Is Microsoft’s Office suites here to stay or will Google topple its crowning glory. As if replying to Eric Schmidt’s prediction of the imminent demise of desktop software, Microsoft’s Antoine Leblond downplays the threat in a new Reuters interview:

Leblond, who became co-leader of the Office group in June, said Google was the latest in a long line of challengers to the Office software suite … “The simple argument that ‘this is good enough for 90 percent of what we do’ has fallen on its face over and over and over again,” Leblond told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday. “When it comes to mission critical things and key pieces of how people run their businesses, the threshold is higher.”

Microsoft Office 2007 OS would be made available to large business customers on Nov. 30. Retail customers will be able to buy the package in the beginning of the next year at $399. Upgrade version will cost $239.

Following are the key features unique in Microsoft Office 2007:

Ribbon: The traditional menus and toolbars have been replaced by the Ribbon — a new device that presents commands organized into a set of tabs. The tabs on the Ribbon display the commands that are most relevant for each of the task areas in the applications. For example, in Office Word 2007, the tabs group commands for activities such as inserting objects like pictures and tables, doing page layout, working with references, doing mailings, and reviewing.

Button: The new UI brings together the capabilities of the Microsoft Office system into a single entry point in the UI: the Microsoft Office Button. This offers two major advantages. First, it helps users find these valuable features. Second, it simplifies the core authoring scenarios by allowing the Ribbon to focus on creating great documents.

Tabs: Contextual tabs will only appear when they are needed and make it much easier to find and use the commands needed for the operation at hand.

Galleries: Galleries provide users with a set of clear results to choose from when working on their document, spreadsheet, presentation, or Access database. By presenting a simple set of potential results, rather than a complex dialog box with numerous options, Galleries simplify the process of producing professional looking work.

Live Preview: It shows the results of applying an editing or formatting change as the user moves the pointer over the results presented in gallery.

An interesting excerpt from CNet

For years, Microsoft has been trying to add features to Office without them getting in the way of people who already know their way around the software. . . .Unfortunately, the company was a little too successful at making its innovations unobtrusive. In user testing, Microsoft found that nine out of every 10 features that customers wanted to see added to Office were already in the program.

Windows Sysadmins take note ! Another round of patches has come up.

On Tuesday, Microsoft Corporation released 12 security fixes for its Windows operating system and Office business software. In its monthly security bulletin, Microsoft also said two of the fixes are for vulnerabilities in some versions of its Office software that carry the highest “critical” rating. All of the patches are to fix weaknesses that could allow an attacker to take complete control of a person’s computer.

12 security fixes from Microsoft Corporation for Windows users source

ExtremeTech reports that Microsoft is confirming that there is, indeed, a Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007 SKU in the works. A company spokeswoman provided us with the following statement when we asked about Office Ultimate: “Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007 will be a new package offered in retail and OEM channels at general availability. It will give people working at home access to the full line-up of 2007 Microsoft Office applications so they can create, find, manage and share information across boundaries using the toolset they’re familiar with at the office.”

Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007 SKU source