outlook is more feature rich than outlook express. i have found express to be alot less stable than outlook, which isnt saying alot, since outlook is pretty unstable itself. ms office cannot save to a pdf, but i can print to a pdf file from any app. I have a full version of acrobat at work (the program kicks ass by the way), and it creates a virtual printer that you can send your doc to, to create a full pdf.
i have ms office & open office on both my windows machine, and my mac. the only gripe i have with openoffice is the time it takes to start up is rediculous. Even my linux box takes forever.
i doubt that there is much difference between officeXP and the new office. Not enough to justify spending $600 for. Or even the educational $129 version. Why bother when i can get an app that is more than compatible with ms office formats, free, is being developed faster than ms office, runs on multiple systems, and lets me worry about other things besides licensing and pirating apps just to get my work done. anyone that actually buys ms office is a fucking moron. an inexperienced buyer in a capitalist society? only when it comes to computers i guess. people are so fucking picky when it comes to anything they "need", why do they not act the same with computers? when somebody "needs" car insurance, they are going to check out at least 3 different places to get the best deal for the least amount of money. yet they blindly spend $600 for an office app for their home computer so they can write letters to aunt flo? for $600 i can buy a whole new computer, and get an os, and a shitload of software. hell, i'd even buy a boxed distro from the store.