What is the benefit of QuickBooks Pro versus Premier? IT is asking me which one I want.... I am going to use it to track income and expenses for each class we do, and to print receipts for the students, and also to do a end of year report for each class.

Premier is the more advanced version I think. I use Premier because it has a version specific to my industry (non-profit), but I buy it cheap because of donations to techsoup for nonprofits.

Probably Pro will cover what you're looking to do.

There's a comparison chart on this page: [link]

From the looks of things, Pro does the great majority of what Premier does, but I don't know what you might need of the missing features.

Thank you. I could not find that damn chart!

My boss wants premier anyway, because that is what the other departments use, but I frankly don't think we need to spend the money.

Well, if the other departments are using it, you might want to go with it so your numbers are compatible. Quickbooks can be fidgety between versions, and even years.

Zamzar.com is a good, web-based way to convert files from one format to another. They include docx support these days, so you can convert back to doc. Or to pdf. Or a variety of other formats.

I asked a co-worker to save it as a .doc, so I'm good. (Except there turned out to be an embedded Visio flowchart, at which point I decided I really didn't care that much and would look at it tomorrow.)

Tommyrot I wanted to thank you for your help. I looked at both the Windows and XP versions of the Aspire One today. Screen quality blew me away - but the Linpus version definitely had better video than the XP home. Font quality was crisper and sharper, contrast was better, graphics looked better. I'm sure it is a software rather than hardware issue. Linpus was customized for Aspire. Also I called Acer to check if they just send a copy of Linpus for the cost of the disk. Nope, they don't support Linpux on their XP versions. Now since it is linux derived and thus open source I'm sure it is available on the web. But I'm going to make sure my ducks are in a row on this before buying an XP version and searching Linpus. I'm thinking of installation hassles with no support if something goes wrong. Maybe I'll just buy the version Tommyrot did. I mean I can just download Linpus lite from the Linputs website - but I wonder Aspire tweaked their version to get that screen resolution, or if standard Linpus lite will work.

Now since it is linux derived and thus open source I'm sure it is available on the web

Yes, Acer has made the sourcecode available. Dunno about the compiled version.

Oh, and I just read [link] that Acer will be making the 6-cell battery available by itself as an upgrade to the Linux version (which comes with the 3-cell battery). The above link is to a review of the laptop, and there's a link on how to customize the Linux desktop to enable the right-click menu, which (among other things) lets you install software packages like any other Linux system.

Also, I received an install disk with the laptop - I can lend it to you or burn you a copy if you want.

It really is awesome for its price. Yesterday the cute woman at the cafe where I ate lunch asked me all about it (she was considering getting one to take to class), and commented on how cute it was.

Thanks Tommyrot. I may take advantage of that. If you burn a copy I will pay for the DVD and mailing costs.