Exploring the alternatives to Microsoft

What software do you need for your PC? An operating system, certainly. Probably some kind of software to process words and perhaps crunch numbers.

Unless you are stuck beyond the reach of telephone, cable or other communications, you will definitely need a web browser.

That's a Microsoft triple-whammy for many users with Windows, Office and Internet Explorer filling the roles respectively. But it doesn't have to be like that.

In this feature we look at what it's really like to use an alternative operating system, office suite and web browser.

Internet Explorer, for example, comes bundled 'free' with Windows but that doesn't necessarily make it the best choice for browsing.

Similarly, just because you have to cough up more than a few pounds for the privilege of Microsoft Office doesn't mean you're getting the best value for money.

So here's one person's experience with 'alternative' applications that have two things in common: as well as being produced by companies other than Microsoft, they're all free.

Operate the system
When it comes to operating systems, there really is only one alternative for PC users and that's Linux. I have installed Linux before and know that if you want to make a proper job of it, it's best to install it from scratch on a spare PC that you can do without for a few days.

The problem is that my wife has the spare PC and when I offered her the chance of a new and exciting operating system experience, she offered me the chance of divorce.

The second way of installing Linux is by 'dual booting' - adding it alongside Windows.

This is actually easier to set up than it sounds. Most versions of Linux come with the wherewithal to do this and it's simply (relatively speaking) a matter of finding spare hard disk space and hoping that all the backups you have just made are OK.

However, I had previously found that wrestling a Linux partition back into the Windows fold when finished with is a slightly tougher challenge, akin to getting toothpaste back into the tube.

So I went in search of a new method. I had previously tried installing Linux on a 'virtual' PC.

This is cheating somewhat, as it requires third-party software but, since the whole Linux environment is stored as just another file on your PC, it doesn't require its own partition, boot loader or any other complications. If you want the disk space back, you just delete the file.

This time I found a totally new, ultra-sanitised version of the Linux experience. Knoppix makes zero impact on your PC as it runs from a bootable CD-ROM.

So despite Internet Explorer's valiant efforts to frustrate this, I downloaded the file, put it on a CD-R and rebooted with the disc in the drive. Shazam! Up came Knoppix, at a commendably flicker-free high resolution, something of a first for a virgin Linux installation.

Ranged down the side of the screen were icons for each of my existing Windows disk partitions, though this being Linux, they had sensible, tough-guy names such as 'hda1' and 'hda5' rather than 'C:' and 'D:'.

By default, these are set to read-only but it wasn't too hard to change this (though I was warned not to try this with NTFS partitions, such as those used by Windows XP).

In a few minutes, I was typing away at this very document in OpenOffice wondering, albeit briefly, why all of the quotation marks and dashes had changed to question marks.

Never mind about that though, just look at all the games. After a few minutes of exploration, there I was, a novice Valkyrie, hot on the trail of the Amulet of Yendor.

Getting more serious, Knoppix found my USB printer and, while there was no sign of the USB scanner or the FireWire ports, the sound card was working fine.

As Knoppix stores everything in a virtual disk stored in memory, your customised installed settings - such as printers - evaporate when you close down unless saved to a floppy disk.

The big test was going to be getting the internet connection going. Having previously downloaded various versions of the drivers, I tried in vain to install them.

One lot just flashed up a succession of identical error messages; the other would not let me proceed until I'd given the 'root' password. This is normal behaviour in Linux except that Knoppix does not have a root password.

To cut a long and sad story short, connecting to the internet was as elusive as that Amulet of Yendor.

There's a huge amount of free software included too: two office suites, numerous graphics and multimedia applications, a planetarium, a Windows emulator and stuff that you can't even identify until you try it out - and often not even then.

VERDICT: Linux *** Rather like an outing to a theme park: challenging and great fun but you wouldn't want to do it every day.

Changing office suites
On my left, Microsoft Office. Weighing in at more than £300 for the Standard Edition, this offers word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, scheduling, email and contact management.

On my right, OpenOffice. Weighing in at absolutely nothing, this offers word processing, spreadsheets and presentations, but you'll have to make other arrangements for scheduling, email and contacts.

So if it's free - or a few pounds if you would rather have it on CD-ROM than download it - it's not going to be a patch on Microsoft Office in terms of features and it's going to use some weird file format all of its own? You're also going to have to be a Linux whiz to use it, right?

Taking these questions in reverse order: although I mentioned OpenOffice in the Knoppix section above, it's equally at home on a Windows PC.

Second, it opens and saves files with the Word and Excel .doc and .xls file extensions as well as the newer Microsoft-compatible .xml. Finally, to answer the first question requires some discussion.

