For mixed-hardware offices or just plains Office fans on a Mac, Microsoft has crafted a release of Office 2008 for the Mac. For those who just need a functional office suite and don't much feel like using the “alternatives”, it could be exactly what they need. For businesses, however, particularly those who rely on Microsoft's VBA for office productivity, it isn't the answer. In this release of Office, Microsoft has stripped VBA out, taking with it a good chunk of the reason for using Office in the first place.

Ultimately, however, Microsoft plans to abandon VBA altogether. This has caused upset among some, but given the unending amount of security flaws that focus around VBA it is probably not a bad idea. Interestingly, there are plans for the OpenOffice project to include some form of compatbility with VBA.