Linspire Oooff! (Windows/Mac) review:5 stars (Not only of a very high quality, but save $$$ on licenses) - I agree 100% with the previous reviewers in the fact that OpenOffice, Firefox, and the other main packages are rich in features and of a very good quality. Even if Microsoft stuff would be free of charge, I'd prefer these packages 10 to 1 over Microsoft, precisely because of quality.
Now, the main point I want to make is, that if you have more than one computer, let's say three as I have at home, savings will add up very quickly. For example, just talking about MS Office: each license for each computer is $400+. To be perfectly legal you should buy 3 licenses x $400 = $1,200 (or more). With Open Office you won't spend more for one, than you'll spend for 3, or 20, because it's open source. Under the General Public License, you could install it on an unlimited number of computers, and remain perfectly legal. So, the only Microsoft product my wife and daughter are running on their respective computers, due to compatibility issues with the local school district, is Windows 98SE, but everything else is open source, including Open Office, Firefox, and Thunderbird. Of course, all machines are dual boot with Linux Open Suse 10.0, which in my case is the one that I use almost exclusively.
BTW, just if you're considering getting rid of Microsoft products altogether, you can get Linspire 5.0, Suse 10.0, or any other major Linux distro, and you'll be amazed that all of these applications and much, much more, come included. You'll be a happy camper in a world of freedom!5 stars (Good but save your money) - Okay maybe if your connection is slow or you don't have access to broadband you can buy this CD,but if not why bother?
OpenOffice.org is freely available online as is Firefox.
I use and love both so don't get me wrong here,but the price is a little too much but then again it goes to the developers.
Ooo is a great alternative to Microsoft Office and even Star Office. It does everything the same for free! I often do my homework and essays with Ooo Writer. And Firefox is what I am using to write this very review! It's one of the best Mozilla-based browsers besides the Mozilla Suite/Netscape 7 itself.5 stars (Open Office and FireFox, wonderful software, excellent value) - Open Office reads and writes in MS Office 97/2000/XP formats for Word, Excel and PowerPoint and can export documents to PDF format.
One of the best advantages is inexpensive upgradability. I purchased Office 95 ($400+ dollars) in 1996. When Office 97 came out, my Office 95 software would not open office 97 formatted documents. I toughed it out till I purchased Office 2000 ($500+ dollars) now Office XP and 2003 have came out (do we see a pattern here)? I suspect that it will be much less expensive to buy a $30 upgrade to Open Office to read and write documents created by upcoming versions of Micro$oft Office.
FireFox: "ad ware" resistant, pop up blocker and tabbed browsing... love it. |
