When I walked into the house after spending the Labor Day weekend in Prescott, I heard a clicking noise coming from my office. Bad news — my computer’s hard drive had died.
Most of my important information and data was backed up, but I still had to reinstall Windows and reinstall all the programs I had been running.
Since I have to start over again, I have decided to try to live in the open source world as much as possible. Unfortunately, I can’t get along without Windows quite yet. But I don’t need MS Office; I’ll use Open Office exclusively instead.
I don’t need Outlook; Thunderbird is a better mail program.
And I don’t even have to synch my Palm phone with Outlook; I can use the Palm Desktop that came with the phone.
It’s kind of like moving Mom to a new apartment this weekend. It’s a lot of work, but it’s also an opportunity to get rid of stuff you don’t need and start fresh.
6 responses so far ↓
1 Donna // Sep 7, 2006 at 1:06 pm
When you installed my hard drive last year, you set me up with all freeware, too. So far, I haven’t needed anything else.
2 Heather // Sep 8, 2006 at 9:22 am
I also use open office and it has been ok, it just takes getting used to!
Quick question…Is there a FREE program that I can install that has a calendar and pop up reminders for appointments and such?
I am so forgetful lately I need something!
3 Daryl // Sep 8, 2006 at 10:17 am
Agreed, Open Office is similar, but not identical to MS Office. It takes a little getting used to the differences, but it’s not hard.
Regarding a calendar program, you might want to try Palm Desktop. It is designed to synch with a Palm Pilot, but it will work stand-alone too. You can download it from here.
After you install, it will try to walk you through the synchronization with your Palm device, but you can cancel out (you may have to use Task Manager). It has a calendar with pop-up alarms, contact list, and a To-Do list.
The Mozilla group is also working on a calendar project (Sunbird), but I don’t think it’s quite ready for daily use yet.
4 Heather // Sep 10, 2006 at 7:12 am
Thanks! Keep me posted about SunBird!
5 Daryl // Sep 10, 2006 at 11:20 am
Sunbird has been in almost the same state for over a year, so don’t hold your breath!
6 Richard // Sep 30, 2006 at 9:20 pm
Either you are very busy or there is absolutely nothing of interest going on. At least let us know you are still alive! Any time I don’t post for a couple weeks I get nudged so this is your nudge.