Homepage: http://www.openoffice.org/
Summary: A full-featured office suite, compatible with MS Office.
OpenOffice.org (OOo) is a high-performance suite of office utilities. It includes:
In short, this is a professional grade suite of applications, and should be considered by anyone who is looking for an alternative to Microsoft Office. Files may be saved in their native XML-based format, but they are fully compatible with the MS Office file formats of the respective applications. Additionally, there is OOo Basic, which is an API allowing power-users to customize their applications.
This shouldn't be considered a complete replacement for MS Office, however. Notably absent from the above lineup are a database program and a personal information management program (so you will still need Access and Outlook if you use those programs).
OOo is a spin-off project from Sun's StarOffice Suite. StarOffice is a paid-for suite of programs that includes Base, which is a database/data management application.
I have been using OOo for some months now and have had a very good experience overall. I would caution, though, that some MS Office documents do not render 100% identically (particularly documents with nonstandard margins or extended MS Office features). I don't believe it is ready to completely replace MS Office in the workplace, but it is a viable contender for home or small business use.
Posted by wrodina at September 14, 2003 4:49 PM | TrackBack