Having now got my new laptop I need to replace the word/excel/outlook I had on my old lap top, before I spend on a life time package It was suggested to me that I go for Apache OpenOffice which I have never heard of before but it seems to be free
Any advice would be gratefully received  

Open Office is a very good suite of software apps that will do all that you'll ever need 

It can load Word and Excel generated documents, allow you to edit or create and save out in Word or Excel format that "We" can read on our PCs/phones etc.

It's open source software - which means it's free to use.

You can Google "Open Office" and read all about it.

[Personally, I take out the Microsoft subscription for Office (for small business use) as I need to have the latest versions and the updates are automatic and seamless.]

But for most computer users Open Office is the dog's Whotsits 

Download it, try it, and see what you think.

What you say sounds great but reading on the internet (which may well not be true) it says its not free for windows 11 and does not seem to have no outlook type software
Outlook I find was great if you have a number of email accounts, at the moment I'm using gmail in which other email accounts are not so visible, it seems to me

I am very much a "nothing is free" type of person.
What's the catch with open office?
Is it going to fill my laptop / email with adverts?

Any chance of getting the license code from your old computer? You may be able to reinstall that version if you have the license code.

Craig.

No, it's not, not in my experience anyway (adverts, I mean). I use Libre Office, forked from Open Office some ten years ago. And if it being free is a problem, I think it's called donation ware. It's up to you to decide if you want to donate, and how big a donation you want to give. I donated because as a translator I used to use it every day all day. Just give yourself a few hours or days to get acquainted with it and to tailor it (menu bars, file paths, backups, ...) to your wishes.  Here's a Youtube video on getting started with Libre Office. Open Office is practically the same...

Problems with all these office packages is you only use 1% of what's on offer. That goes for Microsoft Office's Word, Open Office, Libre Office, Collabora Office (iOS, Android), and several others...

Richard

OK

By far the best email client (program) is Mozilla's Thunderbird. It's free open source software. No catches, no adverts 

By far the best internet browser is Mozilla's Fire Fox, also open source software with no snags 

I've been using these for years & years and with no problems.


 

I'd been using thunderbird with outlook and it was great.
I wondered if I could get softwear off the old laptop but its "dead" and just makes the odd sound but was thinking as I did with a old lap top of taking it apart and using a lead I bought to use the hard drive to take off pictures and files but I'm yet to try it this time, if you know what I mean as I'm perhaps not using the right words

I will look again at thunderbird today  

Another vote for Libre Office, fully compatible with any of MS offerings. And no ribbon ...

As for an email client, I don't, I use the web based email services  - I can view them on any of my devices.

May we ask what laptop you bought

It may help another user who is in the market for purchasing a replacement for him old one.


 

Quote from: Wittsend on Feb 21, 2024, 02:14 PMMay we ask what laptop you bought

It may help another user who is in the market for purchasing a replacement for him old one.


 

eBay item number:256281641997
as suggested on here, on another thread

Windows 11 Laptop Dell Latitude 7390 Core i7-8650U 16GB Ram 512GB M.2 SSD Webcam

Looks a good choice.

https://www.youtube.com/@BrettInTech


Have a look at this guy, he recommends a lot of good computer software

My son, being a computer wizard, has built computers for our family, putting into them only what's necessary, the hardware & the software, he also writes computer programs professionally. So on that basis I think he knows what he`s talking about.

He replaced the old hard drive on my pc with a solid state drive (SSD) and not being bloated full of the stuff that comes preinstalled on an off-the-shelf computer, he recommended Apache Open Office to replace Microsoft Office that had been on the old drive.

I also agree with Alan`s Mozilla`s Firefox recommendation.

On using a lead you bought to use the hard drive to take off pictures and files. You may need to use a proper docking station that fits your drive connections (if an older disc HD). with that you should be able to transfer your programs with the license keys. If you wish to keep you old software and files.

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/all/transferring-ms-office-to-new-computer/328e9b91-95e8-473d-bd16-b2396b8e0890

This may help!

Plus yes have used firefox on all systems I have installed. it is the best!