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Office for Mac 2011 to Be 32-Bit Only

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Yeah. Does this matter? At all? I'm sure there are coding efficiencies outside of 64 bit that will make Office run better. Compatibility between PCs and Macs is quite correctly the priority here. Who's running 4GB word files? I prefer iWork, but the MS Mac Office team has seemingly done a fantastic job with the new Office. Good on them. Adobe and MS get a lot of crap from Mac users but few Mac devs would even attempt software that's 1/10th as complex or robust as their offerings. We're lucky to have them.
 
Our work to increase compatibility means we haven't completed the transition of moving the entire user interface over to Cocoa yet. And because Apple's frameworks require us to complete the move to Cocoa before we can build a 64-bit version, Office 2011 will be 32-bit only.
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That's understandable. I'd rather they take their time and get it right. Sounds like they're doing the right thing. Besides, even the new Office 2010 for Windows (which is offered in both 32 and 64 bit) is being recommended by TechNet that users run the 32-bit version.

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Basically, many various types of access databases are not cross-compatible.
 
miles01110 said:
Can't wait to watch the chorus of "OMG this is 2010... why can't I type my essay in 64-bit????" make themselves look foolish.
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Totally agree here. The industry is getting to the point where the excessive computing power in your machine is turning more into bragging rights more than anything else for most applications.

While there are definitely good uses for 64-bit apps such as photo editing, video suites, real-time game rendering and compilers, your typical office suite use is not one of them.
 
This is no big deal. Most Windows users have been told to stick with Office 2010 32-bit because any plug-ins used now won't be compatible with the 64 bit version. How many work with files so big in Office that there is any need for 64-bit? Not many I'd guess. 64-bit Office is like when XP was first 64-bit. It's nice to know they are headed towards 64-bit but there is no current need for it.
 
Tyre said:
Hahaha you guys cannot seriously complain about this. Refusing to upgrade because it is 32-bit and not 64 is like college kisd waiting for the new i7 so they can watch porn... lightning fast!

Very few people need that capacity, and the ones that do would have access to the resources (a PC) that they need.
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Hey, what is wrong with wanting to see the nipples in High Definition? ;)

Edit: Beats wanting to see the MS CEO is High Definition glory as he grunts and sweats onstage.
 
Yet more evidence of why cross-platform software sucks. And yes, I'm looking at you too, Adobe, even though I use your software every day. Even though I use Office, the 32/64-bit thing won't affect me much honestly, but it's still holding back progress.
 
Errr, does it matter? Do you really need more than 4GB of RAM to type a document? This is Office, not Photoshop.
 
TuffLuffJimmy said:
You guys do realize that all iWork applications are 32-bit, right?
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I'm pretty sure Dylan was being sarcastic.

64-bit is one of those buzz words that people like to throw around without any real understanding of what it means. VERY few people would actually derive any significant benefit from 64-bit office at this point. Almost certainly, more people would benefit from increased compatibility between Mac/Windows Office.

I make some pretty big ppt/xls files from time to time but I don't even approach the RAM limit from 32bit.
 
I could care less if it is 32-bit or 64-bit. I just want a Mac Version of Office that loads quickly and does not lag like 2008 still does, even on my i7 with 8GB of RAM. I think fixing the performance of Mac Office is much more important then any other feature.
 
This is what drives me CRAZY about working in the PC world. I use to work with all sorts of Windows 2003 R2 and 2008 servers... both 32 bit and 64 bit. The 64 bit ones always were pretty much burdened by software patches, and those software patches would cause even more problems, and they would just crash randomly. The 32 bit ones? No problems. Then there was the fact that half of MS's own programs were 32 bit only, some of which were webapps... which meant we had to run ASP.NET in 32 bit mode.

Something about going to 64 bit that MS just doesn't get!
 
Digital Skunk said:
iWork is a joke to you sure, but to many it's a lot lighter than Word.

Again, if Word didn't take 2 minutes to load and 4 minutes to quit then I'd be using it.

Oh, and it wasn't a bastard child when it comes to graphics, images and media as well.

Oh, and if it didn't suck at handling margins and bleeds . . . that too.

Oh, and text wraps and opacity changes and alpha channels, those too.
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Sounds familiar.
 
I don't care much if it has 64-bit or not, but why aren't they using Cocoa anyway? Maybe if they were more focused on making it a properly native app it wouldn't be so unresponsive and slow half the time.

Obviously 64-bit won't speed it up much if at all, but it's such a sluggish and unwieldy set of apps that it's not worth buying anyway. Compatibility is all well and good but on an 8-core Mac Pro it should be possible to actually type up a nicely formatted document without wanting to die.

iWork can get a bit sluggish too sometimes, but on the whole the performance is a damned sight better than Office for Mac.
 
All of these sound like 80/30 problems to me.

Digital Skunk said:
iWork is a joke to you sure, but to many it's a lot lighter than Word.

Again, if Word didn't take 2 minutes to load and 4 minutes to quit then I'd be using it.

Oh, and it wasn't a bastard child when it comes to graphics, images and media as well.

Oh, and if it didn't suck at handling margins and bleeds . . . that too.

Oh, and text wraps and opacity changes and alpha channels, those too.

p.s. Not that I am an uber iWork fan boy or anything. :D
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I don't really care about 64-bit - it hasn't seemed to have made much of a difference in Snow Leopard at all, even though most of my apps now run in 64-bit mode. What I AM disappointed about is that they haven't made the transition to Cocoa yet. I'm _REALLY_ done with this Carbon crap, both from a user and developer standpoint, where we STILL have to use 32-bit Carbon APIs for some things.
 
Well, if Apple would implement MORE features into iWork, we would have no need for Office. :rolleyes:
 
haravikk said:
I don't care much if it has 64-bit or not, but why aren't they using Cocoa anyway? Maybe if they were more focused on making it a properly native app it wouldn't be so unresponsive and slow half the time.
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Did you read the article at all? They've been working on moving towards Cocoa (which will be 64-bit), but that takes time. So for now they figured just work on cross-compatibility. A software suite of this size doesn't make changes that great overnight you know.
 
Hopefully they'll at least make the ODBC connector utility (Query) for Excel universal.

Right now it's still PPC only, which makes it pretty much useless on Intel since any installed ODBC libraries have to be PPC as well, which is something of a pain to get working right.
 
Their first investment should be in Cocoa. 64-bit can come later but those working with large datasets won't be too happy. (How many people do that in Office anyways?)
 
32 VS 64 BIT who cares!!!

The sad part is that Entourage wont even support copy and paste of Excel tables??!?!?:mad: X 100 to the power of infinity..... EFN sad for Microsoft. Maybe they should implement basic functionality that office 2003 has.

I don't thing the average consumer will care if it supports 64 Bit :rolleyes:
 
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