Microsoft death sentence for Mac Office?

Roz Ho, the head of Microsoft Mac Business Unit, made her customary appearance at MacWorld Expo to announce that Microsoft and Apple and reached an agreement to support Office for the Mac for a least five years.

I know Microsoft. When the company "commits to support the product for a minimum of five years" means that the product will no longer be supported five years after this announcement. Existing users can live with that; their software is stable. But eventually the code will go into maintenance mode, and with the Mac BU, products like Virtual PC, Internet Explorer and Remote Desktop Connector.

It's Microsoft's right, but until someone finds a solution, Office is forced to run on Rosetta, an instruction translater that gives office users real pain.

A proper solution is within reach, even within my reach, but the night has gotten away from me.

Thanks for coming along.