As many of you know, about a month ago I installed Mandrake 8.2 on my
desktop, mostly out of frustration and need.  My administrator did the
work. I have struggled with learning things over, after 20 successful
years of MS'ing.

The problem is that when I launch Open Office, from the favorites menu,
it takes a minute or two or more to get past the opening logo screen.
THEN as if it's not bad enough, it either just stops opening after the
logo screen goes away or when it actually opens the program, the cursor
stops blinking and it suddenly closes within the first few seconds of
being open.

I have not researched this issue, but I have talked to two other people
that say it seems like a bad install or that maybe resources are messing
with it.

Any suggestion that will actually fix the problem?

Kimi