Which netbook to buy?

[bookworm249]

I am planning to buy a 10 '' netbook which has a pre-installed Linux OS in it. I know very little about techie stuff and I am confused about whether I will be able to write and attach the written documents in emails. I am a writer and I work on Microsoft Word all the time. I need to send the written documents to other people on email so that even if they have Windows installed on their systems, they can read them. Anyone can help me by telling me whether this will be possible? I really don't want to spend money on getting Windows installed on my netbook and Ubuntu sounds good. Please help!

[bobman321123]

It doesn't matter what operating system you use, just use Open Office or Libre office, and "save as" "filename.DOC" not "filename.ODT".
If you save it as .DOC, they'll be able to open it with word.

[idoitprone]

I am planning to buy a 10 '' netbook which has a pre-installed Linux OS in it. I know very little about techie stuff and I am confused about whether I will be able to write and attach the written documents in emails. I am a writer and I work on Microsoft Word all the time. I need to send the written documents to other people on email so that even if they have Windows installed on their systems, they can read them. Anyone can help me by telling me whether this will be possible? I really don't want to spend money on getting Windows installed on my netbook and Ubuntu sounds good. Please help!

It depends. LibreOffice support on the new docx format is not the greatest, but it can read and write 2003 word format just fine. All you have to do is saves as 2003 word. You can test it on Windows. Install LIbreOffice or your or someone elses computer for windows and try to open your documents.


http://www.libreoffice.org/download/

[cryptotheslow]

The latest version of Ubuntu has LibreOffice bundled with it. The Writer application of that suite can save files in various formats including several versions of Microsoft's .doc and .docx

Personally, in order to ensure consistency of layout etc. I would be inclined to distribute documents in PDF format.

[idoitprone]

The latest version of Ubuntu has LibreOffice bundled with it. The Writer application of that suite can save files in various formats including several versions of Microsoft's .doc and .docx

Personally, in order to ensure consistency of layout etc. I would be inclined to distribute documents in PDF format.

You should warn the op because LIbreOffic docx support is not the greatest. If they are using docx more advance features, then libreoffice might not be able to display the proper formatting. Microsoft Office is a complex piece of technology that is tricky to get things working properly

[flemur13013]

I'd avoid the DOC/Office stuff unless you really need the fancy formatting.

If you just need text you can use "gedit" or "leafpad", which are similar to window's "notepad", with essentially no learning curve. Note that Windows uses a different line ending/carriage-return format than linux; the above two pgms give you an option on that when you save the file.

Attaching to email: if you use online email like google or yahoo, any linux browser should work (firefox, chrome, maybe the strange ones...?). Otherwise, check out "thunderbird".

[bookworm249]

Thanks.

[bookworm249]

Thanks a lot everyone. It was really helpful. I guess I don't have anything to worry about not using MS.

[3rdalbum]

May I ask, what flavour of Linux is included on this netbook? Could we have a link to a product specifications page on the Internet?

There are a lot of cheap ARM-based netbooks out there with Linux or Windows CE that are very under-spec; you know, 64 megabytes of RAM and a 300MHz CPU. You should not buy a netbook unless it has a decent amount of memory and a decent CPU, otherwise you're probably getting ripped off.

[Scooterrat]

Same here I would go with pdf if it were a problem