Users who are yet to adopt the open source way of handling office related documents aka Open Office,Microsoft Office 2010 is available now for Windows 7 / Vista / XP users.Depending on your needs and how far can you stretch your budget, you can pick any one of the various flavors: Home and Student (which includes Word, Excel,PowerPoint, and OneNote for $149.99), Office Home and Business (all of the above, plus Outlook for $279.99), or Office Professional (adds Access and Publisher for a whooping $499.99).
If you are a new user to Microsoft Office (I don’t think not many would be there but just in case you are one) you can head to Microsoft Office website and download a trial copy and analyse if it suits your requirements and rest is upto you decide which flavor of Office you wish to buy. I don’t feel existing users of Office 2007 would really go for the Office 2010 version in case it has some extra features which aren’t in the 2007 version. I am not being a a anti-Microsoft but just pouring my advice to give a trial of it rather than repenting later for spending your hard earned dough.
I have tested the Beta and the RTM versions and I found Office to be much faster and flexible compared to the older 2007 versions.Users who have tried out Office 2010 may want to think twice as to what are the changes Microsoft has made from it previous version.The honest truth is that there’s no good reason for a home or SOHO (small office/home office) to switch from an old copy of Office or OpenOffice. If you want to do more collaborative work, then sure, you might want to switch to something else — but why switch to Office 2010? Try Google Docs, and even Microsoft’s own free Web-based Office Web Apps.
Google managed to give up its Windows and Office addiction to save cash being wasted on licensing fees. If they can do it, why can’t you at home or in your office ? So think about it ! Would love to hear from you.
