@Yonah- You’re absolutely 100% correct in the fact that I don’t have a keen understanding of how Windows works. I have not used a Windows machine since 2004. And of course I blame Microsoft for building an insecure operating system. Viruses shouldn’t exist, but they do, so, who do we blame? The fool, or the fool following the fool? Further, I took no easy way out. If you read the post, you will have learned that I spent *hours* trying to get the infected machine cleaned up. I have better things to do with my time, then work on a broken operating system. Further, had I succeeded, how would I know that the machine is 100% clean, after an intrusion of that nature? Sorry, but even the most staunch Windows admins will tell you to reinstall, of which I did, just a more secure operating system.

The best security is knowledge, period. Rather than teach her how to do things the right way, you just take a shortcut by giving her an oddball OS to use. That’s the real shame here.

I also call your own technical knowledge into serious question if you were not able to remove the infection from the machine. That demonstrates you do not have a keen understanding of how Windows works, nor do you understand how to control it’s environment. Rather than educate yourself, again, you take the easy way and blame someone else.

However, regarding the MS Office for Christmas. I will purchase that, if and only if, you give OOo a solid try between now and then. I really think you’ll find a good product behind it, if you only give it a try. Which, by the way, OOo 3 is scheduled for September. I’ve already installed it on your Mac, and it looks great.

(By the way dear Aaron- if openoffice doesn’t work out for me, we are getting microsoft office for my mac for christmas)

Anyway that is win win for you i can say.
MS free, know it is up to her to learn a few thinks, but i dont believe it will be too hard !

Interesting read. I was in a similar situation with unreliable networking on Windows due to old drivers, bad performance, and general security pains. Finally, I setup a SunRay with Ubuntu behind it and pretty much all woes went away overnight. I can manage the system and the family uses the terminal without any significant issues.

Our biggest issues were actually not Microsoft Office, but IE. But after a while (and a few themes and add-ons later) the experience is now acceptable to them.

Of course, not completely MS-free that way but better with just the Office suite than the OS + Office suite. At least as far as the security goes.

@Mark- I may or may not. I certainly don’t want to make an example of my wife on my blog. I’m confident that there will be growing pains, but I’m sure we’ll settle into our new seats soon.

@Stoffe- I disagree. Those who rely on Microsoft Office for everything related to their document needs, need to realize that there are better and free alternatives that will satisfy them just fine. OpenOffice.org may not be *everything* Microsoft Office is, but I have yet to see anyone use everything in Microsoft Office. Further, the freedoms posed by OpenOffice.org will show themselves as people begin their work, and see it’s superior nature.

@Flavio Pontes- Thank you sir. I’ve had no problems personally with using nothing but Linux for all of my personal machines. I realize that some people need to make sacrifices, and there are growing pains with making the switch, but as with anything new, this is expected. It’s a great operating system, both for the desktop, and the server.

Hope I encouraged you.

Good luck

I’m watching that as we speak on my dayjob, where the creative director finally gave up last week and installed MS Office again after using only OO.o since November. He likes OO.o, but well, Impress just is no Powerpoint – according to him. So he gave it the most serious try I’ve seen, but no dice. And frankly, mostly it seems to be about worse-or-different workflow, not actual features.

That is not to say that you can’t do everything needed in OO.o. Just that it is lots less polished, somewhat feature creepy (is it possible to say that? ) and clunky – and no, it still isn’t really viable to collaborate with MS users – the documents invariably gets messed up for even the simplest ones. For many people, especially for those doing presentations, the layout/looks *is* the content.

So it’s great for us who never really got into MS Office. But hard to switch to. At least now there seems to be a really honest effort to correct these things, so you can help by documenting any problems that occur.

Good luck!

I hope there will be further updates.