Just last night I tried once again to make a nice desktop wallpaper uing Gimp. Once again, I couldn't get the damn thing to do what I wanted. I wanted a very simple picture with two oval holes cut out and two other images inserted behind. I must have tried for half the evening, to no avail. In Corel Photopaint I had it done in about an hour. I am not a graphic artist and barely know how to use these programs, but I know the basics to get what I need done, more or less. So, I guess I'm stuck with PhotoPaint for a while... That's why I bought vmware. Talk about a costly dependence LOL It seems a lot of the office junk that gets sent around at work is in Powerpoint format: cuddly kittens and cute puppies with endearing quotes underneath. Still, it bugs me that I can't view them using Linux apps (sometimes I want to steal a picture from one of the plates, or something). And that's just it: I would like to not use M$ apps, since I already have alternate tools, but they just don't always work when I need them. I think you're right about M$ changing the formats every year... so that other software can't open the latest versions. 'Cause I think that OO, Abi and KOffice do work with older versions. I tried the free trial of Crossover about a year ago, but removed it again. I feel that it just entices you not to rely on Linux native programs. I'm not a big game player, but I have noticed that some of those webpage-based ones don't work in Linux. But more and more, with the reliability of java and flash under Linux, they do. I was pretty excited about America's Army being available as a Linux program. I did get quite hooked on that! I'll have to find out what transgaming is. Sounds interesting, maybe just what I've needed to get those stubborn sites working?