Since I don't use document editors, spreadsheets or presentation software very often, I decided to install the 'free' OpenOffice 2.0 suite instead of Microsoft Office (which would cost me way too much compared to how much I'd use it). Actually, I've had OpenOffice installed for quite some time now, and it neatly opens any ppt or xls files.
Lately, I started creating some actual documents: spreadsheets. That worked fine. Hurray! The utter user-unfriendlyness (mainly when editing charts), didn't really bother me. Hey! It's free.
Next task: setting up a small database with OpenOffice Base... My first attempts to create tables with some inter-table relationships eventually resulted in an OpenOffice crash, which rendered the entire database file unusable. That's like... a bummer.
It took a couple of days before I got my courage back and started over. One single table with some views and forms this time. No fancy options. During the next week, I entered some data.
Today, after adding an extra boolean field in the main table: BOOM! OpenOffice started spitting out SQL errors. I couldn't even access the table in question. Bye Bye data!
Things like these make me slowly turning into a Microsoft fanboy. Really. Putting the user in control rather than the software.
