epstein@sunc5.cs.uiuc.edu (Milton Epstein) (03/12/91)
My girlfriend has just purchased a Mac Classic (the basic model with hard drive), and we were just wondering about what software she should get. She is fairly new to computers, so she is a novice user. She hasn't received the computer yet -- up to now, she's been using the Macs available on campus. Mostly she has been just using word processing, but I suppose she may eventually find uses for a spreadsheet and a database system. She teaches preschools kids, and is also involved in developing curriculum for the preschool program (for which writing "outlines" of things may be useful -- I'm not sure if a simple word processor would be sufficient for that, or perhaps there is something available that would help organize things better). So, I guess the main question is how does the free software (or cheap, as in shareware) available compare with the commercial products? Is the commercial stuff worth the money? Are there decent free word processing programs and other applications out there? Since she is a computer novice, having manuals and documentation for the programs would be nice. Any comments, recommendations or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. -- Milt Epstein Department of Computer Science University of Illinois epstein@cs.uiuc.edu