Two questions re new computer

In My Humble Opinion
1

I am considering buying a new computer. At the moment I think I might be interested in a Gateway SX2840-01. CNET did a very favorable review of this computer. The price is certainly good. So, any opinions pro or con about this make and model?

I think I read on the SDMB that Office2000 will not run in IE7. Is this true?

I will be grateful for any and all replies.

Thanks.

2

Office doesn’t run in a web browser.

Perhaps you’re confusing it with Windows 7? Regardless, Office 2000 is ten years old and a few versions ago. Get Office 2010 or 2007 at the minimum. You’ll have heaps of headaches otherwise - starting with Office 2007, they switched to an XML document format that Office 2000 can’t open.

3

I did mean Windows7; these senior moments are going to be the death of me.

Thanks for the recommendation.

4

I did a little poking around, and it seems that document file incompatibility will be the least of your worries. People have managed to install Office 2000 on Win 7, but only after registry edits and odd workarounds.

Microsoft also dropped all support for Office 2000 a year ago.

If you work for a company large enough to have “volume licensing” (as opposed to buying individual retail boxes for each PC) for Microsoft products, they may participate in the Microsoft Home Use Program, aka HUP. This will let you buy a copy of Office 2010 for ten bucks to use at home.

5

If you don’t need to have a Microsoft version of an office suite, try Open Office - it’s free.

6

And if not, there’s always Office Home and Student that lets you install Word, Excel and PowerPoint on up to 3 computers for something like $130.

ETA: Personally, I use OpenOffice (which is free), but not everybody likes it. It is a lot more like pre-2007 Office in user interface, though, so you may even prefer it.

7

This. Don’t bother with MS Office unless you need Excel for work (and you’re retired, IIRC, so you don’t).

8

I’ll take a look at Open Office, thanks. I used Office2000 only because I have the disks. Just a habit, more than anything else. Typical old guy, afraid to try anything new.

Anyone got an opinion pro or con on the computer I mentioned in the OP?

9

Seems to be an entirely decent package aimed for use as a home theater PC, but it’ll do just fine as a desktop unit. I can’t comment on the price as I’ve not paid any attention to PC prices for quite a while.

It comes with Microsoft Works, which may well be more than enough for your needs. The current version can exchange files with Word and Excel.

Nice to see that PCs are finally being sold in their default configs with a good amount of RAM. Good size drive as well.