Life with a Freebie Office Suite

Sun Apr 30, 2006 9:14PM EDT

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I just zipped over to Amazon to price Microsoft Office: $407.99 for the full version that includes Access.

Wow. That's a lot of money. That's a painful amount of money, particularly for a set of programs that were released three years ago and requires wading through some nasty piracy-prevention systems just to install. That's a butt-bruising amount of money that could support my video game habit for a full year.

As I was knee-deep into reinstalling software on my new desktop, which is fresh back from warranty service and is a whole other nightmare of a blog post, I thought, what if I don't install Office on this machine for the fourth time? So I zipped over to OpenOffice.org and snagged the free competitor to the Microsoft suite.

I may never go back.

Like most people, I often pay lip service to "free software," but when push comes to shove, I scurry back to the pay-version standbies. But finally I'm caving, slowly but surely. 

So far, I'm awfully impressed with OOo, as it's sometimes abbreviated. A relatively small 100MB download gets you a full suite of apps: word processor, spreadsheet, database, presentation software, and a couple of supporting applications. The only gap in the suite is an email client. Though freebies like Thunderbird are readily available, even if you want to stick with Outlook, that'll run you just $90 or so.

I still have Office on my laptop, and sharing files between the two systems has been pretty seamless so far. And using them hasn't presented any real headaches either. Most menus and commands are similar enough to be just as intuitive as the Microsoft version. I'm still working through the various parts of the suite (don't need to calculate cosines in Excel every day), so the jury's still deliberating, but so far you can color me impressed.

You've got nothing to lose by giving it a try: You don't even need to provide an email address to download the full version of the software. Meanwhile, I hope to read your comments about using OpenOffice on the boards!

Comments on Life with a Freebie Office Suite

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  • 6 Posted by bogus_dude on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:11PM EDT Report Abuse

    There are a number of other free Office suites. I believe that the more that are available, the more pressure will be put onto Microsoft to not only lower their price but to adhere to the newer standards being established for such document formats, etc. OpenOffice is owned by Sun Microsystems. It's no slouch. Sun stands to benefit from the open-source community but pushing for a better, stronger product because Sun bundles the commercial version of this office suiite, Star Office, with their own computer hardware. I recommend OpenOffice to everyone when I get a chance. Yes, there are some features of MS Office that might not display properly when viewed by OpenOffice. That, again, is because of MS's lack of adhering to document standards that are in place today. Mostly these are annoyances. Sometimes they are inconveniences. One may certainly download MS's free Word Viewer or Powerpoint Viewer so that a comparison can be drawn in how the docs are displayed between the two company's products.

  • 7 Posted by victor_dasilva_fr on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:34PM EDT Report Abuse

    I have been using this Suite for 4 years now and even installed it on my work computer. It is a great tool and does basically the job MS does, so I did not have any reason for keeping MS. Instead of having an illegal copy of Office, I suggest you give a try to OOo. The community is great and helpfull each time you need some extra advice about the software.

  • 8 Posted by joe_beaulaurier on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:38PM EDT Report Abuse

    We have Macs and PCs in my office so OpenOffice has been a God-send. I have used it to prepare documents (rather complex in some cases) for large groups and I have yet to hear that the .DOC format didn't work for anyone. I have created .PDFs as well using the built-in export capability that worked even on a printing press. I'll also point out that OpenOffice doesn't entwine and bog down your computer with extraneous toolbars and obnoxious utilities. It knows its place and stays there. Other publishers could learn from this.

  • 9 Posted by hsnyder37 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:21PM EDT Report Abuse

    The only reason I have for staying with Excel is its simple VBA programming capability - I can't find comparable features in OO. Otherwise, goodbye, MS Office.

  • 10 Posted by phreakphit on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:10PM EDT Report Abuse

    Open Office works great for me, though I admit it took me some time to get used to the different layour. (Somewhere about thiry seconds...) And hey... to be rid of that annoying paperclip.. I'd pay for the program!

  • 11 Posted by sir_jon_kc on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:24PM EDT Report Abuse

    I had concerns of the bootlegging of MS office products going on in our office....so when it got down to the last working pc w/ MS on it.. I said "It wont work anymore" ... and loaded everyone up w/ Oo.. they all griped for all of 30 minutes.. but have yet felt the need to go to the Oo "Manual" sites.. and these girls are all "seasoned" help, (god love 'em). When they give me that raise for the new hat I wear..gonna donate to Open Office.. yes indeed!

  • 12 Posted by mnikkel55 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:24PM EDT Report Abuse

    I just downloaded OOo the other day. I haven't really had a chance to use it much yet, but I'm just glad to have an alternative. After my 60 day trial ran out on my new PC, I was reluctant to drop any money on the full version of office. I spent about 2 months without any productivity software on my PC before I remembered OOo. Over the years, I've been gradually realizing just how much quality free and open-source software there is out there. I use Firefox and Thunderbird for browsing and email, GIMP for photo editing, and now OOo for word processing and spreadsheets.

  • 13 Posted by rob_shm on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:47PM EDT Report Abuse

    I use OpenOffice in conjunction with MS Office. MS Office seems a bit more user friendly - but maybe that's because I am just used to it more. The one thing I really like about OpenOffice, is that it comes with a built in PDF writer. MS Office doesn't have this. You can also save any document to an Office compatible document. OpenOffice is a wonderful App.

