Can't you guys see that this is bad news? It shows that M$ is probably ready to drop support for software on the mac and if they do that suddenly, it's going to leave a huge vacuum and a loud sucking sound... As in it SUCKS. Without office, Apple's going to have an even harder time trying to get the mac into corps because ignorant IT managers are instantly going to discount the mac because it doesn't have office. Also, new users will be turned off because they'll think that their old documents "won't be compatible with the mac because it doesn't have Office." Either way, this is going to put a big monetary drain on apple, both in developing and maintaining appleworks, and in advertising to potential switchers that the mac IS compatible with M$ office docs. Just having a cheap, but fully functional Office suite that is compatible with Office won't do, as Wordperfect Office for the pc has shown (Corel's practically bankrupt).
It would be even worse if M$ pulled IE because most basic pc users are still using IE and have probably never heard of Mozilla, Opera or have very little knowledge of Netscape (nowadays). When they switch to the mac, they'll be expecting to use IE for their browsing and if the mac doesn't have it, it's going to be another con in the mind of an average (potential) switcher.