Fixed the bloody smart quotes.In a previous post, I opined that Microsoft’s Macworld Expo announcement of a 5-year commitment to support Microsoft Office for Mac amounts to notice of the product’s future demise.Microsoft, Apple and everyone who has ever touched a Mac or an iPod Shuffle have apparently met and voted to issue a fatwa on my ass. It’s not the first time. I once talked my editor-in-chief at BYTE into running a package under a cover proclaiming, “Is UNIX Dead?” The answer in the text, which was written by the same Ben Smith and Tom Yager who created the BYTE Unix Benchmarks, the same Tom Yager who wrote Advanced UNIX Programming for the PC, the pair of UNIX zealots who coined the phrase “fair and balanced,” was a loud and definitive “no.”No BYTE subscriber with a tinge of gray in his or her hair and an e-mail account ever made it past the cover. To even pose such a question, one that everyone was secretly pondering in silence at the time, brought a pox on our house.Jon Udell still finds that UNIX cover story fiasco hilarious. Now he’s watched me run to the roof with a lightning rod not once, but twice. I laugh in the face of death. I love my Macs. I’m rolling over to my 20-inch iMac right now. *Smooch*. Aw, left a mark. Power Mac G5 Quad? *Smek* (sizzle). Am I covered if I just give the rack with my Xserve G5, Xserve G4s and Xserve RAIDs in it a wink and a hearty pat on the head?I love Office. I write all of my words in Word on Mac clients. I spread all my spreadsheets in Excel. I strongly prefer Keynote to PowerPoint, but PowerPoint is the only foolproof way to open .ppt attachments. I use Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection to manage my Windows servers from my PowerMac G5 (and now, my 20-inch iMac). I fire up Virtual PC when I bring my PowerBook to Redmond for Windows and Visual Studio workshops.Love the Mac. Love Office. Love, love, love. Look. I’m dancing. Still, I remain certain that in five years plus one day, Office for Mac will be history, and that Microsoft Support won’t take calls on it. I am equally certain that no one will notice. I am even more equally certain that in five years plus two days, ten years plus six days, and for as long as Apple and Microsoft both shall live, Macs will run Office with Microsoft’s enthusiastic and official support.Ten points if you spot the distinction there before I spill it and lay out the plentiful rationale behind it in the next post.In the meantime, please take a deep breath and go to your happy place. Software Development