Buy Office 2007, Get Office 2010 for Free?
Hold off for a bit before buying Office 2007 -- Microsoft should announce a free upgrade offer starting in March.
Just as how Microsoft gave late Windows Vista buyers an (almost) free upgrade path the Windows 7, it appears that the same will apply to those picking up Office 2007 in the months leading up to the release of Office 2010.
Ars Technica caught a cached copy of a bulletin posted on a Microsoft U.S. Partner Community website that specifies that customers who purchase and activate a copy of Office 2007, with or without a new PC, from an authorized reseller between March 5, 2010 and September 30, 2010 qualify for the promotion.
Those who satisfy the qualifications must request his or her free Office 2010 product by October 31, 2010 using an activated Office 2007 Product Key and a dated sales receipt.
Although this information is no longer available on the partner website, we suspect that the deal is real. Microsoft often makes these sort of "technology guarantees" and this information leak is likely just a case of the company revealing plans with its partners before making a formal announcement to the public. After all, letting this information out this soon could potentially halt all Office 2007 sales for the next month.
Here is the provided image regarding the free upgrade path:

Why?
Plus don't buy any version, if you're waiting for 2010. There's supposed to be Word and Excel free online. (Ad supporting) That's usually sufficient for home users.
You can download the beta version of the 2010 suite for for free until October!
most are not returnable once open so the offer looks heroic but only a small percent will actually qualify
Yes to compete with Google's free apps online. Plus there are numerous studies out there that show that 80% of people who use Office only use about 20% of its features...I personally didn't and won't buy 2007 for the mere fact that I am not going to shell out a hundred plus dollars for extra features I won't use and the implementation of the "Ribbon" when 2003 does just what I need to this day...
Yep, that and Google Docs.