"If you work in computing and are even tangentially familiar with the open source software movement, chances are you’ve heard of OpenOffice at some point. For a decade, the OpenOffice Foundation provided the world with a free alternative to Microsoft’s ubiquitous Office suite, and if its programs weren’t always as polished or quick to launch as Microsoft’s, the price tag made up for it. The document suite’s long term future, however, may be in doubt as evidenced by its small developer base and anemic release schedule."
TechSpyre - When it comes to composing documents, creating spread sheets and attractive presentations, the MS Office suite comes to mind. It no doubt contains one of the best desktop applications, with it’s large array of convenient programs like MS Word, MS PowerPoint, MS Excel, MS Access, MS InfoPath, MS SharePoint and many more. Having said that, convenience also comes at a price, perhaps the reason why almost all good things are not free. But I did say “almost” didn’t I? Many people are unaware of the fact that there are a number of MS Office Clone applications, which are capable of providing many of the functions of the programs within the Microsoft Office suite. In this post we will provide you with a list of five best (yet free) alternatives for the MS Office Suite.
interesting Article but some of these just dont compare to office, Ill stick with my version of 2007 until something better comes along.
if its not broken dont mess with it.
It's not a case whether it's broken. It's purely preference and budget. I use Libreoffice myself eventhough it really takes after the old MS-Office look. That sure ain't broken. Just not great. I don't want to crack my MS-office nor do I wanna go trough that slow download service my uni provides for student license.
Although I wish there was a GUI change for libre office.
sorry to promote piracy but office 2003 and 2007 are like given away and Microsoft could care less.
I think the list is more for people that don't intend to buy overpriced MS Office software at all, not people who already have it.
Same here.
I know that office may not be affordable for many people, but for me and my work, I absolutely need it.
for me openOffice works fine. there are a few things which are done simpler on MS office but there isnt anything MS office can do that OpenOffice cant (at least from my usage, im sure someone found something that differs) but i guess if its free i cant really complain, just be thankful it works.
Ugh, OpenOffice is the worst, I've experienced horrible compatibility and formatting with Microsoft Office files.
actually i find OPENOFFICE easier to use then the new MSOFFICE suite. Though i mainly use MS office because it is available and everyone seems to have it.
I do agree with PENGUINKK that there is horrible compatibility and formatting opening MS files in OPEN office but there is a work around. Simply save all files as .RTF (RichTextFormat) and then anything can open it but some formatting that MS office does cannot be saved as RTF and the file size gets bigger though with today's amount of storage available its not that much extra to save. I would only worry about file size if you were still saving on a 3.5" floppy
The Linux distributions Fedora Linux and Ubuntu has decided to skip Open Office and replace it wiyh the competaor LibreOffice in the upcoming spring versions.
By the end of 2009 a group of developers broke away from OpenOffice and started LibreOffice. After beeing in beta for a while, LibreOffice has now been released in a final version, LibreOffice 3.3, which is based on OpenOffice.
If the world didn't need reminding of the ongoing battle of Microsoft Office vs OpenOffice, the software giant reaffirmed that this month by posting a video on YouTube of Microsoft customers complaining about OpenOffice.
