For the record, I wasn't bashing Microsoft, or Office. My complaint is about formats and how and when people use them.
People send out Office formats for distribution ASSUMING everyone can open them. This is the attitude I hate.
The point that people seem to be glossing over is that if you want your end viewer to see exactly the same thing as you do, use a PDF file. That's all I wanted to express in the first place.
McG noted an excellent example. If you want to send out an electronic copy of a Christmas letter to your family and friends, and you want it to be a bit more fancy then what a standard email allows, you aren't going to send it out as an Office format if you have any clue about what you are doing. A PDF is perfect for this scenario. You can't assume everyone has Office, but you can expect nearly everyone will have a PDF viewer.
As always, training is key. If the reciever has no need to be editing the contents of a file, it's probably just easier to send a PDF in the first place.
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