THOUGHTS ON OFFICE

Sean: The Washington Post had an article on ThinkFree Office. (A link
to the article is at the bottom of this page.) The following snippet
from the bottom sums up my feelings about Microsoft Office.

    But I hope there is room for a program like this: Office is
    overkill for most users.

    Consider the Office files I used to test ThinkFree's compatibility
    -- documents I've received in e-mail from friends, co-workers,
    contributors and publicists over the past few years.

    Most of the Word files would have looked no different as "rich
    text format" documents. Nearly all of the Excel files were nothing
    more than glorified tables. Almost every PowerPoint presentation
    amounted to a minimally illustrated, bullet-point list, and some
    only consisted of a single graphic on a page.

    It's a waste to use $480 worth of Office suite for such simple
    work. But it's not a surprise either. To paraphrase what others
    have said: When Microsoft Office is your only hammer, pretty much
    everything begins to look like a nail. Or a thumb.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A4988-2002Apr6?language=printer
.