Joe,
I would say that Office 2007 is the main cash cow of M$. As such, its the top card in a house of cards, if, and I repeat, if, Windows ever loses market share on the desktop, they so won't M$ Office.

It called the power of lockin. M$ used to give away in OEM bundles Office to get people hooked into using it, and that worked very well. It called dumping a product below cost to kill another product, illegal most everywhere, BTW. Unlike most community Linux distros, which were designed from day 1 to be free.

As far as how much money M$ makes off Office or Vista, you got to hand it to them, they know how to squeeze the most bucks out of people with reworked old code, released, with a slightly different user interface, and new prioratory formats (lockingware) based on non-standard file formats that nobody else can use because M$ will patent them and has found the legal loophole to stop others.

Heck, M$ might even get the lockingware format in M$ Office 2007 to be declared an Standard, but it still will not be able for other companies to market it as an open standard.

And this is the problem that is starting to come back and bite M$. Its use of non-standard formats, lockinware, to prevent other companies being compatable with there products. Take for example another M$ product that dosen't comform to establised standards, Internet Exployer. Perhaps this is why Opera is now sueing them in the EU;

Opera Seeks Tougher Remedy in Microsoft Case

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,140573-page,1/article.html

Quotes;
"With its fresh antitrust suit filed with the Commission this week, browser maker Opera Software is hoping for a tougher penalty to rein in what it sees as Microsoft's illegal bundling of its Internet Explorer (IE) browser with Windows. One legal expert said that this time around, Microsoft might not be so lucky.

Opera expects the case to move along faster than the seven years it took to reach the 2004 decision, since the Commission has already deemed Microsoft to be a monopolist, and because Microsoft opted against a further appeal against that decision.

n addition to the bundling charge, Opera also complains that Microsoft does not follow Web standards, putting rival browsers at a disadvantage. The issue is significant because if all Web browsers do not use the same standards, Web site developers are likely to design their Web sites to work with the most widely used browser, which is Internet Explorer. That gives people a disincentive to use other browsers."
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This could really turn out to be a major problem for M$ should Opera win this case.

Hey Joe,

I came across this article, by guess who?

And its really good.

Vista Reality Check

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2236676,00.asp

Quotes from this link;

"When Microsoft launched Windows Vista, many analysts predicted modest adoption, but not this slow.

The operating system has failed every measure of success except one—the number of license shipments. At the close of Microsoft's fiscal-2008 first quarter Sept. 30, Vista license shipments topped 88 million. But licenses shipped aren't licenses deployed by enterprises or sold through the channel.

"As a business that does IT consulting for small businesses, I can tell you that the uptake on the small-business side is almost nonexistent," said Nathan Taylor, an IT consultant with Denver-based RK Consulting."

"Vista adoption in the enterprise has been really poor," said Gartner analyst Michael Silver. "Enterprises are about a year behind where they told us they'd be a year ago."

Every analyst contacted by eWeek Strategic Partner about Vista adoption reached the same conclusion: The operating system has had no perceptible impact on PC sales, even though there is a rapid migration to laptops from desktops. If anything, the migration has pulled along Vista sales, said Chris Swenson, an analyst with The NPD Group."
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Now it might be a little off topic of Office, but consider Vista as being one of the cards on the bottom of the house of cards, you pull it out, and all fall. Nice article, BTW.

"The 15 Biggest Tech Disappointments of 2007"

#9 Sorry., We Already Gave: Office 2007
"Many of us spent a decade learning how to use Microsoft Office. So now that we finally have it all down, Microsoft changes almost everything about the interface in 2007, and not for the better. Instead of simple-if-prosaic toolbars, Office 2007 serves up a jumble of confusing icons known as the 'Ribbon.' ..."

#11. Singing an Old Familiar Zune: Microsoft Zune

Microsoft strikes back at Opera antitrust claims
http://www.news.com/Microsoft-strikes-back-at-Opera-antitrust-claims/2100-1016_3-6222809.html?tag=ne.fd.mnbc

Whoever said money can't buy happiness simply didn't know where to go shopping. - Bo Derek :o)