An acquaintance is thinking of coming over from the 'other side' and would like to know if 'Microsoft Office for Mac' (on her wished for new Mac) is as vulnerable to viruses as Office and other applications on a PC would be. Anyone prepared to stick their neck out, please?
I too have not had any problems occasionally running Office for Mac.
The question was 'if Microsoft Office for Mac' is as vulnerable to viruses as Office on a PC'. It therefore appears you are vulnerable to running Office Macros since they do exist in the wild. After all, the virus vectors are dependent on the same Macro language technology and not necessarily the underlying OS insecurities.
There have been cases of Word Macros that have affected Mac users. A quick look gave me this old example:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2001/01/19/mac_users_hit_by_melissa/
The simplest way to avoid Office viruses is to just disable the Macros. (However you can still pass them on if you do not have an Anti virus checker, checking all your received Office documents).
Actually Microsoft's latest version of Office (2008) for the Mac does _not_ support Macros. So whilst making the Office for Mac potentially incompatible to complex Office documents (which depend on Macros) written for the PC, it is now probably totally secure :-)
I would certainly look at Open Office (see my post under the Labels thread) before spending money on M$ Office. I have vowed to keep my new Mac M$ free!
Alan Cox 