Comments on: Why I Dumped Microsoft Office

By: rinna

rinna — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 06:42:01 +0000

Coming in late to the party but just found your blog and been reading the archives.
Anyway, just installed Windows 7 using a genuine Windows CD that came from HP and I’m being told that I’m not using a genuine MS product.

By: WhiteCoat

WhiteCoat — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 17:44:39 +0000

You can port them to a CSV file and then import them to many contact/e-mail managers. I never liked Outlook, so I have used Google and Hushmail for a long time. I can't comment on Thunderbird. One shareware program I like for e-mails/calendars/etc (that also support Portable Apps) is EssentialPIM. $40 to register, but it imports/exports directly to Outlook.

By: Erick

Erick — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 17:32:56 +0000

My Office 2003 Pro has been declared non-genuine by MS. Converting to OO sounds like the right move. However I have been using Outlook email client for years with a pile of correspondence stored in Outlook format. Can all of these documents be read, processed, imported by Thunderbird? Is there a standalone converter of Outlook files to another format to recommend?

By: Tired Tech

Tired Tech — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 06:41:40 +0000

I had a friend call me at 4am because his wife couldn’t print out the contracts for a real estate deal worth almost $10M because….. Microsoft chose just that night to cripple her computer. Everything she has was bought by her for her own business use.

I went over, installed Open Office, imported and printed the contracts, saved her job, etc.

After explaining the problem why it happened and why it would happen again as long as she had a windows machine, she bought a brand new Ubuntu machine with support and lived happily ever after.

It’s been over 2 years and Linux just works. No more 4am calls, no more hysterical crying over Microsoft crippleware.

By: Teresa

Teresa — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 18:27:26 +0000

Anyone have any advice as to these questions?

Yeah, why are you using Outlook or Outlook Express either one? Gag. Use gmail, or if you have domain-specific email, use Thunderbird. You can also configure Thunderbird to serve up your gmail if you just gotta have one of those Outlook-styled interfaces. Oh, and use IMAP, unless working offline is really really important to you, then use POP. IMAP allows you to get to your email ANYWHERE. Once you POP your mail, I think you’re stuck with it on that computer.

By: manp

manp — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 20:56:39 +0000

@mb: It is one of the known “issues” with OpenOffice.org (which I personally love) that it doesn’t come with an email program – I’ve been using Mozilla’s Thunderbird which does have account, emails and address book import from Outlook (and the distinct Outlook Express). I have both a Windows laptop and a Linux netbook and find that Thunderbird works well in both environments. I have heard of the Lightning add-on for calendar integration, but haven’t used it in anger yet…

By: mb

mb — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 23:29:17 +0000

Does OO have an email program? I am using Outlook and the same thing happened with me when I tried to update it. they told me it was an illegal copy. They say I have 11 days left until it is deemed illegal or non-genuine!!

I would have to download OO (is it easy and does it automatically transfer your documents from Office/Word.

then for an email program I could transfer back to Outlook Express. And all my emails and address book would be transferred?

Anyone have any advice as to these questions?

By: Thrawn

Thrawn — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 11:13:38 +0000

I reckon there’s kind of 80/20 rule with office suites. 20% of MS Office features are enough for 80% of their customers, and OpenOffice.org has about 80% of MS Office features for, not 20% of the price, but no cost at all.

So, if you’re like most people, you can either get 5 times as much as you need, and pay Microsoft for it, or get 4 times as much as you need, for free. It’s an easy choice.

I admit that I’ve sometimes had no choice but to use MS Office for university assignments. The new OOXML format just doesn’t look right when opened in OO.o (not in the versions that I’ve used, at least), and the EndNote citation manager integrates with MS Word. But those are more to do with the market favoring MS, rather than any actual defect in OO.o. I have it open right now, because I’m using Linux .

By: Patient’s Medical Database « ∞ itis

Patient’s Medical Database « ∞ itis — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 16:47:51 +0000

[...] I discovered that OpenOffice includes a database (thank you to the extensive comments section on Whitecoat’s post on this subject). So, if I can make the OpenOffice database do all the cool things I could do with [...]

By: fdf

fdf — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 05:30:52 +0000

One good things of OO odt format is that it is actually open!
I recieve many reports with pictures included. I quite often need to getthe pictures out of the format and save it again jpg file. With an odt file it is very easy to do. just unzip the odt file with any archiver soft, and you’ll get a folder with different files, including each picture of the document!

try to do that with MSO. even try to copy the picture! Even the quality of the picture is not there anymore. Your data once performed through MSO is no more fully yours,..