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Posted by number.61 at 12/5/06 3:46 p.m.

Why the gap? Instead of wasting development person power, why don't they just release Office 2007 for Windows and Office 2007 for Mac AT THE SAME TIME!

This time table of making Apple customers wait 5 to 6 months after the Windows version is insane. Not to mention the Mac version of Office is pretty much completed. Why do we have to wait?

Using Office 2004 for Mac on my Intel Mac is killing me. The performance is slow, and we just need to get a native version out. I mean Microsoft is dragging their feet just like Adobe with their CS suite and Macromedia suite. Get on the ball people.

Posted by unregistered user at 12/5/06 9:59 p.m.

"Why the gap?" you ask. To punish Mac users of course! One of my favorite apps (Bibble) is ALWAYS released/updated for Linux, Mac OS, and that "virus cleverly disguised as an OS" simultaneously. If a tiny shop like Bibble labs can do this, anyone can.

Posted by unregistered user at 12/6/06 2:48 a.m.

I think that you must be forgetting that there are four applications (as opposed to one for Bibble) that need to be updated in Office for Mac. Not only that, but they have had to make the transition from PPC processors to Intel Processors, while still supporting the PPC platform. Considering the tools that they were previously using, Microsoft's MacBU has had to go through a major shift and rewrite almost all of the code that goes into those four programs in order to compile Universal Binaries.

Here is a quote from MacBU's blog from October 12, 2006:

"Over the last few days, some Mac sites have been reporting that the Universal Binary version of Office for Mac (officially unnamed, but currently code-named Office 12) has been delayed, but there is no delay or deviation from our development schedule. We're hitting our milestones, checking in our features, and making the move to Intel as planned. We've totally moved from Code Warrior to Xcode, so we've crested that hill. We usually ship 6 - 8 months after the availability of Office for Windows so we can do compatibility testing. This has been our shipping cycle for ages, and we're right on track. In fact, for Office 12, we've not even officially announced a launch date (but when we do, we should do it here first)."

As you can see, compatibility is their focus. Since there are always changes being made on the Windows side of things, Mac BU takes some additional time and makes sure they can bring compatibility to those of us who use Macs. I would imagine that the software they use does not come with the capability to take the Windows version coding and automagically convert it into Mac code. There are some programs that can compile software for Win and Mac (and some that will even do it for Linux as well), but those programming utilities often are used for making less complex programs...anyways, wouldn't you rather have them take a little longer to provide you with a program that is better than the Windows version...or do you want your Office suite filled with Zero-Day exploits and the usually buggy MS coding? After all, I think that there have been very few critical patches for Office for Mac compared with the Windows version.... (here is a report about the Zero-Day exploits, and it seems to suggest that it is the Windows versions that were/are affected: blogs.securiteam.com/?p=586)