Well if something comes for a high price, just for its sleeker looks, and may be a few functions more than the Free alternative, then that has to be termed a Bimbo.
You are either overestimating what free alternatives can do, or terribly undermining what Office can.
And then u have to pay for it every year or so, and also for every other copy u want of it!
No point comparing a free software with a licensed one on this front. I am not aware of any Office edition which requires an annual fee though. One can buy a version and use it for as long as they want to.
Edit: And still it crashes on ur head without any reason at times. I have been breaking my head against Excel crashing at office several times. And which version is it? It is MS Office 2007 PROFESSIONAL. If this high priced tool still crashes on a decently powered system, then what is the use of paying so much?
This is interesting. I haven't really loaded Excel much, apart from opening tsv logs between 500 and 750MB in size, and while it took really long to open those files, after it did, it ran pretty well. You might be using even larger files. Or worse, badly written macros. I haven't ever seen Excel, Word, or PowerPoint crashing though. Outlook Express yes. Outlook, no.