Installation
Owing to unusual circumstances -- essentially a dodgy CD -- we were able to evaluate both the CD and DVD versions of Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite 2005. The CD version takes a whopping 6 CDs -- or one relatively sedate DVD, and we'd strongly suggest that you choose to install the entire contents onto your system, as it means you won't have to mess around finding CDs when you're trying to do a simple bit of research.
Whether you're installing from CD or DVD, you'll have a fair wait ahead of you to make it through the install process, although if you do opt for the full install, you'll at least only have to do this once. Verification is via a simple serial number on the CD jewel case, and aside from providing a coffee break of very healthy length, we had no other problems with the Britannica install.
Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite 2005 includes a 90 day subscription to the Britannica online service, but annoyingly the reminder screen for this comes up every time you launch the application -- if you choose "Remind Me Later" it'll just pop up again, so the only way to get rid of it if you don't want the trial is to choose the "register by mail" option.
Features
Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite 2005 features 101,000 articles, some 300,000 dictionary entries, 500,000 Thesaurus entries, 18,500 Images and Multimedia elements and 2,514 entries under the World Atlas and Maps category -- at least according to the back of the product box, anyway. What does that mean in practical terms? It's somewhat hard to recommend (or disavow) an Encyclopaedia product on pure numerical terms, as everyone's searches and informational needs differ so very widely; while in a strict numerical sense Britannica is dwarfed by the number of articles in Encarta Premium Suite 2005, if it provides you with quality information, then it's not by definition a bad buy.
Britannica's main interface is quite simple and pleasant to use, with a distinct nod towards tabbed browsers such as Mozilla Firefox. A search bar sits on the top left hand side, and from here you can perform direct searches. Our searches with a variety of direct topics turned up a wealth of information; in previous years we've felt that Britannica was perhaps a bit light on Australian information, but this year's entry seems much better equipped to deal with Australian educational needs.
The interface is broken up across the three main Encyclopaedia offerings that Britannica ships with - the Elementary Library, Student Library and Encyclopaedia Britannica itself. It's a little irritating having to deal with such US-centric descriptors, but aside from that it's a good approximation of the information needs of most of its target users, as it's fair to say that most of us won't buy an Encyclopaedia except for educational needs, most particularly those of our children.
New in this year's edition is the Britannica Brainstormer, a branching treelike structure that gives you an alternate methodology for cruising through the Encyclopaedia's contents. Starting with some core topics, you can click through to a variety of subtopics, each of which branches out into newer subtopics... and so on. Clicking on the Ideas and Abstract Thought, for example, could take you to Epistemology, which could take you to Agnoiology, and so on.
Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite 2005 also offers additional downloadable content, along with a premium online service, which is free for 90 days for purchasers of the Ultimate Reference Suite .
Performance
Along with its slow installation came a touch of instability, at least on our test system. On one occasion we were simply dumped straight out to the desktop -- not a good sign.
Britannica's searches were mostly fast and hassle free, with plenty of information across a huge swathe of topics. The real benefit of buying a multimedia encyclopaedia is undoubtedly that you're getting verified information -- while Google and similar search engines can find a variety of information, it's often without verification, and can be immensely biased. Being able to see those biases can be interesting and informative all of itself, but often you just want or need the base facts -- and that's where packages like Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite 2005 and Encarta Premium Suite 2005 come into their own.
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sandeep
01/11/2006, 07:13 PM
rating
7/10
loading after installation to open article but not able to open after successful installation
Pros: braistorming component
Cons: poor atlas
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chowdhury1
31/10/2006, 04:53 AM
rating
8/10
it is a very fine reference store
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18/02/2006, 02:56 AM
No more British-English encyclopaedias left
Unfortunately Britannica has become another American encyclopaedia. Which is bad news for Australians. Instead of using the Oxford dictionary, it now uses Merriam-Webster. Loading articles, and even sub-contents within articles, are slow on a 1.8 GHz 512 RAM PC (compared to Encarta '05). The main problem overall, is navigation; there's too much clicking and window fiddling. I don't like the Atlas either.
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16/12/2004, 12:51 PM
A powerful and comprehensive package!
I purchased the Britannica 2005 Ultimate Reference Suite 2005 on DVD to run on my Apple PowerBook G4.
Installation was rather lengthy but opting for the full install is worthwhile.
The program is easy to use and contains articles on any topic which takes your interest.
Although in number, the articles in thic package are less than in competing packages such as Microsoft Encarta, I find the content unbeatable.
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