[kahluagal]

Quick question - and apologies, because I know it's lame I have a iBook G4 256 MB running 10.3.9. I've got Office 98 on cd that I used on my Performa (remember those?).

Anyway, can I install it onto my iBook? I'm paranoid about anything screwing up my iBook, but I can't shell out more money for the latest version of Office. Are there any potential problems installing older version of software? I also have Norton Utilities I could install - again, is this kosher to do?

I appreciate anyone's advice... thanks...

[pat++]

It should work with classic... 256Mb is not that much if you want to run old Apps though because classic needs memory, but it should definitely work.

[seanc]

I'd stay away from that older version of Norton.
There's no real reason to have it and it may either not work or mess some things up.

[pat++]

Yep, don't install Norton, my comments above were only for Office.

[kahluagal]

Thanks guys - yeah, I figured I should pass on the older Norton disk. I'm starting to research what third-party tools to use for system maintenance stuff- anybody have any recommendations?

Great - now I have to install classic after all *rolls eyes*. Whatever gets Word working... damn clients

thanks again!

[mavherzog]

Originally Posted by kahluagal

Great - now I have to install classic after all *rolls eyes*. Whatever gets Word working... damn clients

Do they HAVE to have Office? Maybe install NeoOffice/J for them.

[finboy]

Originally Posted by kahluagal

Quick question - and apologies, because I know it's lame I have a iBook G4 256 MB running 10.3.9. I've got Office 98 on cd that I used on my Performa (remember those?).

Anyway, can I install it onto my iBook? I'm paranoid about anything screwing up my iBook, but I can't shell out more money for the latest version of Office. Are there any potential problems installing older version of software? I also have Norton Utilities I could install - again, is this kosher to do?

I appreciate anyone's advice... thanks...

I run Office 98 every day, in 9.2.2 with a dual boot ibook. Office 2001 is too hinky. Make sure you get the latest updates from Microsoft, if they're still posted.

Oh, and forget Norton. Altogether. Get DiskWarrior for an emergency boot disk, or get a copy of your system disk. Norton does more harm than good anymore.

[kahluagal]

hinky - now is that a technical term!

Yeah, I'm sure there aren't any updates from MS available - in keeping with that instant obsolescence. thing Thanks for the tip on DiskWarrior - I'll look into it...

[I was David B.]

Originally Posted by kahluagal

Great - now I have to install classic after all *rolls eyes*. Whatever gets Word working... damn clients

Whats wrong with classic? I use Office 2001 frequently and it works fine. No reason to buy an OSX version.

But you may have troubles with the printer drivers. You have to install the OS 9 drivers in the classic environment too. My backgrounder stopped working with OS 9.2.2.

[wataru]

I'd rather run NeoOffice/J than an old Word in Classic.

[I was David B.]

Originally Posted by wataru

I'd rather run NeoOffice/J than an old Word in Classic.

Ok, thats your personal taste. Can you give reasons please?

Neo Office and open office are only compatible with Word docs at a low level (no complicated formats etc.) and they look like applications from the beginning of the 90s (thats my taste . If you compare word 6 to open office, your old memories will come back). If you open a word doc with one of these programs it looks like crap compared to word.
Open an Excel sheet that contains makros and you are lost.
Convert a Powerpoint presentation that contains more then just boring images and text, you need hours to make it work so that you don't disgrace yourself in front of your audience. And even if its only text and images you better control the formats because the fonts are different and use more or less space.

Office 98 and 2001 work fine and do their job. Feasture wise they are miles ahead of Neooffice, performance wise too. Classic works also fine and classic applications perform very well. Its only since panther that OSX applications are faster or as fast as classic applications. There is no reason except taste not to use classic.

If you have an office licence, it would be stupid to use Neooffice or open office instead. If you don't have this licence things may be different.

I appreciate the work of all these guys who spend their free time to develop something. And the results are impressive.
But office has a lot of power (if you like M$ or not). This is hard to meet and they did not yet. If you have to be compatible with Office on a business level, neither Neooffice nor open office is an option.

These are facts and good reasons. Where are yours?

[wataru]

Jeez, it was just a simple comment. You don't need to get all defensive, and I don't need to justify myself to you.

[I was David B.]

Originally Posted by wataru

Jeez, it was just a simple comment. You don't need to get all defensive, and I don't need to justify myself to you.

Haha, sorry, I apologize.

I did not mean to offend, maybe I need a short Macnn break . Last week I had a stupid discussion with someone who just disliked classic because, hm, I did not know why. Sometimes it is frustrating to think about something and then find out, that others just say, uh, I just dislike it - no reason. Thats the death of discussion.

Lets see the positive aspect: I collected my professional experience with open office. In my project we have the bad habit to use linux as a standard operating system and doc and ppt as standard text and presentation formats (Don't ask, its so stupid, that only execs could have had these ideas). Open office could be a way out (or wine).
If I say open office is not sufficient for professional use, this is really based on years of experience. (Please note that Neo office is just open office plus mac look and feel).

But if you only need something to write text and live in a closed world - format wise - then you get great value with both open and Neo office.

[ShyGuy91284]

Heh. I use NeoOffice, but that's just because I'm cheap. It seems to take forever to load compared to the trial of MS Office (not just becuase it doesn't have a loading screen) (latest Rev iBook G4). I'm just waiting for the next version of office so I can buy it from my school for cheap. Although it probably won't fit with Apple's system of "this will run decent on 3 year old hardware, and great on iBooks" even with all the bells and whistles turned off.... Microsoft usually works quite the opposite.

[mavherzog]

I'd rather buy a current MS Office than deal with Classic wasting disk space on my iBook.