no more caffeine for you

What Microsoft should be looking at is profit per product sold. From that perspective, Office is a much stronger offering than Windows. Additionally, Office rarely gets them bad press, certainly not the case with Windows. So, their concentration should be towards selling more copies of Office, not of Windows. Face it, people are going to switch to alternative OSes, despite Office not being available, even if it means sacrificing some functionality (and, as an experienced user of OO and Office, I am willing to say without hesitation that Office is MUCH better). But, if they offered Office for Linux people would buy it, even those that would have switched regardless. I am not a business or software expert, but I think they are throwing the baby out with the bath water.

I think it is actually a two edged sword, as they could profit from other platforms, but they could also lose their main platform altogether... And they don't want that, as that means le$$ moeny from Windows® sales (including support and subscriptions, which make a whole lot of money). If Office alone could provide them with the same amount of money they do with both Office and Windows® packaging, then maybe they'd consider it, but still in such a case, offering Windows® subscriptions and continued support programmes means even more $$, so highly unlikely they'll start doing so... If even more people migrated to alternative platforms (not including Mac), then maybe preassure would build up, but that's sadly not the case. People are migrating, steadily and daily, but not in numbers high enough to warrant such investment and potential loss.

The way I see it they should put their best product as their number one priority, and their best product is pretty much undebatably Office.

Like everyone else has said, between K Office and Open Office, who cares?

I dont think microsoft will port. from a business standpoint why would you port office to an OS that you consistantly ingnore. theey would only be validating that linux is stable and usable. more people would look into this new thing that microsoft backs,,linux. by doing this they would spread the word of linux which more visablity would mean more people might be tempted to switch.