It's criminal in a modern industrial First World nation that we don't have national single-payer health care. I hope that changes. And I'm sorry you're facing that.

So much time to make up everywhere you turn,
Time we have wasted on the way,
So much water moving underneath the bridge
Let the water come and carry us away…

--Crosby, Stills, and Nash

Of course, even .txt files are handled differently by Macs and PCs, so… :)

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Once you adapt to its quirks, it's hard to beat for the kind of stuff I do. I haven't paid close enough attention to tell the difference between OpenOffice and LibreOffice; they both write to the same standard and open the same docs, so they're interchangeable to me.

I can tell you that I have .sxw files from 15-17 years ago that can still be opened (some of which I've converted to .odt files), and that both OO and LO can open corrupted .doc files that Word chokes on (though I've long since converted all my legacy .doc files to .odt as a precaution).

I'm mainly a word processor user, so I can't speak to the advantages/disadvantages of the other parts of the OO/LO suites.

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My first word processor was Word for Mac, on my G3 iBook running OS 9.2, I believe it was. But it got very crashy, so I installed X11 and downloaded an early OpenOffice.org beta. Once I upgraded to OS X, I ran NeoOffice [neooffice.org], a Java-based port of OpenOffice, while also using OpenOffice on the Linux partition I created (which I used to write my senior thesis). Now I keep a copy of LibreOffice on my Win8.1 laptop, even though it doesn't get much use, because it can be massively useful from time to time. Professionally, of course, Word is what my job relies upon, so I use that.

And after all that, I still prefer OpenOffice/LibreOffice when I'm given my druthers, which of course I very rarely am.

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I'm always confused when I see people complaining about note-taking apps. All of my lecture notes in college were taken using OpenOffice.org or Word (and are all still accessible). Now I just jot things down in Google Keep if I need to refer to them later.

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Thanks…bookmarked for whenever I get in front of a computer.

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I imagine so--although it remains important here, it's not quite as critical. Driving 20-25K miles a year in a Mediterranean climate, I'm more concerned with tread life and hot weather durability. And price, because it's possible to spend several hundred dollars a year on tires if you're not careful, and that adds up quickly.

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It's amazing how much better a car drives when all four wheels are pointing in the same direction. #alignment

I love Michelins, but they're pricey. I put Definity (made by Cooper) tires on my VW, and the Hyundai is getting a pair of Travelstar tires in front to match what's on the rear wheels as I hate mixing tread patterns. When the time comes to replace them, I'll look around. I usually buy mine at Pep Boys (the largest auto repair chain in America) or Sears as it's useful to have a road hazard warranty that's useable from coast to coast.