I’m honestly not sure why so many people here are bashing the accessibility and usability of Microsoft Office. Compared to other word processors and spreadsheet applications Word and Excel are quite usable, and in fact I am very fond of Excel (though I use multiple text editors). Powerpoint is simple enough that computer inept executives can use it, and use it well, so that’s another point in the positive (it does what it is supposed to). Entourage as well is user friendly, in league with Mail at least, though I personally prefer the later.

The interfaces of the programs are quite Mac-like now, though if you look into deeper parts of the program you’ll still see some old-school graphics. I haven’t had any crashes since I started using them (I make frequent use of Word and Excel), though it looks like they use more RAM than before (Word likes to suck up between 120 and 160 MBs for a simple document, though Mac OSX manages just fine). Word still likes to nip away at CPU (between 8 and 14%) when idle, probably along with the other Office programs.

I’m not sure I’d actually suggest the upgrade from Office X for people that don’t need these programs on a very regular basis, or for business use, but if you don’t have Office and need this sort of application, they are a reasonable investment. Especially at student price.