OpenOffice.org
All the other applications we required were supplied on SLD's five installation CDs, including email client Evolution, the Mozilla browser, a Palm-compatible address book and CrossOver Office, which provides access to Outlook, Excel, Word and other Microsoft applications. As outlined in our original desktop Linux feature, setting up networked printers, handheld computers, CD burners and the like was problem-free.
We decided to install the OpenOffice.org office suite rather than StarOffice, and were surprised at how much better OpenOffice seemed to be -- or, at least, better than the particular version of StarOffice included with SLD. We had previously opted to use Microsoft Word running on CrossOver Office rather than StarOffice, which we found to be clunky and rather buggy. OpenOffice seemed much more stable, launched quickly, and presented an attractive interface. It still doesn't include a macro recorder, but the user experience was such an improvement over StarOffice and Word that we didn't mind the sacrifice.
The only Microsoft software we needed in order to work with the Windows network was Outlook -- and even this could have been eliminated if we had elected to buy the Ximian Connector, which allows Ximian's Evolution to connect to Exchange.
4%
2%
