I think that if China is going to move into this sort of market - and surely they will/are/already have ? - it will throw a "whole new light" on the discussion about Microsoft's market domination.  Wait for news about Microsoft et al "outsourcing" and setting up shop there !

About three weeks ago here at home in NE UK we discovered we had no telephone, no broadband, no nothing.  We managed to report the fault to BT using a mobile phone after being warned that 0800 numbers incur a charge when used on a mobile.

The PC functioned admirably, but had I been using any or only web-based applications they would have been totally unavailable.  It seems to me that in the world as it is today, a few well placed explosive devices could scupper our communications entirely, and that to put ourselves in a situation where we rely on them is very unwise.

The ironic sting in this tail, or tale, is that the Orange phone network seemed to go defunct at the same time as the above mentioned fault - in fact I wondered if the two events had some common factor.  Once the phone line was mended Orange came back too !   :huh:

Thank you for the review.

I have used the Microsoft products in the past (Office 97) and Word Perfect before that.  I am currently on Open Office.  This is quite satisfactory, but slow to load.  My main gripe with all these (and I am hesitant about mentioning this in such august company  ;)) is that they all do wonderful things which I don't need.

Power Point, Access and Drawing programmes, or their equivalents are superfluous to my requirements.  Recently Clif Notes nesletter mentioned a free programme called <a href="http://www.jarte.com/">Jarte</a> which I am currently trying out.  It seems to do all that I need to do (including spell checking), and fires up instantly.

Will you be covering this sort of programme in your later reviews - or are you falling about laughing at me ?   :(