Has anyone here used OpenOffice before? I think there is a Mac version. Just wondering how it compares to MS Office.
I am always leary of MS products, mostly because of their annoying EULAs. I do use Office, but only because I was able to get the full suite for $45 through my university. The EULA for that deal allows you to install on one desktop and one portable. That's fine, since that's all I have. Problem is, you better not have a hard drive die on you, or have to re-initialize at any time. Re-install past the second time and you cannot run Office apps on both computers at the same time if both are on the same local network. Ever try dealing with MS customer service or support? It's easier for me to just turn off Airport, launch the second app, then restart Airport again. Works fine that way.
When it comes to MS products, I highly recommend piracy as the only way you are sure to get something worth what you pay for it. Word is a good word processor, but it is bloated and often tries to "help" by automating tasks you don't want it to. Keynote is much better and easier to use than PowerPoint (not to mention that you can export to a QT movie. You can do something like that in PowerPoint using Producer, but it only works in Windows and is a pain in the rear to use). There is no Mac version of Access database. Entourage is just plain ugly and annoying (but I also hated Outlook Express. I've always used either Eudora or Mail.app). Excel is nice, but I suspect that for most people the AppleWorks spreadsheet probably works just fine. And you can save your worksheets as Excel files anyway.
I just hope that Apple gives us a really powerful version of AppleWorks that can truly stand up to MS Office.