>Sender: cjm@whale.fsr.net
>Date: Thu, 29 Jul 1999 22:35:30 -0700
>From: Colin Mattoon <cjm@lewiston.com>
>X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.6 [en] (X11; I; Linux 2.2.9-19mdk i686)
>X-Accept-Language: en
>To: webmaster@abisource.com
>Subject: AbiWord
>
>This is a very nice word processor. It is hard for me to get used to
>the idea that some of the very best software is entirely free.
>
>I've flown airplanes and I've used word processors. I wasn't much of a
>pilot and I'm an incompetent computer user. But, I'm not completely
>stupid and I don't see why word processors should be more difficult to
>operate than an airplane. But that is what I confront when I try to use
>Star Office or Corel Word Perfect. It's almost as bad as when I had
>Windows 95 and Office 97 on my computer.
>
>Plus, AbiWord was easier for me to muddle through the download off the
>Internet than the install of either Star Office or Corel Word Perfect
>off a cdrom. I didn't bother to read up on how to put AbiWord in a KDE
>menu or on a desktop icon -- and it doesn't bother me that your
>installation doesn't automatically do that for me either -- that's the
>sort of automatic window dressing that Office 97 and Star Office provide
>instead of making their programs easy to use.
>
>And it works just fine. I didn't have a problem setting up my HP
>Deskjet 560C with AbiWord because there was no set up to do. Star
>Office prints 90% of each page on one piece of paper and the bottom of
>the page on the next. When I try to change printer drivers to fix this,
>Star Office won't let me. I have other printer problems when I use
>Corel. Yours prints what I type, and it prints it the way I type it.
>That's all I ever wanted the damned computer to do anyway.
>
>Their office suites look impressive, but yours works. Thanks.
>
>Colin Mattoon
>
>
Robert Sievers
Open Source Evangelist