Thank you, Morgan, for your response.

   Maybe you are right, I didn't try OpenOffice/StarOffice.
But I have few friends who have both StarOffice and=20
MS Office at their work. They told me I couldn't do=20
some things with  StarOffice:=20
 - MS Automation (MS term)
 - VBA similar to VB6 and VBScript
 - ActiveX components (MSHFlexGrid and MSComm for example)
 - MS SQL Server projects from within MS Access and so on...

   I use Office as development environment mainly, not=20
only for typewriting. =20

   Mike.

Morgan Olsson wrote:
> Mike Singer wrote:
> >I have around me in my not so big town
> >hundreds of legal MS products. Who will blame
> >(and control) somebody for using at home copy of
> >such a thing for non-commercial "home brewing" ?
>=20
> Lot of people...  And for whatever reason use MS Office?
> I certainly don=B4t want to install MS Office again even if i get it =
for
free.
>=20
> If you really want to use an Office suite, take a look at
OpenOffice/StarOffice.
>=20
> They are file compatible.  Both are about as capable as MSO; some
things
> better, some things maybe worse.
>=20
> OpenOffice is available not only for Windows, but also for Linux,
Solaris and
> Mac OS X (beta).
>=20
> Documentations of API, file format etc available.
>=20
> Help is swift through discussion list (Like PICLIST but wihtout OT...
;) ).
> Of course you may buy StarOffice, and then pay for support if you
want.  Cost
> is about 1/10 of comparable MSOffice functionality, and Licens is
personal: you
> may install on *all* computers you own (laptop, home, office, on
> linux/windows...)(but only you may use it).
> I actually bought StarOffice, but use OpenOffice too.
> With StarOffice there is another database engine, paper manual,
samples, ...
>=20
> Also, the file formats are well documented so it is possible to build
further
> applications working on the files directly.  (MS formats are secret!
Anyway,
> OOo team have made wonder anyway at importing and exporting in MS
> formats, however the native format is mostly superior in size;
compressed
> XML)
>=20
> I never used Visio, but in OOo/SO there is a vector based drawing
program
> that i have used to make nice flow-charts with rubberbanding arrows.
I believe
> rubberbanding is nice for schematic wires.
>=20
>=20
> I still don=B4t se a good reason to use a Office suite as base for a
free layout
> utility, but if you should, use one that is well documented, works on
at least
> Windows and Linux, and is free, LEAGALLY of course.
>=20
> I have been part-time teacher, and i=B4d say pupils learn SO a little
faster than
> MSO.  Better organized settings, help, and right click anything work
nice.  My
> impression anyway.  But, they are all very similar, so you should not
have a
> hard time getting up to pace with OOo/SO.
> You really shuold try OOo if you have not yet.
http://www.openoffice.org

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