2000 Backwards Compatibility

I suppose I'm suffering from standard paranoia about open-source - that and I want the features of 2007 (so I might yet shell out). Will Microsoft sell it for a reduced price after 2010 comes out?

Pichu, it may look decades over but you obviously haven't seen 2000/2003. It looks very much pre-2007.

Also how does OO actually compare to Office 2000? Naturally, I've seen only comparisons with newer versions, but I can imagine that OO actually beats it in features. Is that true?

Thanks

The one big one is that it has a native ability to save/print/export to PDF (not sure which way it actually works). I'm sure you could find plugins for it to add functionality or write your own if you desire, a result of it being open source. Another benefit is that you don't have to keep paying when a major revision (new version) comes out, you just go download the new version and install it. I'd certainly be using it if I hadn't had the opportunity to buy Office 2007 for a small fraction of the regular price.

I probably should start a new thread...but, since we're on topic here.

What are you guys finding so much better in 2010 Beta than in 2007?

I had 2010 on home and work PCs and have since switched back to 2007 Pro. (Luckily, works pays for this stuff, I wouldn't shell out 300 plus clams for it)
My Justification is I'm the lone IT guy...gotta know how it works so I can support it.

I'm a heavy Outlook users. I like the threaded messages behind Outlook 2010...but there were some quirks.
I use a hosted Exchange type email at work as well as checking my home POP account...and strictly my POP account from home....
In the end it looks like 2007 left Outlook pretty much alone in the text to picture menu driven type program.
In 2010...it looks like Outlook got the facelift as well.

I believe Access didn't get Ribbons in 2007. Does it have it now?

yes it will. it makes the program think it is running on xp. Or get mirosoft office 2010.http://www.microsoft.com/office/2010/en/default.aspx to work on windows 7 and it's free.

I am running office 2000 on windows 7 32-bit and 64-bit. No problem here. Only problem i have seen is the office assistant has pink around him, but i turn him off so :/

Office 2000 on my WIN 7 Pro x86 runs trouble free. Office 2010 Beta also runs trouble free. OpenOffice 3.1.1. and Thunderbird 3.0.1 both run trouble free. Interesting discussion of MS Office v/s OpenOffice. Office 2010 is quite sophisticated and resource intensive and expensive. OpenOffice is somewhat sophisticated but less resource intensive and free. All boils down to personal preference and in the case of Office 2010, whether or not we need the extensive functionality that MS keeps telling us we need. Were it not for the fact that Sun Microsystems (publisher of OpenOffice) was recently swallowed by Oracle, thus putting at risk the survival of OpenOffice, I would commit to OpenOffice, exclusively.