Never needed to open an Access database, but in the last 10 years I have been able to open every PowerPoint presentation I have got, every Word document, and only one spreadsheet has failed. That said I do not spend much time in an office suite any more.

There can be problems with exact formatting - but you used to get significant problems between different versions of MS Word (not sure if new formats have improved that or not). Most of all, from what I have read iWork is worse than Libre Office from this point of view so I am not sure why he thinks

You cannot wean (business) users off of MS office by something that's pretending to be compatible.
You need something like what excel did to Lotus-123, what word did to wordperfect, ... : set the new standard overnight.
And force the industry to switch as a whole.

Yes you can import real MS documents mostly somewhat fine in the free alternatives, depending on how complex the stuff inside is, but when you try to give it back after editing to a MS office user is when the (serious) problems start.

The compatibility (import and export) of iWorks is not what I was referring to (it's medium to poor, never good), but the tool itself has a far better UI, far better user experience and while it does drop most of the needless complexity in the MS suite (that nobody ever uses anyway), it can handle just about any task you throw at it. And it can do loads of things one would want to do in MS office that MS office users have never even dreamt about.
It's not perfect, far from it. But if it were multiplatform and a priority for it's maker to take on the world, this is the only example that I've seen that could do it.

I do use both MS office and iWorks on a daily basis, but I never export/import between them. iWorks is for my stuff that stays with me and/or is shared with a very limited number of people. MS office is for compatibility with the rest of the world. And aside of checking my websites in "that" browser, MS office is the only MSFT product I bought in a heck of a long time.

The Largest Share purchase was a good bet! 7.60% return in 20 days. I should hold on, or maybe i should just take my earning and leave. The P/E is still low, so i will just stick in there until the P/E goes above 16.

Paid about $29.00 Now at $32.69, wait another year, and it will be around a stable $36.00 plus the dividend which is great each quarter.

I'm going to go long on Microsoft Stock.

I think we're quibbling over apples and oranges.

Some people write books and need complex indexing tools and such that only the top products like Word provide but the vast majority just use Word for a couple of pages which alternatives handle easily.

Similarly with Excel there are power users that do some insanely crazy stuff, I've seen it, that no other product in the world can possibly touch. Yet again, the vast majority just do simple business plans and balance sheets that the alternatives handle easily as well.

Remember, to nuke the MS Office hold on the world you only have to remove the masses that never needed the full power of the product in the first place and the MS empire is suddenly toast because the power users alone couldn't support the product and unless I'm mistaken wouldn't provide a big enough business case to continue it's development.

IMO it's Powerpoint that's the tool harder to wean people off as it's used a lot and is the best of breed.

top products like Word

Hmm. Have you ever used word to do really complex things ? I've been forced to do so in the past. It's a nightmare compared to real tools suited for complex tasks such as Frame (aka Framemaker). I've also used quite a few others. But word for really complex stuff: absolutely the worst tool ever.
The worst aspect is the total lack of respect for styles that word has: one paste that's not "paste as text" and you risk to have to clean up all the style definitions you carefully made. Incomprehensible how one can call that "top".

Powerpoint: I've used it a lot, and I've also used keynote a lot. If I know I'll not have to share the source, I prefer keynote by a long shot. For starters if you do many slides it's much faster (powerpoint gets really sluggish if you have 300+ slides heavy on graphics in one file) - yes that's more than you show in a day, but when reworking training courses for destined for a week worth of training, you end up juggling around a lot of slides.

It's a nightmare compared to real tools suited for complex tasks such as Frame.

I use Word all of the time and never met a problem I couldn't solve with Word. I write a lot and have used nearly all of the features found in Word. The average Joe Worker uses it to type documents, not sure what are real complex task would be for a document. Basically, they are words arranged on paper.

I've given OpenOffice and LibreOffice a try. Sorry, they're just not as powerful and Microsoft's products. Time is money for me and paying a bit more for something that just plain works is a good investment. I'm currently subscribing to Office365 and feel that it's an incredible value.

Let's face it, the masses don't like change. The same strength Microsoft has with Office is a weakness in Windows 8. The Metro interface is different. My daughter nearly cried when I loaded it on her ultrabook. She complained for about three days until she discovered how it really works. Now? She loves it.

BTW - if you've never used a Windows 8 phone, try them next time you're in a wireless store. The phones are buttery smooth with what is relatively weak hardware on the Nokia and HTC handsets when compared to what's inside an SG4. Unfortunately, Microsoft is about two years too late.

WOW. I made a Good Choice! Ballmer announce's his Retirement, and the Stock hits a all time High. 14% Gain in one Day, plus the gains I made already.

I guess Warren Buffet was right, When other are fearful, be greedy.

Just Scheduled to Sell my Stock on Monday! Well not all of it, but all the profits above my Cost basis!

I got a felling Microsoft will break $40 before this time next year, But the price is way to high to buy it now!