Others say...

"Good but still Microsoft product"
Well these programs work well if you need to sync with co-workers who use Microsoft Office. And if your server is windows based then Entourage works excellent for getting email, contacts, etc. My only problem is that one of the main reasons I got a mac was to get away from inferior Microsoft software. I have noticed some problems with Office for Mac shutting down with no warning.

"No Issues"
The upgrade went without a glitch. Word, Excel and Powerpoint work as expected and give me good interoperability with my colleagues running Windows. I use Mac Mail exclusively, so I have not tried Entourage at all. But other people who have seem pretty happy.

"not ready for prime time"
Never in my experience with mainstream software has it been my displeasure to deal with software this buggy. Powerpoint cannot work with many fonts reliably other than the ones it comes with. Word cannot print documents with pictures in it with any regularity. And excel was losing data ... my people would work on a document, save it, open it later, and the data entered was no longer there. This software was not ready for release. And the features added hardly account for the price. Plus, one last little, FU to everyone involved, it saves file types that require people to upgrade to their software (or you can download utilities that allow you to change docx to doc). I recommend anyone considering the Mac MS Office 2008 upgrade to wait, and then wait some more. We bought itm installed it and have now downgraded back to 2004. Sort of the same thing that happened with Windows Vista users. Caveat Emptor.

"License allows an additional laptop install"
The Office 2008 Upgrade license allows installation on both a desktop system and a laptop. It also allows you to transfer the license to new systems, over time. Unlike the Windows version, there is no product activation requirement.

From the license:
* "You may install another copy on a portable device for use by the single primary user of the licensed device."
* "You may uninstall the software and install it on another device for your use ..."


"OK, But Still Way Overpriced Compared to Alternatives"
Although Microsoft designed this for the Mac, it seems Microsoft can't quite make software for the Mac, "Mac Like". Microsoft just can't get it right , in my opinion. A few notes:

- It looks OK, if form is more important than function
- Still no database on the Mac (a la Access).
- Programs, like Word for example, load very slowly even for a 2008 3.2 Ghz Mac Pro w/ 6 GB of RAM
- Typically bloated with features which could account for the slow load time
- After all these years, you'd think Office should install and uninstall like a typical Mac program, but still requires it's own uninstall routine
- Strange mix of Inspectors and Menu items. For example, Word uses inspector panels like many Mac programs, but includes a Windows style detailed Menu bar at the top. It's as if they feared going with an "all Mac" approach. The result of this is that previous Windows uses will have a hard time finding some features and functions, the same may generally be true for previous Mac users, although to slightly less of a degree.
- Compatibility with Office 2007 seems OK, but if you share documents with prior versions (esp. Office 2003 & 2000 for some reason), you may find oddities appearing on their own, especially when using the Comment and Review functionality.
- I don't think it's as usable as something like iWork. iWork has less features and functions, but you only use about 10% of Office on average anyway. iWork is very focused on the key features you'll use in an Office suite and surly lacks some features of Office, but Office makes you feel like you've just had too much functionality dumped on you at once - and it's your responsibility to wade through it finding the features you need at ay given time (which can be extremely frustrating). It's feels like a half-baked attempt at the Mac interface conventions.
- I've used Office since the very early days (transitioned from MultiMate if you remember that one), and I have never been able to shake the "it's about to crash or lock-up one me" feeling that makes me save a document every 10 seconds. Stability is questionable, but so far it has seemed better than before.
- Still way over priced in IMHO. It makes iWork worth a close look and tough to beat.

In my opinion, if you already use Office for Mac, the upgrade isn't really necessary for early iMac, PowerBook and PowerMac owners, unless you really need compatibility with the newer file formats.

For MacIntel owners, you'll get a universal Binary program, which technically should speed things up a bit but so far I have failed to see it. I have the fastest desktop currently available and it's frustratingly slow to open by today's standards.

If you use about 10% of Word, as most of us do, Pages may be a better option for you and iWork's price is tough to beat. Word seems to average about 1 to 2% more CPU requirements when typing a plain blank document than Pages does so older systems could see better performance with iWork (although I did not test this fully).

Bottom Line: Office remains over-priced for a nominal feature-set and upgrade.