  • 14 Posted by c_extr on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:33PM EDT Report Abuse

    We haven't tested it--yet, yes, we're MS addicts, but it looks promising, thanks for the tip.

  • 15 Posted by rben7ga on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:31PM EDT Report Abuse

    Admittedly, I am just an ocassional Office app user. I use both MS Office 97 and Open Office ocassionally. Both fit my ocassional needs. But there are some interesting things going on that make the 3-5 year window quite relaistic for Open Office to make a push. Even with the discounted Student version, colleges are migrating over to Open office. Two reasons, on the administration side it saves a lot of money on budget for faculty use, two all students can afford Open Office. So these are the future office suite users. Looking further at the budget side, public schools, gov't adminstrations with their budgets being squeezed are increasingly being attracted to the free Office suite. I also beleive in this 3-5 year window, it will become a 3-way battle for Office apps. MS Office vs. OpenOffice vs. a Web based Office App offered as either a Google, or Yahoo service. It could be that OpenOffice will evolve to be this web-based app service.

  • 16 Posted by ikhtiar_sobhan on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:23PM EDT Report Abuse

    MS Office have some powerful features for which I am willing to pay much more. If you are an extensive user, you will know how advanced MS Office is. I always get the desired feature in MSO which can't say about other office suites. All other office suites are basically trying to mimic MSO with different degree of success. I believe MSO will always be 1 step ahead of the others as they have very strong R&D team which have till now managed to understand the needs of the users. Regarding the price issue, I think M$ will lower it considerably if the others manage to catch up. but I don't see this happening in near future. With all due respect to other Office suites, they haven't invented anything new. Developing something free is exciting for sometime but when you realize that you are not earning anything for it and your buddy is earning $$ for doing the same thing, you are bound to get disappointed. That is universal truth. (period)

  • 17 Posted by ruichambel on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:55PM EDT Report Abuse

    MS Office is very good but it has many features that most of us simply don't use and the price is to much. OOo is also quite good and being free is a big plus. Considering the free alternatives, particulary the new web offices (Think Free, gOffice) i don't see much future for MS Office in it's actual form.

  • 18 Posted by pandion.knight on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:59PM EDT Report Abuse

    I've used PCs for the last twelve years. Three years ago I switched to Mac at home and gave my old pc to my kids. In the last year I replaced their XP OS with Linux OpenSuse10.0 which has not caused them one single problem. This prompted me to convert an old PC at work also to Suse so I could keep up with my kids. Now I find that I would much rather use OOo (which looks superb in a Linux OS) than MSoffice. I'm no geek, and very much a newbie to open source. Believe me when I say it has a lot to offer, if people are only willing to see what other choices are out there!

  • 19 Posted by thephoenixforce9 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:04PM EDT Report Abuse

    open office is amazing, i love the ability to export into pdf, and file sharing between microsoft office and my computer (OOo) has been very seemless

  • 20 Posted by maharamu2000 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:03PM EDT Report Abuse

    OO is an excellent product. There is no match to it, not even, ms office. Its verstile, cross platform and free. Only issue is opening open office is bit slow. Everything is fine after that. I would recomment even to large corporate to consider Open Office 2.0.2 [ Current version ] as replacement to MS Office. Its fantastic freeware. Use it to support it.

  • 21 Posted by catdancerquilts@sbcglobal.net on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:19PM EDT Report Abuse

    I use Mac stuff so I downloaded the NeoOfficeJ software about a month or so ago when I got my new laptop. I love the idea of saving money - I just spent a bundle on the powerbook but there are some problems or at least concerns. First, it is very slow to start up. Is OpenOffice slow? Is it me? And second, Microsoft has an enormous gallery of clip art, photos and so on that are very easy to find and insert. I haven't found anything comparable for the NeoOffice. Otherwise, I am very happy with NeoOffice.

  • 22 Posted by amitabhishek on Thu Sep 3, 2009 2:53PM EDT Report Abuse

    I think OOo is just amazing esp.OOo 2.02.The company in which I work has over 5,000 employees and all of us use OOo.Our company is no pushover either we whr ranked best under billion $ Co. by Forbes Magazine in 2005.Mails circulated on our corporate intranet openly encouraged us to use OOo.I agree MSO is the only best product to come out of Redmond but why to pay such exorbitant price to get a copy. Way to go OOo team, my all the best wishes!You guys need to do little publicity and you will rock:)!

  • 23 Posted by barnabypaul on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:02PM EDT Report Abuse

    OpenOffice still needs alot of work to be able to offer what MS office does. I do use it on two machines and OpenOffice(2.0) Impress crashes fairly regularly, regardless of the OS, when working with MS made powerpoints. I dont mind using OpenOffice, but I still prefer and recommend MS Office.

  • 24 Posted by frejyasdaeg on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:03PM EDT Report Abuse

    I have been using Open Office since it's release, and I have yet to be disappointed by any of it's features. I rely havily on both the word processor, as well as the spreadsheets, and I have rarely run into a snag in terms of widespread compatibility. I highly recommend this office suite to anyone looking for an alternative.

  • 25 Posted by jhb045 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:34PM EDT Report Abuse

    I installed it on my home PC a couple of years ago and liked it so much that I had to take it off. You see, I am a technical writer and am considered the guru re MS Word and MS Office in general. I realized that I wouldn't be able to help my colleagues figure out their Word messes if I didn't experience them! (no chance of switching the corporate software "standard", unfortunately.)

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