The Local Installation Source (LIS) seems to be the way Office is headed. It’s still using the Custom Install Wizard and Transforms to install, so its not a major change in that area, only in where the files come from. Patching is also a bit of a change, since you have to start using the client patches and OHOTFIX.EXE on the client, not patching the install source like you do with an admin share. MSI takes care of keeping the correct version of files if/when you need to do a repair , using its database of hotfixes/file versions.

There is also a tool coming in the near future to manage the LIS without calling the full setup.exe, which seems like a good idea.

I’m still thinking LIS is probably not the best method for our well connected lab environment, but I’ll probably just have to try it to find out for sure. The setup looks pretty easy.