Another reason to leave Office...

for OpenOffice or Google Docs. There will be no upgrade pricing for Office 2010.

99% of home users and businessfolk use only the most basic functions in Office. Doubt me? When's the last time you saw someone use footnotes, build indices or a table of contents, or use Excel as an actual spreadsheet instead of some faux database?

If you write macros you are probably one of the powerusers who need some specific functionality that is best provided by Office. The rest of us are fine with the work-alikes. In the meantime, microsoft will keep breaking backward/thirdparty compatibility intentionally by changing features and extensions (.docx, anyone). Microsoft holds its own customers hostage.

Tell them to shove it. Download OO and see if it meets your needs. I bet it does.