Taking English 101/102 for dual credit. Current Dell Laptop runs VISTA, instructor advised need to have MS Office 2010 or newer but, my VISTA OS is not compatible with Office 2010 or newer.
I’m a High School Student with No extra funds for new laptop.
Try it out!
What the hell does someone need “MS Office 2010” for an English class? Does your instructor provide a licensed copy of that software?
You may need a software for writing and formatting texts and this is what LibreOffice Writer is made for. It can also read and write files using MS formats. This capablitiy may be limited in the sense that complicated constructs and formattings are not in every case reliably portable from one file format to the other.
Of course, Writer is not an MS Word clone.
You surely know that Word 2010 and Vista are both MS “products”. Who is reliable to make sure that this application will rund under that OS? The game MS is playing is absolutely sickening.
(I’m German and do not know much about education in the US.)
@thomas.family.9, you sure as fuck don’t need Office, LO will do everything, if differently. You possibly can do everything on Notepad too, but that’s the worst idea ever.
First of all it is not true that Windows Vista is not compatible with Office 2010 (in fact you can even install it on Windows XP SP3).
However you are better served for simple tasks such as writing texts with LibreOffice (or any other Open Source office suite). Not because it is free (as free beer) but because you are able to install as many language dictionaries as you need for no extra charge.
Additionally your files are free to be opened by anyone because they don’t have to buy the same version of Office to make sure the file opens correctly. Therefore using this Office suite and sharing files in the Open Document Format will not only guarantee your freedom but will also extend it to those who receive them 
Hope this answers your question!
At our home we are running LibreOffice even on Windows XP, Mac OS and also Linux. I can exchange all LibreOffice files freely between all these computers, no problem with file formats. We use it for private matters, business and teaching.
What about installing LibreOffice - it is free - get a feeling for it and show it to your classmates? Most, if not all, will surely love it.
And LibreOffice doesn’ t use Ribbons which take valuable screen area in the vertical dimension. LibreOffice uses a Side Bar and standard toolbars, which help you to expand the screen area in the important vertical dimension/
Have fun with LibreOffice - being free like a free beer.