I've been using OpenOffice.org and Mozilla Thunderbird as a replacement for Microsoft's Office suite for nearly four years now.

However, this week I began the switch back to MS Office.

For most tasks, OO.org and Thunderbird get the job done.  Yet I've been forced to use MS Office for various projects throughout college.

I downloaded a free trial version of MS Office '07 a few months ago when I needed its extended features and themes to create a professional presentation for the Bruzzy Westheimer Competition.  Recently, my MS Office trial expired and I have found that I have been spoiled by the features and UI and cannot switch back to OO.org.  Additionally, OO.org suffers greatly from slow load times.  While I do indeed need to upgrade my computer hardware, OO.org's JAVA-based software can take tens of seconds to load compared to MS Office's nearly instantaneous file loads.

While each of these pieces of software have their own unique benefits, I have found that I can usually create higher-quality material much quicker with MS Office (I'm a big fan of the new '07 Ribbon UI).  Addtionally, OO.org has made great strides in compatibility improvements with MS Office, yet formatting and placement issues can still cause a lot of headaches, especially when sharing files within large groups.

The switch from Thunderbird 2.0 to Outlook 2007 will take some getting used to.  While I use Outlook exclusively at work, Thunderbird is the only desktop client I have used at home and I enjoy its lightweight and simple interface.  The primary reason I am trying to switch to Outlook at home is because of the built in alerts functionality.  While similar extensions exist for Thunderbird, nothing seems to beat how easily and quickly I can create a task reminder in Outlook... something I depend on at work.

While I don't see myself returning to OpenOffice.org anytime soon, Thunderbird 3.0 is set to be released within a few months.  Once it is released, I will make a new blog post comparing it to Outlook.

Why do you use your current document processing and email software?