Customer Reviews

Linspire Oooff! (Windows/Mac)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

Open Office and Firefox are two of the very best of their kind. Both give users the ability to work with the same files, websites and so on that they're used to, without the worries of bad macros, spyware, and other problems associated with the proprietary products these replace. Better yet, they're both faster, more powerful, and more up-to-date than those old dinosaurs. Perhaps best of all, these programs look and operate the same on Windows, Mac, Linux and other platforms, making it much easier if you or your family needs the flexibility.

The fact you can buy this set for a tiny fraction of the cost of just the Office suite it replaces is almost secondary to all the other features -- Open Office would be tough competition for Microsoft even if it cost the same as MS Office.

Linspire, the publisher of this collection, is highly respected for making open-source software widely accessible; if you like Open Office and Firefox, their Linspire Linux is among the best.

If you use Windows this is the way to go. Free web browser that more than 10 Million people worldwide have switched over to. None of the security problems that Internet Explorer has. Popups blocked out of the box without not extra software. The office side saves you over 200 dollars paying for Microsoft Office. And it is completely compatible with Office formatted documents and more. If you have a college student on a budget that needs a office suite then this is for them.

If you're the type that doesn't want to hassle with downloading this stuff, this is a great way to get these two wonderful open source programs on CD. Makes a wonderful gift for your friends running MS Windows.

Kevin

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.

OpenOffice and FireFox are by far the best Office Suite and Web Browser on the market today. OOoFf makes it that much easy for everyone to have a copy of each. this program is good for those who have a 56k Modem or just don't feel like downloading these products. These are a must have items. With all the security holes in Internet Explorer, it is no wonder over 10 million people have already switched to firefox. OpenOffice gives all the advantages to MS Office without the $200+ pricetag.

These are great products, stable and much more secure than its main competitors. If virus infections or hackers concern you, you should try out these two, and better yet, try them in a Linux platform.

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!