Something other than Microsoft?

Are there any non Microsoft products out there for things like Word and Excel? I know Home and Student is only like $150 these days, but if I could find something cheaper it would be nice. So does such a thing exist? A product that is cheaper than MicroSoft, but still uses compatible formats?

http://www.openoffice.org/

/thread.

^ What he said.

Or if you want something more cloud based - http://docs.google.com/

To expound: OpenOffice is free, and very very good. It will handle all the MS Office needs of everyone except the highest-end power users, it's fully compatible, and I think it's more stable than MS Office, too.

/thread.

woo hoo I got one right!

It's what we use.

I downloaded Open Office for my Mac at home, it seems to work as well as Microsoft Office. I've worked on a few documents at home and then sent them to work, and didn't notice any problems.

Wow, that is /thread. It looks like Open Office is exactly what I need. Thanks guys!

One thing, when you set up Open Office you can tell it to save your docs in MS format by default. I think that is a good idea if you are going to be sending the files to other people.

81gtv6 wrote: One thing, when you set up Open Office you can tell it to save your docs in MS format by default. I think that is a good idea if you are going to be sending the files to other people.

Good point. I haven't gotten around to setting that up as a default, so every time I use it I have to click on the correct button to save in MS format.

I run Ubuntu Linux with open office.

Windows is a joke.

Linux is what Windows COULD be, if its makers were interested in producing a legitimate computer OS instead of a marketing tool for big business.

1988RedT2 wrote: I run Ubuntu Linux with open office. Windows is a joke. Linux is what Windows COULD be, if its makers were interested in producing a legitimate computer OS instead of a marketing tool for big business.

At least BB is nicer than Big Oil and let Linux see the light of day instead of stealin' plans for 100MPG carbs n' E36 M3.

1988RedT2 wrote: I run Ubuntu Linux with open office. Windows is a joke. Linux is what Windows COULD be, if its makers were interested in producing a legitimate computer OS instead of a marketing tool for big business.

Since I'm about to be flush with a 5 year old laptop that seems to hate the 10,000,000 Xp updates, how hard is it to find drivers for a laptop that are compatable with Linux?

I'm quite tempted to play with that computer....

alfadriver wrote:

1988RedT2 wrote: I run Ubuntu Linux with open office. Windows is a joke. Linux is what Windows COULD be, if its makers were interested in producing a legitimate computer OS instead of a marketing tool for big business.

Since I'm about to be flush with a 5 year old laptop that seems to hate the 10,000,000 Xp updates, how hard is it to find drivers for a laptop that are compatable with Linux? I'm quite tempted to play with that computer....

What he said

In reply to alfadriver:

www.puppylinux.org

Dr. Hess wrote: In reply to alfadriver: www.puppylinux.org

Thanks- and while puppy seems like a great solution- I'm more worried that when I say format c:, I'll even loose the drivers to run the USB ports.

I'm quite happy loading a full Ubuntu or whatever form of Linux, but would like to keep using the wireless hardware in the laptop- and I KNOW that was gone, as were the video drivers, and a bunch of other stuff I had to get directly from Dell (crappy rebuild CD, that's for sure).

At a bare minimum, I know if I delete everything, it WILL try to boot of the CD- so I can get puppylinux running....

(now if I could only get a REALLY old PC running, with the PCMCIA cards running so that I can even have USB ports, that would be interesting...)

I really never understood the Windows hate. Admittedly though I am not a computer person. But since I've been old enough to buy my own computers (woohoo almost 6 years!) Windows has been fine with me. I never had the "Windows Problems". IE the constant blue screens, updated going wrong.

To the average user, like me, what are the benefits of Linux over Windows?

I don't hate windows- but am pretty sure that most of the memory that has been recently taken up on my HD are XP updates, and every update I get slows the computer down even more.

I actually like windows.

Just can't see these computers hanging on much longer in their current state. Too many updates. It would be cool to get 7, but I'm quite sure that these 5 and 10 year old compters would not be very happy attempting that.

E-

When my main box at home crashed because THE MICROSHAFT WINDOZE berkeleying REGISTRY WAS FULL(!!!!), (MS web page: "Yeah, it does that") and it wouldn't even boot, just death spiral, I booted the box, which is, I dunno, 5-6 years old? on that puppy linux CD, then plugged in my new $90 1 Terrabyte USB drive from wally world and copied what was on the 1/4 Terrabyte C: onto the USB drive under puppy linux (which recognized the new USB drive, no problem), then did a clean install with XP and copied my stuff back off of the USB onto C: That way I managed to save most of my documents, car stuff, megasquirt stuff, etc.

So, I'd say give the puppy linux a try. If it worked on my machine, which I built from pieces bought at Fry's 5-6 years ago, it has a good chance of working on your Dell. I know Dells sometimes have "issues" there too.

alfadriver wrote: Since I'm about to be flush with a 5 year old laptop that seems to hate the 10,000,000 Xp updates, how hard is it to find drivers for a laptop that are compatable with Linux? I'm quite tempted to play with that computer....

It doesn't really work that way.

My suggestion is to pick a distro. My suggestion is Mint; Mint is Ubuntu minus all the F/OSS zealotry, so it includes the proprietary codecs that make your life actually work (Flash, mp3, wmv, etc, etc).

Download the live CD and burn it to a disc. Then boot off of your freshly burned CD. It'll be slower than a HD install, but you get to play around with things, see what works and what doesn't. On my laptop, everything works out of the box; there's no chasing down drivers like there is on windows.

I don't particularly hate windows. I also own a copy of Windows 7. On this box, I run a dual-boot config, and I just use Linux more than windows. Because Linux works. It's just better, that's all.

And oh yeah, it's free.

just started using open office on the home desktop computer. It does everything I need. If I want more sophisticated stuff, there are much better programs for it than word/ms office.

+Pi for OpenOffice

Google Docs isn't bad either for a lightweight, portable solution.

You can use iWork i believe with any system as well