The word processor alone is just under 1.5M bytes. Because it's a true set of applications, the ThinkFree suite is highly interactive, with items such as drop-down windows and menus. By contrast, pure HTML applications lack these capabilities and have to connect over the 'Net to the server each time a screen is changed. ThinkFree documents, spreadsheets and presentation graphics are fully compatible with their Microsoft counterparts, he says. But they were totally impatient with having to learn a new user interface to these applications.
Users register for the free service and receive a user name and password.
They log on via a Web browser, then link to begin the initial download. Once the applications install, users can log off and click on an icon to activate them. ThinkFree, like the Hotmail and Yahoo sites, will make money from advertisers and partners on its Web site. The initial release of ThinkFree, due July 4, relies on the older Java 1.0 specification. The software is being revamped using Java2, which includes a way of creating reusable components, called JavaBeans.