| --- |
| layout: post |
| status: PUBLISHED |
| published: true |
| title: One Year until the End of Life for Microsoft Office 2003 |
| id: eb06e230-94f3-4c55-833a-52b7a908c870 |
| date: '2013-04-08 15:36:49 -0400' |
| categories: ooo |
| tags: [] |
| permalink: OOo/entry/one_year_until_the_end |
| --- |
| <div align="center"> |
| <p><a title="Josephine Smith digging a grave at the Drouin Cemetery, Victoria, [2] by National Library of Australia Commons, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/national_library_of_australia_commons/6174073756/"><img width="500" height="369" alt="Josephine Smith digging a grave at the Drouin Cemetery, Victoria, [2]" src="http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6154/6174073756_5b8f664361.jpg" /></a></p> |
| <p><a title="Josephine Smith digging a grave at the Drouin Cemetery, Victoria, [2] by National Library of Australia Commons, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/national_library_of_australia_commons/6174073756/"> </p> |
| <p></a> </p> |
| <div align="left"><a title="Josephine Smith digging a grave at the Drouin Cemetery, Victoria, [2] by National Library of Australia Commons, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/national_library_of_australia_commons/6174073756/"> </p> |
| <p></a> </p> |
| <h2 id="the-april-2014-deadline">The April 2014 deadline</h2> |
| <p>Microsoft has <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/endofsupport.aspx">announced</a><br /> |
| that they will end support of Office 2003 and Windows XP on April<br /> |
| 8th, 2014. What does this mean? As they describe,<br /> |
| "After April 8, 2014, there will be no new security updates,<br /> |
| non-security hotfixes, free or paid assisted support options or online<br /> |
| technical content updates." This,<br /> |
| according to Microsoft, exposes Office 2003 users to greater "Security<br /> |
| & Compliance Risks".</p> |
| <h2 id="exploring-the-alternatives">Time to explore the alternatives</h2> |
| <p>Some companies and users will write a big check to Microsoft for an upgraded license for Office. But<br /> |
| others will see this as an opportunity<br /> |
| to explore the alternatives, including open source products like <a href="http://www.openoffice.org/">Apache<br /> |
| OpenOffice</a>, the leading free productivity suite, with over 44 million downloads. Now is a good time to start planning for a migration off<br /> |
| of Microsoft Office 2003 and Windows XP. Many companies have already<br /> |
| started.</p> |
| <p>Apache OpenOffice is available on Windows, MacOS and Linux. It is open source software, which means there are no license or subscription fees required to use or redistribute OpenOffice. </p> |
| <p>You can learn more about Apache OpenOffice at <a href="http://www.openoffice.org">www.openoffice.org</a>. Many companies offer migration services for Apache OpenOffice, some of which are listed on our <a href="http://www.openoffice.org/bizdev/consultants.html">consultants page</a>.</p> |
| </p></div> |
| </p></div> |
