John wrote:
"Mike Humphrey" wrote in message
o.uk...
John wrote:
I am needing to get a laptop as I need to go away to do some work.

Has anyone got real experience of "Open Office" as an alternative to
Microsoft? It will make a difference to how I spend my budget if I don't
buy
"Office". On my desktop I use Office 2003 with Outlook - I will think of
this as my datum.
I'll just throw in my opinion. I use Open Office all the time (as I use
a Linux system I don't have the choice of using MS Office!). It works
fine, I've not found anything I can't do. The main limitation is that
very complex documents in Microsoft formats can get their formatting
mangled - but this can happen between different versions of Microsoft
Office too. There's no equivalent to Outlook, if you want
calendaring/mail you could try Evolution - it's supposed to integrate
with Exchange but I've never tried to do that.

I would suggest you try it - it won't cost you anything more than a bit
of time if you don't like it.




From the OP

Went to possibly buy a laptop today ( However, I like to compare what I am
being sold with the Manufacturer's site to ensure the model is current
before spending)

Some good ones - 4Gb Ram 500Gb HDD, etc. However, many are end of line
models.

I decided I want (not necessarily need):

4Gb RAM
HDMI Socket (Who knows, at some time I may wish to connect it to a new TV)
Separate Number Pad
LED Back Lighting

Currys had the best display - but a lot of end of range.

Most I noted down as of interest don't seem to be on the makers web sites. -
Off for a pint!


Do be aware of two things:

If you want to put Linux on it, some of the latest hardware wont have
drivers yet, and intel onboard graphics chips suck in linux AND windows
as well.

Try ad get Nvidia equipped graphics.