I was a lot more interested in the Adobe acquisition of Buzzword before I saw the list of limitations in the product:

Buzzword’s drawbacks are that it is still slower than a full-fledged desktop application (not so much when typing, but when doing things like cutting and pasting); it doesn’t support hyperlinks (unconscionable for a Web-based app, though this is on Treitman’s to-do list); and there is no easy way to export a document to a blog or other Web publishing system other than cut-and-paste.

Still, with Adobe ownership and funding - and with the planned port to Air - the office suite space is looking more interesting, and Microsoft will have to awake from their long term slumber there. They aren't really awake yet - their current response reeks of "preservation of the existing business model at all costs":

Office Live Workspace is, in Microsoft’s words, “a new web-based feature of Microsoft Office which lets people access their documents online and share their work with others.” It’s aimed at consumers and small-business users, not corporations who are interested in being able to access their documents anywhere -- from any computer and any browser. In other words, Microsoft isn’t playing up Office Live Workspace as a head-to-head competitor with Google Apps Premier Edition (GAPE). Microsoft is positioning its Microsoft-hosted SharePoint, Exchange and Office Communications Services (which it has now rebranded with as its family of “Office Online” services) as its GAPE competitors.

Thus far, there's not a truly compelling reason to switch from Word to (insert a web app here). However, that day looks like it's coming. The ironic thing is, it looks like Microsoft will be caught just as flat footed as its old rivals were when things switched from DOS to Windows.

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