Here’s something to kick of a whole new year in technology, Gizmodo gives us a hands-on review of the much awaited Office 2008 for the Mac. Of course, it wouldn’t be Microsoft if it weren’t available in different packages which, true to its name, do come in three variants to choose from:  Home & Student Edition, Standard and the Special Media Edition.

The Home & Student Edition comes with Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Entourage while the Standard package comes with all those mentioned plus Microsoft Server Exchange Support and Automator Actions for Workflows in Microsoft Office. The Special Media Edition adds one more thing to the table: Microsoft Expression Media which was formerly known as iView. If budget is a concern and you just need the basics, you’ll manage with the Home & Student Edition.

Aside from the ability to export PowerPoint content to the iPod through iPhoto, Office 2008 also employs a more traditional interface as opposed to Office 2007 which turned off a number of users due to its radical change in look. For beginning Excel users, a Formula Builder is available for those who need help in inserting calculations. This inclusion can be attributed to the lack of Visual Basic support in this latest Office Suite.

The greatest advantage, though, was that it runs great on a MacBook Pro. Compared to its predecessor which had many glitches and incompatibility issues, this latest version offers more stability. Based on this preliminary review, it would seem that it’s safe to say that upgrading to Office 2008 is recommended if your using one of the newer Mac models. However, feedback on usage with older Macs and newly found bugs is still greatly appreciated.

Microsoft haters need not apply.