Let's look at the word processor first. This has an uncanny resemblance to Microsoft Word and anyone who has used the latter should have no trouble finding their way around.

In a near-monopoly situation, imitation is the sincerest form of grabbing market share. Hence, I had all the features I would expect in a top-rank word processor.

In terms of page layout, I had multiple columns, text-wrap around graphics, tables, equations, diagrams and so on. As for document features, I had indexing, tables of contents and more.

Besides all of this, it does have some interesting features of its own. The Navigator let me browse through my documents by headings or by graphics, tables, index entries and other objects.

So what else could you want - a macro language? You've got it. How about squiggly lines under misspelled words? You've got them. Is there a really annoying feature that tries to complete words for you? You've got it - and better still, you can turn it off.

On the spreadsheet side, once again Excel users won't have any baffling surprises as the look and feel is much the same, with tabbed worksheets and familiar comforts such as auto-filling, in-cell editing and cell annotation.

The OpenOffice.org developers have worked hard to keep not just the file format but the function list compatible with Excel so there is a huge range of mathematical and financial formulae, many of which can be understood without a PhD in computational algebra.

VERDICT: OpenOffice **** A serious challenge to Microsoft Office: why pay more?

Caught in a different web
Internet Explorer did not cover itself in glory downloading Knoppix. The first attempt reported 'download complete' when it was only halfway through the file.

On a subsequent attempt I noticed that, although I had told it to download the file to a suitably spacious drive, it actually downloaded the whole thing into Temporary Internet Files before moving it to the chosen destination, thus needing twice the free disk space.

I was also getting weary of downloading security patches so went looking for an alternative.

First contender - Mozilla. Without going too far into history and politics, Mozilla.org is an open source organisation. Netscape is a commercial company that uses Mozilla.org code in products such as Netscape Navigator. The Mozilla browser itself comes free in Windows, Linux and Macintosh flavours.

The download includes a mail application and various other utilities but here I'll just concentrate on the browser.

There are several features you won't see in Internet Explorer. One is tabbed pages in a single browser window, which is neat and saves Desktop space. I was also delighted to see a pop-up killer. There's an option to ban all pop-up ads, or to do this on a per-site basis.

Unfortunately some sites seem to be able to circumvent the ban. Having bad-mouthed Internet Explorer's treatment of downloads, I was disappointed to see that Mozilla's Download Manager appeared to do exactly the same as Internet Explorer's.

VERDICT: Mozilla *** Better than Internet Explorer but that's not too great a challenge.

Opera Win-free
Despite the downloading, round one saw Mozilla comfortably beating Internet Explorer and going forth to meet Opera. This is also available for various operating systems and comes in free and paid-for versions. The latter includes technical support and six months' subscription to OperaMail.

The free version is 'funded by' advertising but it isn't spyware and the ads aren't obtrusive so, while not a completely free lunch, it's a very cheap one.

The first impression is that Opera does all that Mozilla does (and plenty that Internet Explorer doesn't) but much more easily. For instance, getting Internet Explorer Favorites into Mozilla involved first exporting them to file, then importing the file into Mozilla.

Opera just did it. Opera also has a tabbed pages feature which I found easier to use than Mozilla's and a more effective pop-up slayer.

One ultra-cool feature is mouse 'gestures'. If you want to go back to the last page, for instance, right-click and move the mouse to the left: if you want to open a link in a new window, right-click and drag down.

Finally, it not only downloads files straight to where you tell it to, but will resume interrupted downloads too.

VERDICT: Opera **** Fast, stylish and a definite winner.

An alternative lifestyle
There you have it - one man's experience with non-Microsoft software. Despite widespread claims to the contrary, Linux is still best left to people with time on their hands and a willingness to wrestle their computer into subjugation.

The on-the-fly nature of Knoppix is a relatively risk-free way to taste life without Windows but it's still subject to the same configuration difficulties as other flavours of Linux.

So while you may be stuck with Windows, you're not stuck with Office or Internet Explorer. OpenOffice is a worthy alternative to Microsoft's steeply-priced suite and hefty download aside, it costs nothing to use.

Similarly, both Mozilla and Opera are both more than capable - and free - replacements for Internet Explorer that have handy features that Microsoft's browser lacks.

WHERE TO GET IT

Knoppix
Download direct from www.knoppix.com. There is also a list of mirror sites - usually geographically local mirror sites are faster to download from than the main site. The site also has links to distributors of CD-ROMs if you don't want to undertake the 600Mb download.

OpenOffice
Download direct from www.openoffice.org. You'll also find links here to mirror sites and CD-ROM distributors.

Mozilla
Download the latest version from www.mozilla.org.

Opera
Download (or buy) from www.opera.com.

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