hi just got a new laptop with vista premium, cant seem to find excel is it loaded or do i need to purchase office 2007 to get a version. thanx in advance marty
Excel doesn't come with Vista. You will need to either purchase a full version of office or you can purchase excel as a separate application. If you're only working with simple excel spreadsheets, you can also try installing a free version of open office (link here). It will open most excel spreadsheets unless they contain some advanced features, such as macros. Finally, if you simply need to read an excel spreadsheet, but you don't need to create or edit one, then you can install a free excel viewer (link here).
Yes, in order to use Outlook, you'll either need to purchase Office or you can purchase Outlook as an individual application. There are several alternatives to outlook if you're simply using it for pop e-mail (not an exchange server). You can read about several of them here.
As for my own personal preference, if I'm using Linux I prefer evolution. I'm not aware of a version of evolution that has been ported to Windows, so this isn't an option in your case. With the introduction of Vista, Microsoft no longer includes Outlook Express. Instead, you get an application called Mail (you can read about it here). If this doesn't meet your needs, then you may want to try one of the alternatives listed in the first link.
To be honest, I usually use Outlook if I'm using Windows. I've tried a few of the alternatives, but they usually don't offer a calendar feature, which I find useful. Also, I have a PDA, and it pretty much only synchronizes with Outlook, unless I buy some 3rd party software such as Intellisync. Of the software applications that I did try, I think I liked Thunderbird the best. For the most part, they all do the same thing, so it's more of a personal preference.
