Office 2011, Will it be a Universal app?

[StuartCH]

So, Microsoft Office 2011 for Mac is in it's near-finished form (Beta 4) but it seems none of the last 4 Betas, or the Messenger Beta app seems to be able to run under PowerPC architecture, which sucks considering Microsoft bragged on allot about Office 2008 being a Universal app but now it seems like they want to abandon it completely. This is a terrible decision since I use a PowerPC mac and so does my school (They went crazy on iMacs and PowerMacs in early 2006) And I know you'd say to me why not just get a Mac mini blah blah blah, but I just can't afford one and my school would have to rework their whole server aswell as splash out. What are your thoughts on this? I love the new interface and icon designs for office but it seems it's time to switch to iWork (sigh )

P.S. It doesn't seem right of MS to abandon PowerPC support in Messenger just for the sake of video chat, Skype, Yahoo!, AIM and others all still support this yet they are Universal and don't have any problems doing so.

 

[BornAgainMac]

It is 40% bigger than Office for Mac 2008 according to an article on appleinsider.com. Of course, that could just mean it has been stripped down to Intel only and they added more graphical elements to it.

I am betting that it will be still universal. Nothing has been mentioned on system requirements yet.

 

[SHADO]

I remember reading something saying that it will be Intel only, but I could be wrong.

 

[MisterMe]

...

I am betting that it will be still universal. Nothing has been mentioned on system requirements yet.

If the betas are Intel-only, then the release version will be Intel-only. It is instructive to remember that the last PPC-based Mac was released in 2005. That is approximately six years prior to Office 2011.

As much as I would love for developers to support my PM G5 forever, that is not going to happen. History shows that Microsoft leaves old Apple hardware/software behind quickly. Office v.X was Carbon-based, but MacOS X-exclusive. Silverlight 1.0 is the only version of Microsoft's Flash alternative to support PPC-based Macs. Seen in this light, it is to be expected that Office 2011 will be Intel-only.