Back in the 1980's I had (an almost workstation class computer) called a Sinclair QL. It could multitask (via an operating system called QDOS, later on superseded by Minerva by QView), network and came with a set of free, bundled business applications (the Psion Xchange) had a vibrant user group (Quanta) which had a regular newsletter, a vast library of software available to Quanta members for free.

It took a while (about a 15 years) but I have finally replaced my QL stuff. These days I use Linux, OpenOffice, read Linux Format (and I've started reading some of the tutorials and typing in examples into my PC) and am a member of a local Linux User Group (LUG). I've decided that 2007 is going to be the year in which I learn the OpenOffice suite - get to grips with fancy formatting in Write - maybe even get mailmerge going, get used to Calc and learn some of the commands that are now common in spreadsheets since I learnt Abacus and learn how to do databases in OOo Base.