[kevkrom]

If OpenOffice is any indication, I'm not changing to Linux. I gave it a look and was not impressed. My kids (both in college at 16) ran it for a while and had nothing but complaints about file compatibility. I write fully annotated and heavily illustrated books. I run applications from PhotoShop to CADD. I need everything both Microsoft Office and Adobe Creative Suite offer (and then some). There is no way I could afford to switch over with anything less than FULL compatibility. I have way too much work to lose.

I find it's quite useful for most people. I do agree, however, that OpenOffice and MS Office are not 100% compatible when it comes to layout, which really matters for desktop publishing.

[Carry_Okie]

I do agree, however, that OpenOffice and MS Office are not 100% compatible when it comes to layout, which really matters for desktop publishing.

Neither are MS Office and the Acrobat Distiller! Try putting hyperlink thumbnails inside 40-50 text boxes in a 215pp document with hyperlinks in the footnotes and tables and see what happens. It's a mess. I ended up having to put the master together with colored text and add the links in Acrobat itself. Every time the links move with changes to the master, it's go back into Acrobat and line the little windows up with the text. Very painful and easily subject to error. My guess is that Acrobat has a hard time with the successive "undo" data structure of Word.