Hey, Chad...

First, remember that as much as all of us would like, Linux is not the be all
end all OS. That is why LILO is there for dual booting. There are just some
things that I need that are only on Windows (this is changing). So don't feel
bad about using MS Windows! :)

I have played with reading stuff into StarOffice. For the most part it seems to
work very very well. As you say though, it can not be considered 100% accurate.
The reason? Nobody seems to stick with what they were doing in the past, and
sometimes they even break their stuff on purpose to throw off the competition.
Sad, but true. I can even speak from experience that sometimes the marketing
department promises something to a customer, sells it, then the programmers are
forced to implement it into the system when the system was *NEVER* intended to
work that way.

Remember also that Corel Office is on the way, as is Corel Draw/Photopaint. I
can't wait for those!

I totally agree that things have a way to go, but you should have seen things
around 1995 when I installed Linux for the first time. It was horrid. Now we
get to play Tetris while the system installs! It will get there. Gonna take a
bit, but it will get there. 

When it comes to apps, I find the best thing to do is just go look at
screenshots. If the pictures look like something I want, then I try it. If it
sucks, it is gone in a matter of seconds. If it is really good, then I keep it.
I really dont put a lot of faith in ratings systems, myself. I have seen apps
get "5 Penguins" and the app ended up being so horrid and difficult to work
with that I usually dont even make it past the splash screen. 

I would suggest asking folks what they think. For example, get on here and say
"yo! I need a backup app! What does anyone suggest?" then let everyone throw in
their two cents. Then go look for yourself at what is out there. 

Randy