Not that I'm against MS Office, it's great for the enterprise, just don't see much need for it as a home user or small business professional.

I use Kingsoft Office most of the time.  Less clunky than Open Office, more stable than Lotus Symphony, smooth GUI, and is available in Free and Paid versions.

http://www.kingsoftstore.com/

Something about this software being centered on the Cloud that makes me very uneasy, but then the whole concept of the Cloud does that.  

Definitely not useful for the home environment.

introductory offer???

ditto Philly! 

the cloud is your friend.......

<waves hand in jedi fashion>

I find Office 365 an essential tool of the 'road warrior' today.  Things one used to have to wait to get back to the office for are now never further than your fingertips.  "Exxxxxxcellent smithers......excellent!"  

DTA - Don't Trust Anyone. Especially when they talk about cloud services.

I liked the preview but I don't really need it enough to pay for it.  Hell, I don't need Office 2010 either, might as well just use Google Docs.

Hopefully GDocs cutting support for .doc means people will get off their dumb asses and use .docx instead.

But I doubt it.

Another reason I don't like Office 365, installed it on an SBS Server to check it out, couldn't get it cleanly removed from the OS.  Immediate fail in my book.  Same reason (in part) why I don't recommend AVG.

Some of my clients are still happily using Office 2003.  Microsoft has a docx plug-in available for download that lets Office 2003 read/write to the newer format.  Last I checked with Google Docs, it was just a bit too simplistic.  That was awhile ago, so I'm overdue to see if they've made some real advances.

Is there a compelling reason why I'd ever use a version of office newer than 2003? I sure can't think of one, and "cloud hurrr" only moves my desire to use it in a negative direction.

If you work with a lot of emails or large files the 64 bit versions can be a considerable improvement (and are probably more stable whether you do or not.)

They're also more secure by default and have the ability to encode your files should you need that.  Lots of workplace focused improvements as such.

If you're still on 2003, you'd get a better experience out of switching to Google Docs IMO.

I have 2 issues.....

1. home premium's $100 US this year......what guarantee is there it won't be double that next year?

2. I have a Zune.....no support. I have a Windows phone 7.....barely any support (none, 0, zilch from Sprint). Microsoft's real quick to screw over early adopters.

I'll stick with 2010 until they've put a year or so into the program. That's about the length of time they support bad choices (hope you surface owners/perspective buyers are listening)

'The Cloud' - even the name suggests an airy-fairy nothingness.

Anyone dumb enough to send their personal files 'out there' deserves what ever might happen to them...

Lots of other flavors of Office 2013 to choose from - cloud isn't mandatory.  But at 5 machines ($20/yr/machine), the 365 option's not bad for folks who don't need to worry about the cloud issues or for whom the potential benefits of the cloud outweigh the risks.

And, FWIW, I used Office 2000 for years and couldn't imagine needing or wanting any newer versions of Office apps, in part because I had Word, in particular, highly customized and tuned to my workflow to make what I needed to do on a daily basis very efficient.  After Office 2010 came out & I read all the stuff about how horrible the ribbon was, etc., I was even more determined to keep cranking along with Office 2k.  Then my main work rig gave up the ghost & I had no option but to go to a Win7 notebook, on which Office 2000 allegedly wouldn't run.

I bit the bullet and moved up to Office 2010 and immediately liked it.  I was able to very quickly recreate almost all the customizations and create a shortcut bar for my frequently used functions & hide the rest of the ribbon until I needed it.  I really like the way they've set up the File & Home tab functionality in particular, and I'm now a card-carrying Ribbonite - it's a real leap forward in productivity if you ask me.  Admittedly, my needs may be a little different since 60% of what I do every day is create Word docs, but I wouldn't go back to Word 2000.

Interestingly, it turns out Word 2000 installs & runs just fine on Win7 - I took a flyer & tried on a couple of Win7 rigs in our office since everybody needs simple word processing from time to time and it worked without a hitch.  Same for the rest of the Office suite apps.

Well said. I totally agree on that point.