How to use non-XP software in XP environment?

Hi there!
(I'm not quite sure where to enter this post.)
I guess most would agree that there are plenty of good and often better alternatives out there than Windows XP and other Microsoft products. Often, such products are even free/share/donationware. The latest example seems to me to be Firefox and Mozilla in general v. the almost completely chaotic and bungled introduction of XP SP2.
However, if one then installs e.g. Firefox and Thunderbird and/or Mozilla Suite, a lot of compatability issues arise with XP as well as MS Office. Most recently, I've discovered that I get somewhat different view of my own website (created in MS Office) and problems using upload prgs such as WS_FTP.
Does anyone here have a Midas hi-tech touch ...?

 

The problem is the user or perhaps there are other proggies in PC that created those issues. I'm running WXP Pro with FF n Office without any problem.

The FF browser will not display improperly coded web pages. You need to use IE.