Non-Microsoft alternatives to mail/browser/Office products...

[whiskeytown]

I have no choice - Win98 ain't cutting it anymore, and today I'm probably gonna go to the store and buy the parts for my new P4 and I have XP professional with SP2, so I'll install that, Zonealarm, Norton's AV, and THEN and only then plug it into the Internet.

In an attempt to reduce my future risk, I'm looking at Firefox/Thunderbird for my Browsing/Email and Openoffice for my Word/Excel needs - (I don't use Access or Powerpoint much anyways) -

Anyone have any problems with these? - I do use a fairly complex Excel document to track my losses/wins in poker, so I need it to convert easily -

RB

[Blarg]

I don't know jack about OpenOffice, but am one of the many who loves Firefox -- which I'd guess is really close to 100% of the people who try it. Now I use Internet Explorer for approximately 0% of my surfing...uh...needs.

[Jack of Arcades]

I like OpenOffice but I do prefer Excel to the Openoffice Spreadsheet...

I love Firefox.

[evil_twin]

[ QUOTE ]
I love Firefox.

[/ QUOTE ]

[YourFoxyGrandma]

I have some friends that use open office. They swear by it, but I think they only use it for word processing.

[Mars357]

OpenOffice will work very well for you unless you have excel or or word docs that have very complex macros embedded in them. Otherwise, this should be simple.

I've been using open office 2.0 (beta) for several months with no major issues at all. I use both the Windows and the Linux versions.

[Jeff W]

Kerio Personal Firewall 2.1.5 is way better than ZoneAlarm. 2.1.5 is better than 4.x

For AV: Are you purchasing Norton's AV? If so, buy Kaspersky Anti Virus instead. If you are getting Norton free, then stick with that. If you want a freeware program, get AntiVir. Also make sure you get MS Antispyware.

Firefox is worlds better than IE. I use webmail so I can't comment on thunderbird.

I use OpenOffice for word processing and I like it better than MS. The OO spreadsheet program is not as fully functional as Excel(MS's best App) in my experience.

The only software I've bought in the last 4 years: Windows XP and Pokertracker. Freeware is the way to go. If you need more apps, I can dig up some links for you.

[schwza]

i've found the OO spreadsheet to run slowly. you click "save" and then the waiting game begins. it's also a little less user-friendly than excel.

[Jamey Saunders]

[ QUOTE ]
In an attempt to reduce my future risk, I'm looking at Firefox/Thunderbird for my Browsing/Email and Openoffice for my Word/Excel needs - (I don't use Access or Powerpoint much anyways) -

Anyone have any problems with these? - I do use a fairly complex Excel document to track my losses/wins in poker, so I need it to convert easily -

RB

[/ QUOTE ]
I use Firefox/TB and OO in an office environment (software development & support), so it's robust enough for that. I use the word processing and spreadsheet functions of OO pretty much on a daily basis, when the rest of the company uses MS Office. Never had a compatibility problem. I have also used OO to work with Powerpoint presentations. One of the things I love about OO is the option to export your document directly to PDF. Very nice.

I wouldn't give it a second thought.

[bd8802]

I did not like how OO's spreadsheets handled built-in finance equations. Excel worked perfectly, and I imagine with enough playing around I could have gotten OO's to work. Other than that, it rocked.