Marginal Software

I've been using Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac since its release sometime around the date of the MacWorld convention. This software epitomizes everything bad about applications that are released before they're ready for prime-time. For the first couple of days, it seemed as though it was working just fine. Then, I started trying to open documents attached to email messages. Two out of every three attempts to do so would lock up my entire Mac system (particularly when the attached document was an Excel file) forcing me to use the power button to reboot the system. I've been using a MacBook Pro for approximately 8 months now and MS Office is the ONLY application that has ever caused my system to behave in this manner and, believe me, I've downloaded and tested ALOT of shareware and open source software for the Mac. It truly bothers me that a company like Microsoft can release and actually demand money for an application that is clearly substandard.

I just installed SP1 for Office 2008 and I'm hoping the application will stabilize a bit. I'm not holding my breath, though. I suppose anything Mac will be treated like a red-headed step child by Microsoft so I should have expected no more than what I received.