Why rely on Microsoft Office?
Krish Raghav -
Monday, October 27, 2008 11:51 AM
Seriously, why?
There's no need to, really - not with *fanfare* OpenOffice around!
OpenOffice (It's called OpenOffice.org, and will be henceforth abbreviated to OoO) is a free, open source alternative to the venerable MS line of productivity suites. It's credentials are quite impressive - one of the largest open source projects active, nearly three years in the making for the latest release, adopted by governments and large organizations the world over, and in some sense, the ONLY direct competitor to Microsoft's Office.
It's seen its ups and downs - community fragmentation, stagnant development - and not quite, in India atleast, become the de facto replacement for Office (The current de facto replacement for Office is...umm...a pirated version of Office)
I've been using OoO for quite a while now, and while, yes, it does have its shortcomings and is a little rough around the edges - but there's no reason not to switch completely over from Office.
The recently released Version 3.0 strengthens that claim - tightening some of the loose ends, and giving it a much needed visual overhaul.
(OoO's title screen gives you easy access to all of its separate applications - even an easy link to the Extensions site)
This is not so much a review as just a general impression. I could prattle on and on about document formats ( Open Office uses the Open Document Format, or .odf compared to Office's .doc - but dont worry, it supports all office documents, providing rudimentary compatibility with even the dreaded '.docx' files) or nitpick features (OoO has some neat collaborative editing stuff) - but everything will inevitably boil down to one simple question: Does it work the same way Office does?
Short answer: Yes.
Slightly longer answer with neatly summarized bullet points: Yes:
- It's just as fast
- It' has equivalents for Word, Excel, Powerpoint and Access.
- It works more-or-less the same way
- The presentation templates are a bit tacky in OoO - but Powerpoint isnt really the gold standard for design either.
- Clippy the office assistant is the only remarkable feature OpenOffice is missing (Interpret that any way you like)
Longer answer: Well, it depends on what kind of user you are. For personal, educational or small-enterprise use - its a no-brainer, OoO is fast, sturdy, reliable, and more importantly, FREE. But when you're talking large enterprises - Im not qualified to comment. I dont know the exact security, support features that Microsoft promises, and I know even less about how the two compare on that front. But most of us are not large enterprises, so swing with the free software, eh?
It's a 140 MB download, takes about a minute to install - there's a (thankfully) short and optional registration process, and you're good to go!
Screenshots Below.
(Impress, the Powerpoint equivalent. Notice the tacky theme)
(Writer = Word. Sure, the menus are so last-gen compared to Office 08, but notice spiffy zoom slider on bottom right)
UPDATE: The latest release has apparently crossed 3 million downloads in its first week!