Microsoft Office for Mac 2008

Pros: Entourage finally becomes almost usable

Cons: Crashes. Stalls. Unexplained errors. Even on newly installed OSX

Summary: I cannot express the utterly profound level of dissatisfaction, disappointment, and disgust I feel for the Office: Mac 2008 product. I have worked as a consultant for nearly 20 years. I watched the evolution of Microsoft from the days of the IBM PC XT through the years of the Internet. The current product represents either new depths of incompetence, utter disregard for customers, a callous attitude toward the Macintosh platform, or all of the above.

From the first install on a brand new Macintosh the software has not functioned properly. After repeated installs, including reinstalling the Mac operating system (just to be sure) I gave up and went back to Office: Mac 2004. Ahh…but that doesn’t work well either, since apparently components of 2008 cannot be entirely removed.

I believe it to be the ultimate height of hypocrisy that Microsoft positions Office products as unlocking ideas, potential, and productivity. I’ve neither the time nor the patience to list the many disappointments in Office: Mac 2008 product. I am surprised that the Microsoft legal department believes that the product meets adequate standards to survive a challenge on the Warranty of Merchantability.

I sincerely hope that the people who manufacture passenger jets, medical equipment, prescription medicines, and manage our urban infrastructure do not sink to the same level of incompetence embodied in Office: Mac 2008. For if they do, we are all doomed.