| Although OO is tempting, there are a few kinks that make it hard to deal with. One is the starting of the program. It does not just start, you have to use the script that comes with the package. After getting it going once, a document on the desktop helps in the start-up.
The main OO that runs in an X11 window cannot connect directly to the Mac pasteboard, so you can't cut and paste from regular apps like Safari or others.
And it looks kind of unfinished (not to say ugly).
NeoOffice is nicer to look at, but too slow on my 800 iBook g3. You may get better mileage out of a g5, but then speed is relative. Neo's speed would have been acceptable on my 1400 years ago, but now it is disturbing.
What do you need other than a word processor, and what is the objection, to spend money or to give it to Redmond?
Nisus, Mellel and others make efficient, low-cost word processors, and Keynote certainly does the job for presentations.Mail can handle mail for free (replace Entourage), and packages like Mailsmith and Eudora handle volume mail very well. I don't know what to do with spreadsheets.
There is another Java-based Office replacement, think it was called FreeOffice, but I haven't tried it in a couple of years. It too was slow when I did.  |