I'm a recent switcher - I treated myself to a lovely MBP in April as a longed for, much awaited birthday present. It is simply gorgeous and I love it. However, one of the reasons I had held off buying Macs for years was the fact that their OS was so esoteric and difficult to work with and into from other systems unless one was an expert. Yes, those working solely with Macs always swore by them; but most of the world (including my corner of it which includes academia, writing and editing) works with Word, and a system that used Word is a must, not a luxury, since most of the people I work with use this package. Obviously, that has changed and Office is now available on Mac.
To answer your question, I bought Office 08 with my MBP, so yes, I have it, - and, although the Apple people swore by iWork, and I don't doubt its excellence - Word for me is a necessity, hence the purchase. I had an earlier Office package - 04 - on my old Toshiba. However, I must confess that it (08) is slightly slower than I expected, but it is still very good. Stuff designed by Apple works flawlessly on the MBP; re Office, I cannot say whether this slight slowness exists because Office for Mac was designed by Windows, or whether it was deliberately designed to work marginally less well than a more "native" programme. As pointed out by other posters, excellent educational discounts exist, and many businesses have them too, which make the whole process affordable.
Cheers and good luck.
MBP 15.4", 2.4ghz, 2 GB RAM, 160 HDD,
iPod classic, black, 30 GB
To answer your question, I bought Office 08 with my MBP, so yes, I have it, - and, although the Apple people swore by iWork, and I don't doubt its excellence - Word for me is a necessity, hence the purchase. I had an earlier Office package - 04 - on my old Toshiba. However, I must confess that it (08) is slightly slower than I expected, but it is still very good. Stuff designed by Apple works flawlessly on the MBP; re Office, I cannot say whether this slight slowness exists because Office for Mac was designed by Windows, or whether it was deliberately designed to work marginally less well than a more "native" programme. As pointed out by other posters, excellent educational discounts exist, and many businesses have them too, which make the whole process affordable.
Cheers and good luck.
MBP 15.4", 2.4ghz, 2 GB RAM, 160 HDD, iPod classic, black, 30 GB
