I haven’t found a site to download a demo of Office 2008, and I can’t seem to get answers from anyone at MacBU or in blogs, so I decided to buy it. I’m really interested in seeing what the development opportunities are (if there are any), and I wanted to see what the new Entourage had to offer. The retail price of $399.95 seemed a bit steep: I’m looking for development options, not to use it full time (not yet at least). The upgrade price of $239.95 is far more palatable, and sure enough, the upgrade policy (from the bottom of the retail box, or here at the “upgrade eligibility” link) is:
The software will install only if you are a licensed user of one of the following products: … Any Microsoft Office for Mac 2001-2004 suite or application.
Well guess what. I’ve got Entourage 2004–it came free as part of my 1&1.com hosted Exchange account (which is $3.99 a month, and it also comes with Outlook 2007 for free). I’m sure other Exchange hosting companies provide the same deal.
I bought the upgrade, and it installed just fine! So–sign up for Exchange email, get Entourage for free, and save $160 on Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac.
