Microsoft Releases Office for Mac Security and Performance Updates

See, this is Mocrosft's problem... Why on earth are they still pushing updates for a 2004 product? Apple isn't still updating 10.3, are they? Perhaps MS could innovate more if they refocused some of their talent...

I'm sure there would be people complaining if Microsoft prematurely dropped support for Office 2004 as well.

And the reason Office 2004 is still supported is that until Office 2011 was released, Office 2004 was the only way Mac users could use VBA which is a non-trivial feature for those that want to use a Mac in the corporate world. Now that Office 2011 is released, Microsoft is still providing support to Office 2004 as a grace period for people to transition. That isn't a problem, it's a courtesy and a convenience.

See, this is Mocrosft's problem... Why on earth are they still pushing updates for a 2004 product? Apple isn't still updating 10.3, are they? Perhaps MS could innovate more if they refocused some of their talent...

Microsoft is a little famous for supporting their software for a long time. It's what keeps them popular in the Enterprise. Keep in mind that Windows XP, released in 2001 is still being supported for a few more years.

We have many users actually that still use Office 2004. We are only upgrading them because of compatibility with Exchange 2010. (We only have to upgrade to Office 2008 to regain compatibility, but we are going to 2010.)

Why can't Microsoft ever release a product that isn't full of security holes?

This is exactly why I jumped ship from Windows to OSX.

Yeah Apple have updates, but nowhere as frequent or serious as Microsofts poor poor software security problems. it doesn't seem like a day goes by that Microsoft aren't peddling a security flaw fix or three.

This is the second security fix IIRC for MS Office 2011 since it was released in the fall of last year. Lion has already had two and it was released two months ago. Stuff happens, you should be glad MS is still updating software that is as old as Office 2004.

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Am I the only one having trouble installing the 14.1.3 update? This is using Microsoft's automatic updater...

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I had this problem on another Mac when I ran the last update. I ended up having to download the patch file to my desktop and then install it. Also, make sure you are logged in as the admin user, even when allowing my secondary account access and entering the admin password it still would not install unless I was logged in as the admin user. Don't know why. However this patch installed no problem under Lion.

See, this is Mocrosft's problem... Why on earth are they still pushing updates for a 2004 product? Apple isn't still updating 10.3, are they? Perhaps MS could innovate more if they refocused some of their talent...

Why wouldn't they? I still use 2004. It's a superior product to 2008 and 2011, the same way that 2003 on the PC is far better than 2007 and 2010... Word took a seriously wrong turn after 2003/4 and became serious bloatware... not to mention clunky and irritating to use.

Hell. My favorite version of Office is still Mac 2001.

This is actually one of the thing Microsoft does very well... supporting its software. They have a much larger market share than Apple, so what they support affects far more people than Apple.

Windows XP SP3 is still very much supported, and it should be; millions of people use it.

Small fixes for Office aren't a big deal.. it doesn't take much time. And remember, this is their Macintosh department doing the patching and the work, not the rest of Microsoft.

Why can't Microsoft ever release a product that isn't full of security holes?

Well, they can't - just as any other software company can't (that includes Apple - just in case)!

But in contrast to Apple Microsoft has improved a lot in the last few years in security fixed reaction time. And they invested a LOT into security whereas Apple just seems to have started (with Lion they just about reachted the point where other OSs, including Windows XP, where years ago! Keyword: "Address Space randomisation").

Admittedly: Apple has some nice security ideas with "sandboxing" which makes it harder to exploit holes in applications.

But ever wondered why not even Safari is "sandboxed" in Lion yet? Or QuickTime? Or "Preview"?

Think about it real hard (for about 3 seconds)...!


And the fact that Microsoft is still supporting a product - on a non-Microsoft platform, that is! - which is several years old speaks for them, IMHO!

This is exactly why I jumped ship from Windows to OSX.

Yeah Apple have updates, but nowhere as frequent or serious as Microsofts poor poor software security problems. it doesn't seem like a day goes by that Microsoft aren't peddling a security flaw fix or three.

