The Office 2019 "commercial preview" for Windows 10 is readily available as in the present day, according to a Microsoft announcement.

It's for sale for Win32 (x86) systems. The Office 2019 productivity suite includes Access, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Project, Publisher, Visio and Onenote client applications, although Microsoft noted earlier that Onenote could well be distributed as the Windows 10 Universal Windows Platform app, not for the desktop version, which Microsoft plans to prevent developing.

The Office 2019 preview will end on Dec. 31, 2018, allowing testing time before actual commercial release, which will be scheduled for the second half of this year, based on a Microsoft FAQ document. This preview is not actually available to consumer users. It's only reserved for "volume license customers," the FAQ indicated.

An Office 2019 on Mac commercial preview also are going to be coming "in your next few months," the FAQ indicated.

Perpetual-License vs. Cloud
Office 2019 will be the "perpetual-license" version of Microsoft's productivity suite, consequently it will be a one-time purchase yet it won't get future major feature updates like Microsoft's' Office 365 ProPlus product. Office 365 ProPlus, as opposed, is an annual subscription-based, cloud services-connected productivity suite that gets major feature updates twice every single.

Microsoft's FAQ noted that organizations wanting to tap into Microsoft's "intelligent security features" should compliment Office 365 ProPlus because perpetual-license versions of Office lack cloud connections.

Update 5/1/18: Microsoft has previously stipulated that perpetual-license Office products exterior of mainstream support will lose connections to Office 365 services starting on Oct. 13, 2020, per an announcement it made just last year in April. It will mean that older perpetual-license Office products, as in Microsoft Office 2016, on that date won't have connections to services which include Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive and Skype for Business. Microsoft Office 2013 fell away mainstream support earlier, on April 10, 2018, so it's already lost those connections.

A Microsoft spokesperson on Tuesday clarified the way the perpetual-license Microsoft Office 2019 product will be affected in the interest of mainstream support and support for Office 365 services. Office 2019 can have a longer mainstream support date when compared Office 2016 product, until 2023. In due course, though in 2020, this reveals that Office 2016 users need to switch to Office 2019 as long as they want to stay powering Office 365 services. Here's the spokesperson clarified the matter:

Office 2016 will leave mainstream support in 2020, at which it should enter extended support. Office 2019 leaves mainstream support in 2023. Both Office 2016 and Office 2019 will leave extended support in 2025. There's a 3 year gap where Office 2016 is simply in extended support, but Office 2019 is actually mainstream support.

OS Support and Installation
The Office 2019 preview is supported on Windows 10 operating systems that continue with the semiannual channel update model. It's supported along the Windows 10 Enterprise edition long-term servicing channel update model. It is additionally supported for the next Windows Server long-term servicing channel.

Office 2019 isn't supported on Windows 7 or Windows 8, although those operating systems will run Office 365 ProPlus.

Installation of Office 2019 rrs going to be a little different for IT pros as Microsoft isn't providing .MSI installation files towards the clients, while it will provide them for Microsoft Office Server products, the FAQ explained. Instead, organizations are were expecting to use Microsoft's Click-to-Run technology, which streams the bits onto desktops. It'll stream the monthly security and quality updates, too. The Click-to-Run technology also supports the performing of in-place upgrades from "older MSI-based products," in line with an announcement by Jared Spataro, general manager for Office.

Truncated Support
Unlike previous perpetual-license Office products, Office 2019, when commercially released, have a truncated support model. Organizations are typically used to getting five years of "mainstream support" plus five years of "extended support" during a so-called "5 + 5" support model. However, Office 2019 may a "5 + 2" support model.

The truncated seven years of support in Office 2019 is known as an exception to Microsoft's traditional Fixed Lifecycle Support Policy. Microsoft first described that change organic and natural February. The truncated support is necessary to stay the software secure, in step with Microsoft's FAQ:

Because older software is no easy task to secure, it can be inherently less productive. Because the pace of change speeds up, it is really more imperative than ever to relocate our software for your more modern cadence. By adopting a model of 5+2 years of support, Office 2019 will help to reduce this exposure.

That statement is definitely Microsoft's first explanation for Office 2019's support exception. The seven-year support term "will align making use of support period for Microsoft Office 2016," the FAQ noted, but it really really didn't clarify why that maybe not alignment can be meaningful for one newer product.

It sounds like Office 2019 could possibly be last perpetual-license Office product, but Microsoft's FAQ offered no clue across the matter. Microsoft will evaluate "customer needs and industry trends" before house such releases, it noted.