I migrated to Linux quite a while ago - and while it isn't perfect, I like it far better than 'Doze. But now I'm doing a PGCE, which involves teaching practice in M$ committed schools... What does anyone know about software, etc. that might help me to co-exist with that, without going entirely over to the M$ problem. OpenOffice.org is one that I'm already using, but that doesn't cope with recent Flash-enabled Powerpoint files (mind you, neither does the copy of M$ Office 97 that is still on my shelves). See where I'm going? The obvious solution (read as problem) is to buy the latest M$ product, but I don't want to do so! Another one is that, for the PGCE, in and out of different schools, I bought myself a Lenovo 3000 C100. I repartitioned the hard disk and installed Linux, which worked excellently - but then I found that the Windows repair package refuses to work unless the 'Doze partition is its original size, so because 'Doze is flakey and has to be repairable, I had to remove Linux. Again, there are 'Smart boards': both brands (Smart & Promethian) seem to be inextricably tied into M$ Office - they don't simply save to Word format files (which could be opened by OO.org), but they use the Word program to do it. Again, the email system at the school where I've just completed my forst placement looked at first sight to be Web based - well, it is, but it seems to use proprietory IE stuff to carry out most of its operations, so when I logged in using Firefox, the system simply didn't work. Now one PGCE student (or even, when I get a job, one teacher) isn't going to pursuade a whole school to change its computing policy, but I would like to push the open software envelope as far as I sensibly can over that proprietory approach. Has anyone got any suggestions? Good networking, Roger -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-edu+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-edu+help@opensuse.org