal.   I have to wonder if Microsoft fully understands the impact to their customers of this change and did they even get customer feedback before making it. Many customers depend on this right and they will have to make significant changes without it. In fact many customers would not have purchased the M365 E3 or E5 without the FROM SA right to run Office Professional Plus.

Maybe it’s time for more customers to take a look at LibreOffice, because at least they will not have rights rescinded in the future.