OT: Keep Internet Explorer or MS products?

[Charles Martin]

> From: good-dog at northshore.net
>
> Is there any reason to keep hold of Internet Explorer after using and
> loving Safari? I understand Safari's a beta, but so far it's much
> easier to use than Explorer.  I did find I couldn't access a secure
> site with Safari, but then I can use Netscape or OmniWeb until Apple
> gets it together with Safari.
>
I get along without IE, but as it doesn't take up much space on the HD 
(about 20MB IIRC) it's probably okay to keep it around "just in case."

between Mozilla/Chimera and Safari I no longer need IE but it does have 
a few useful features.

> Any recommendations here?  I have Z-Write, a
> lovely word processing program created by a writer for writers.

I really like MarinerWrite. It's a good, clean, elegant wp. Nothing 
more, nothing less. You can check it out via Marinersoft.com.

I also use Final Draft, but that's specifically for scripting.

One of my jobs "required" submitting in MS Word, so I dutifully went 
out and get Office a year or so back (whenever the OS X version first 
came out). I later discovered that sending them the files in .rtf 
format was perfectly fine (ARGH! *Any* wp program can do RTF!). Still 
it was useful to have Word around for when I got .doc files from others.

Since I don't plan on buying the next upgrade of Office, I have bought 
and use ThinkFree Office, which works fine. It's 90% compatible with 
Word (a few of the really advanced features are missing, big whoop) and 
cost $50 for the whole enchilada. Runs slower than Office, but costs 
90% less than retail. :)

Now I have installed Apple's X11 and OpenOffice and AbiWord (both are 
billed as fully MS compatible). They are completely free of charge. As 
technical achievements they are stunning, but jeezy-creezy are they 
UGLY!!!! Uglier than even Windows 3.11, if you can imagine that!!

> From comments I've seen in the past, moving away from MS products is
> beneficial to your machines memory, among other things.
>
With OS X, many of the problems of MS Office went away. Now we only 
have the myriad security holes and virus vulnerabilities left to deal 
with. :)

All kidding aside, Word is a great and powerful wp program and when you 
can get it cheap, it's worth having -- just for the convenience factor 
alone.

If you haven't got the budget for it but need as much Office 
compatibility as possible, ThinkFree is probably the best choice, 
followed by OpenOffice (OpenOffice is said to be in the process of 
becoming a true OS X app -- when that happens, it might move to the #1 
alternative to MS Office).

Finally, if all you need is a good, powerful but elegant wp program, 
preferably built for Mac from the ground up -- get MarinerWrite.

_Chas_
Come to  ... The CHASbah!
http://thechasbah.blogspot.com

"Best Documentary EVER," Assoc. of Documentary Filmmakers: 
http://www.bowlingforcolumbine.com