Native Microsoft Office Suite on Linux by 2014, Maybe

This is not a rumor, it's just linux humor!

If they did this it would only be because they are afraid of LibreOffice / OpenOffice becoming the standard (which for most people, is good enough).

That would be absolutely awesome!

My main laptop has Gentoo Linux installed and I have to use Microsoft Office at work, so currently I use MS Office with WINE. If Microsoft were to release a native Linux version of Office I would be prepared to buy it if it would work under Gentoo Linux.

I'm running Gentoo too and I would probably buy it too it they release it.
I'm using Linux full time and to me it's the biggest thing we are missing in Linux.

There is already a Linux office suite with 100% interoperability with Microsoft's formats: SoftMaker Office for Linux. Why should anyone wait for Microsoft Office when a great and much cheaper alternative is available?

I don't think this really matters for the "die hard" Linux users, they're already set up with their favorite office suites and office apps whether they're using LibreOffice......OpenOffice....or something from the KDE camp. I don't think I would pay for a MS Office suite available for Linux, maybe a corporation might if they have a disparate network with Linux an Windows PC's sharing network resources, and if they needed a standardized format that was interchangeable between the two types of machines, but I wouldn't personally pay for an office suite, not when I can have one that's free and reliable,....already proven to work with Windows, and won't damage my files.

well, some may say MS Office for Linux would be great, other may say it's not needed since Linux users already are accustomed to a non-MS office. But there might be darker side if MS releases Office for Linux; as in what if MS Office for Linux is only a barebone compared to MS Office for Windows; or it has many bugs and is slow. Then it would discourage users in using Linux and they (or MS) would blame Linux for the bugs in MS Office Linux. Or MS will become a bully in Linux world and will try to change codes in the Linux kernel to suit MS Office interoperability; then we will have to deal with proprietary codes like the .Net and DirectX.

Why don't we send a message back to MS: remember when Ballmer said that "Linux is a cancer"; well we should say that "MS Office for Linux would be cancer to Linux".