Encyclopedia Britannica 2005 DVD Ultimate Reference Suite review:4 stars (Good Reference Guide) - Britannica Encyclopedia 2005 DVD is really good encyclopedia it's also great because all those books are fitted in just one DVD, and we can also update our information online. It is also a source to enhance person's general knowledge. Other activities in the software are great and I encourage you choose this product.2 stars (Adequate (barely)) - I have Pentium 4 2.4 Ghz PC with 256k memory and Win XP. Though I've loaded the Suite onto my hard drive, it's very slow to start up and slow to bring up articles and media. The Atlas really only serves as a SLOW visual index to articles in the encyclopedia since it only has country level maps and some links don't work. The media ranges from quite nice to outdated stuff they must have dug out of the broom closet. On the other hand, being Britannica, the content of the encyclopedia is good and the separate interfaces for adults, teens, and children has potential - if only they could speed it up! The rebates make this a product I'll keep, but rarely use - I could drive to the library and still get my answers from the Encyclopedia Britannica - maybe quicker.2 stars (Decent encyclopedia, lousy atlas, sluggish performance.) - Historically, the Encyclopedia Britannica was the best of all the print encyclopedias, offering long articles written by experts in their respective fields on subjects of interest to educated adult readers. When digital technology came along offering the potential to transfer that vast amount of information to CDs and DVDs, the hope was that the Britannica would first move over its print articles (which do not take up much space on a disk), keep them updated, and supplement them with useful maps and illustrations.

This has not happened. Not all of the print articles were transferred, updating has been sporadic if not non-existent, and the maps and illustrations are generally useless. Instead of building on its reputation for excellence, Britannica has elected to follow Microsoft's lead, providing multimedia entertainment for morons. Unfortunately, it's not even entertaining.

It still has the best content of all the commercial encyclopedias (wikipedia is significantly better, if more uneven), but that is faint praise indeed. With the advent of modern search engines, allowing the reader to piece together information from a variety of sources, one wonders how much longer Britannica can last.

Encyclopedia Britannica 2005 DVD Ultimate Reference Suite Features:
Computer software (programs)
Reference
Encyclopedia (Encyclopedias)
Dictionary (Dictionaries)
CD
Categorized into 3 easy-to-use comprehension levels
Brings first-rate reference materials right to the computer
Complete 32-volume Encyclopedia Britannica
2 dictionaries and thesauruses; world atlas with 1,300+ maps
Vivid illustrations with 21,000 images, video, and audio

Encyclopedia Britannica 2005 DVD Ultimate Reference Suite is the DVD-ROM version. The full version can be purchased by clicking on the "CLICK HERE TO ORDER" button below for around 59.99USD.