I agree very much with you in your statement that APple is nowhere as frequently updating their software.

That is mainly because simply "they don't" (see iOS 3.x) after a very short time, and secondly because "they won't".

Now ever heard of the LDAP password disaster in Lion? That is a MAJOR *****-UP. The worst security hole (and the most stupid one) I have EVER heard of! Made by Apple! Not tested by Apple! And guess what: STILL NOT FIXED AFTER WEEKS!

Now this clearly shows Apple non-committment to enterprise users (that's not you, obviously)!

And I am not even starting to list all the QuickTime and Safari security issues Apple fixed (very late usually, see the corrupted certificate issue Apple just fixed AFTER WEEKS only - when all other browsers had it fixed since long time!


Now, fanboi, come again and tell me about "security & Apple"!


Cheers (from a Mac developer)

I had Excel open at the time and used Help | Check for Updates.

I never said they were immune, I simply stated that Apple obviously hasn't found anything that needed updating.

And I already gave a counterexample: The hacked certificate signing authority which triggered security update 2011-005 almost certainly affects OS X 10.5. And yet, Apple has chosen not to issue an update.

It's not because OS X 10.5 isn't vulnerable. It's because Apple doesn't have any commercial interest in continuing to support that product line.

In all probability, Apple doesn't spend any time at all investigating to find out whether or not any newly discovered vulnerabilities affect OS X 10.5 or older, and even if they knew for certain that a new vulnerability does affect OS X 10.5 or older, they wouldn't bother announcing it, releasing a fix for it, or issuing advice for how to work around it.

As for iOS... well, we already know for certain that iOS 3.x is vulnerable to the invalid PDF exploit, which made the original iteration of jailbreakme.com work. This is a known certainty. Anybody still running iOS 3 (which includes every iOS device which didn't meet Apple's requirements for iOS 4.x) is open to attack, which basically means that everybody running iOS 3.x should never browse the web on their device ever again.

You obviously fail to see that maybe Apple doesn't update those programs because there isn't a need for any updates in those OS's.

As far as iOS 3.x goes: there would be several terrible security needs to fix that OS! It is absolutely irresponsible to use any iDevice with that OS!

Mind you, I am talking about devices, specifically iPhone 3G which is stuck on iOS 3.x, which were still being actively sold by Apple up to 1.5 years ago - one point 5 years only!

As for Final Cut, you also need to look at the fact it was rewritten from scratch and backwards compatibility can't always be guaranteed

Okay, agreed, supporting an older Final Cut Pro with security issues isn't a big deal if Apple doesn't.

However I took this as an example to illustrate where Apple is apparently heading: away from the professional market into the "mass market" where short lifecycles is even desired (from a sales person's perspective)!

Also the "iToys" thing is innacurate. The last several IT jobs I applied to with big name companies all wanted mac certifications. They can't be that much of a toy.

Please note my specifically placed little remark in brackets which makes the difference: (has become) ;)

See, this is Mocrosft's problem... Why on earth are they still pushing updates for a 2004 product? Apple isn't still updating 10.3, are they? Perhaps MS could innovate more if they refocused some of their talent...

I actually commend Microsoft specifically because they stand behind their software for the long haul.

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You obviously fail to see that maybe Apple doesn't update those programs because there isn't a need for any updates in those OS's.

What makes you think they're immune to any as-yet undiscovered vulnerabilities which would need updating? At least one high-profile security vulnerability (the one that recently triggered security update 2011-005) almost certainly affects OS X 10.5 (circa 2007 software). Same goes for 10.4 (circa 2005), 10.3 (circa 2003), etc... And yet they haven't (and likely never will) received an update.

Windows XP (circa 2001) did receive an update for the very same security vulnerability.

Try installing the 14.1.0 update first. This is what I did and it worked (I had the same issue before).

Thanks a lot. This worked for me (OS X 10.7.1), I had the same problem. At least I seized the opportunity to register on MacRumors (after reading the comments for years :)).