[McG]

a couple of things.

you can save as a pdf file inside office. you have to download the plug in for free from Microsoft, unless you go with SP2 which has that automatically.

the whole can't edit pdf files thing is a bit of a red herring...because most users don't know how to lock the document down...and anyone with adobe standard or pro can open and edit the pdf file if it isn't locked down. so word or pdf...if the user doesn't lock it down it doesn't matter.

also....docx, pptx, xlsx and related formatting is extremely useful either using sharepoint or other tools that require the ability to search properly, such as outlook or desktop search tools.

does everyone need all of the functionality of the office suite? of course not. but for home users to bash high end corporate users is ridiculous. most organizations run on the PC platform and many people use alot of the deeper functionalities of the office suite in their day to day jobs. it isn't even that similar to writing a paper for school or sending out a christmas letter for the family. for many people...they would probably be happy with wordpad.

the funny thing about this is that microsoft office keeps getting cheaper and cheaper for students. i think that google docs will gain in popularity for the base functionality as well as the mobility as netbooks and related technologies become more pervasive.

i actually don't get the whole hate for microsoft thing. if you don't like it, don't buy it. buy a mac or use linux or whatever. for those of us who remember working with DOS, i find the complaints about current tools to be ridiculous.