the rocketeer

The list price for Microsoft Office 2007 Ultimate is a whopping $679.95. The upgrade price? An equally whopping $539.99. the rocketeer For that kind of money, it better come with Megan Fox's phone number.

Believe it or not, you can score a legal and totally legitimate copy of Office 2007 Ultimate for just $59.95. What's the catch? You need to shanghai a college student (or, you know, be one).

Microsoft's "Ultimate Steal" deal is for currently enrolled students who have an e-mail address ending in ".edu" or who attend one of several dozen approved institutions. (Mouse over the "Am I Eligible" link for more details.)

Assuming that you qualify, this is a pretty incredible deal. In addition to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook, Office Ultimate comes with OneNote, Access, Publisher, Groove, and other goodies.

There's one other small catch: Your 60 bucks buys you the download version of the suite. If you want discs (which I highly recommend), it'll cost you another $13. Still a steal.

Of course, some would argue that most students (and other users) can get everything they need from OpenOffice 3.0, a full-featured office suite that costs nada. Let me know if you're in that camp,the rocketeer or if you think Microsoft's offer is too good to pass up.

Interestingly, each student can purchase up to four licenses, so anyone with an entrepreneurial spirit can...well, I've said too much.