Regarding OpenOffice.org (or OOo), I've been stuck using it since my other laptop & desktop were stolen in October.. right along with my MS Office 2007 products on them.
OpenOffice will let you save the documents in MS' .docx/.xls formats.. but because I'm constantly creating the work in class and then coming home to finish up.. I've never bothered to see if there's any issues when you create in OOo and then try to open up in MS2007 to see if there's a difference with settings/margins/etc.
You can't create an OOo document in MS Office 2007, of course.. but the theory is that OpenOffice is supposed to be compatible with quite a selection of different suites like MS. "The poor person's MS Office suite" is what it's been deemed.
IMHO.. OOo works for stuff that you wouldn't seriously freak out if something wasn't absolutely perfect.. but for work that's linked up to Excel or PowerPoint.. better safe than sorry and get yourself a copy of MS2007..
Word to the wise though.. MS only lets you register two different computers for Office.. a desktop/laptop, for example... if you needed it for something else.. like in my case, two stolen computers... you're going to run into a lot of red tape trying to get MS to let you re-register the product key onto different computers... Just FYI, in case, your computer crashes or something else like that happens.
As for FF.. I think everyone else has already answered all the points I was going to comment on.. so, best of luck with your new computer! I know how happy I was when I bought my new laptop to replace the stolen computers.
OpenOffice vs. MS Office 2007
OpenOffice will let you save the documents in MS' .docx/.xls formats.. but because I'm constantly creating the work in class and then coming home to finish up.. I've never bothered to see if there's any issues when you create in OOo and then try to open up in MS2007 to see if there's a difference with settings/margins/etc.
You can't create an OOo document in MS Office 2007, of course.. but the theory is that OpenOffice is supposed to be compatible with quite a selection of different suites like MS. "The poor person's MS Office suite" is what it's been deemed.
IMHO.. OOo works for stuff that you wouldn't seriously freak out if something wasn't absolutely perfect.. but for work that's linked up to Excel or PowerPoint.. better safe than sorry and get yourself a copy of MS2007..
Word to the wise though.. MS only lets you register two different computers for Office.. a desktop/laptop, for example... if you needed it for something else.. like in my case, two stolen computers... you're going to run into a lot of red tape trying to get MS to let you re-register the product key onto different computers... Just FYI, in case, your computer crashes or something else like that happens.
As for FF.. I think everyone else has already answered all the points I was going to comment on.. so, best of luck with your new computer! I know how happy I was when I bought my new laptop to replace the stolen computers.