What’s wrong with Appleworks? Granted it should really have a major update (although it was updated fairly recently which means someone out there is still paying attention to it), but it’s a fine piece of software with a lot of features and power. I used it in college to complete my electrical engineering work and I had little complaints with what it could do. Nowadays I use the database feature of Appleworks to keep data such as passwords for shareware and ranks earned in Clan Lord (online game). Since Microsoft Office doesn’t have a databse, having one even if it doesn’t have the power of Filemaker is very useful. The drawing and painting programs are good for basic editing and exporting and you also get access to clip art online.

So overall, Appleworks is an excellent program without the clutter Office has and at a much cheaper price.

This presents an unneccesarily bleak installation picture for the traditional Mac user who wants stuff that “just works.” I downloaded a single installer from the OOo site (http://porting.openoffice.org/mac/ooo-osx_downloads.html) that front-ended included installers for all of the third-party components required to make OOo work. One installer; all runnable stuff, no compiling; no Fink; no geeky stuff. Works like a charm.