This is an amazing program. A single program that contains
*an MS Word compatible word processor
*an Excel compatible spreadsheet
*a Powerpoint compatible presentation program
*an ODBC and SQL compatable desktop relational database
*a wysiwyg and code HTML editor
*an object oreinted macro language that uses the same syntax as VBA (though the object model is different)
*a robust eMail client
*a browser
*an address book,scheduler and task list that sync with a Palm
*a vector drawing program
*a bitmap image editor
One of the cool things is that it is a single program with MDI so that you can have your calendar open, be working on a text document, be working on a spreadsheet, editing an embeded graphic, browsing and sending eMail all from the same program at the same time.
The browser seems to support most HTML 4, Java and JavaScript.
You can download it (~90MB for windows) free from Sun Microsystems (creator of Java) or buy it on disk for $50. The disk includes Windows, Linux and Solaris versions (I think there is a Mac version too), and a Printed manual.
Documents created in the program are compatible with all of the OS’ supported. (I got it for my Samba network.)
Pros: the strength of all of the components of MS Office (it edits MS Office docs, and imports MS Office templates) in a single MDI program. Free (or cheap). The concepts and objects are so MS Office-like that the learning curve is really easy.
Cons: Resource/memory intensive. Big download. The price and MS Office compatibility makes this great for big offices (multiply the cost savings over the number of computers in a large office), but it is not the same interface as Office so you will have some resistant technophobic staff who refuse to learn a new program.
