MS alternatives

I hope to start using the following in the near future:

Mozilla in place of Internet Explorer.
Foxmail in place of Outlook Express.
Open Office in place of Word 2000.

Before I install them, do they work in the same way as their Microsoft equivalents?
Will I have to back up all of my emails within Outlook Express and import them into Foxmail?
Will Open Office act as my spellchecker within Foxmail?

With regard to OE / Foxmail, there are four administrators on my new PC and when I installed my backed up my emails and email accounts from my old PC I was logged on under my own name. The problem is that when other administrators open up Outllook Express they can’t – it contains nothing and the accounts are not set up. How can I make OE common to all administrators i.e. all the same folders and emails within them and when I download my emails they go into all administrators OE simultaneously?

Thanks in advance.

gg

Mozilla....yes this does behave in a similar fashion to Internet explorer, however I would recommend using Firefox, as it is a more uptodate browser.

OpenOffice....which consists of an Excel type component + Word type component + Powerpoint type component, very similar to use to the quivalent M'soft product. Can import and save in the same format as the M'soft products. Great product.


Foxmail...have not used this.

Have you considered Thunderbird as your mail client? I find it very good.

Thunderbird is definitely my preference for email management and comes with a full migration feature making the transition very simple from Outlook or Outlook Express very straightforward.

Also with regard to using Mozilla as your browser, I presume you mean the full Internet Suite? If so, this also includes an email client as well as many other features. If you were looking just for a straightforward web browser you'd be better off with the leaner Firefox, also from Mozilla.

James

Sorry for being a luddite, but does Open Office mean that I could buy a Windows pc, with whatever is the latest OS they have pre-installed, and just load on Open Office instead of buying a bloody expensive MS Office suite?

Would Open Office work with Firefox and Thunderbird? Put firefox onto my parents' pc over xmas, they are stunned at the difference in speed when surfing (dial-up) compared with IE.

Obviously for security etc. it is preferable to have as few MS products on a pc as possible. Would there be any compatibility issues with Open Office and virus/spyware software?

Had a quick look on the open office website, but can't find exact answers. Thanks!

Does Open Office mean that I could buy a Windows pc, with whatever is the latest OS they have pre-installed,
and just load on Open Office instead of buying a bloody expensive MS Office suite?
Sort of. There are pleacements for Word, Excel, Access, and Powerpoint. It also includes a drawing program but no replacement for Outlook. That's where Thunderbird comes in. imho.

Would Open Office work with Firefox and Thunderbird?
Yes.

Would there be any compatibility issues with Open Office and virus/spyware software
Not that I know off. You can double check on the Ad-Aware and Spybot websites. More details here:

James

It also includes a drawing program but no replacement for Outlook. That's where Thunderbird comes in. imho.

There are also efforts to come up with Free/Open Source or commercial alternatives to Outlook/Exchange for what that's worth, although it's early days for some of them - e.g. OpenGroupware.org, Ximian Evolution (GNU/Linux based), etc., etc..

Thanks for the replies! Could anyone answer my question about sharing OE/Foxmail with the other administrators I have?

Cheers,

GG

Not sure about OE for this, but with Thunderbird you can define a common local folder for multiple users either on a network or the localhost. Using the filters you would have defined you can have so that it automatically deposits certain emails into the common folder while keeping other emails private. This can be done by going to TOOLS -> ACCOUNT OPTIONS in Thunderbird.

Hope that helps.

James