Microsoft Office or OpenOffice?

[marz3pan]

Hello again. My laptop's got Vista so I regularly install "important updates" and I recently updated Java. This gave me the desktop shortcut to the Java website to download OpenOffice.

Here's my dilemma - We were planning to buy the full version of Microsoft Office 2007, as we want new stuff for our XP computer and cos the Trial on my laptop expires on 30th September and we'll need something to replace it. But then I heard about OpenOffice. It sounds pretty similar, it can save files in MS Office formats, and it's FREE!! So now I don't know what to pick.

So if anyone has used/is using it, please tell me more about it. Is it good, would you recommend it? Does it work on both XP and Vista? And how similar is it to MS Office 2007? Cos it looks more like 2003 lol.

[Enigma]

why not try it mate and then decide for yourself?

[SuperMazdaKart]

yeh, StarOffice is alo free to so maybe try both before deciding to buy MS Office.

[Enigma]

staroffice and open office pretty much the same thing i believe

[melbastina]

Used open office at work, it's fine, no more or less of a pain in the arse than Microsoft office.

[marz3pan]

Originally Posted by melbastina

Used open office at work, it's fine, no more or less of a pain in the arse than Microsoft office.

Kool, sounding good. The reason why I don't wanna just try it myself is cos I don't wanna waste time and internet usage to download it just to find out it's outdated by far by MS Office 2007. I just thought I'd get some advice and opinion first. It might help others too.

[crackman]

office 07 is a bitch if you're used to the classic (ie pre07) format. 07 is user friendly for those who have never used it before

[jmac]

Star Office is the proprietary sun office suite, open office is the test bed for this (sponsored by SUN Microsystems and is open source) Star office is found on solaris operating systems... but yes pretty much the same thing (what fedora is to redhat for the linux familiar)

I use open office at home, M$ office is a rip (even though the company i work for is a MS gold partner, so i should get it free for home use)..

its fine for home use, some features are missing but hey, its free.. I can live with it.

[marz3pan]

office 07 is a bxtch if you're used to the classic (ie pre07) format.

Yea, ive got the trial of 2007 and at first it was weird and i was complaining lol. But im a fast learner =P

- - - - - -
How new is Open Office?? Is it like 2007 or is it more similar to 2003??

[Skeem]

Open office saves files as the nativbe .ODT as well as heaps of other formats like Word .DOC files etc.

I havent used Open office before, but m y mate does and he says its really similar, It might not have the "Glossy finish" of the new MS office, but beauty is skin deep.

[jvanzeeland]

I would very strongly suggest trying out OpenOffice. I doubt there's anything you want to do with office software it can't do. There's lots of online documentation. The first thing you will want to do is check the file format defaults and specify MS Office file formats as global defaults. Then you don't have to worry about converting files from one format to another.

Originally Posted by Enigma

staroffice and open office pretty much the same thing i believe

Open office came about after the Sun's staroffice source code was released to the public domain, if I recall correctly. OpenOffice branched off as a collaborative open source project, and staroffice is still (?) developed as closed source by Sun MicroSystems?

for filler if anyone is interested:

As these things tend to go, I would imagine current StarOffice versions are "hardened" branches of the OpenOffice project. Don't know haven't looked at staroffice for absolutely yonks, but if it's anything like redhat, the open source project is used as a stable development platform, from which "hardened" "Enterprise applications" are tailoured. RH Fedora --> RH Enterprise, OpenOffice --> Star Office. Don't quote me on that; I'm not sure StarOffice is still developed. Netscape Directory Server --> Fedora Directory Server project is an example of software that started out as proprietary and has then had a version released to the public domain from which a new open source product has arisen.

They share roots and are branches of the same tree, but there's nothing to stop them being radically different.

[marz3pan]

Ok cool, I think I've got all the help I need now. Thanks everyone!

[sexymazda6]

go for office 07 enterprise edition. still a good option. user friendly

[Psyonic]

My 2 Cents
Use Open Office.........better then M$Office(even though they fixed alot in 2007ed and mad it look all pretty), OO is open source so it will get updates more frequently and also if someone makes something that works really well with the program they Open Source Community can implement it into the code without having to release, and make you pay for, and whole NEW version.

Ciao4now
Psyonic

Ps. good place for good freeware is filehippo

[Gordo]

Originally Posted by marz3pan

Here's my dilemma - We were planning to buy the full version of Microsoft Office 2007, as we want new stuff for our XP computer and cos the Trial on my laptop expires on 30th September and we'll need something to replace it. But then I heard about OpenOffice. It sounds pretty similar, it can save files in MS Office formats, and it's FREE!! So now I don't know what to pick.

There are a few YouTube videos on how to get Office for free.

I used one to get Office 2003 and had no problems. I remember there being how-to's for 2007 as well.

[Palo Verde]

open office is not bad at all, the interface is not as weird looking as the ms 07 suite and it can save files in MS format as well and it can open most , if not all MS files.

[Batty]

just bought home user version of office enterprise 2007 through work for $37.20. have to remove it if I leave the company.

[Palo Verde]

hmm Batty it is very cheep, almost free! even my gloria jean latte for a month cost more. Even my wireless broadband costs more, come to think of it, even my petrol per week cost more!

[Dan_MPS3]

The only thing I miss in Open Office is a decent Outlook equivalent, otherwise it's pretty good.

Does anyone know of a program very similiar in look and feel to Outlook that is freeware? One that handles tasks, calendar, contacts etc in the same way.

[Greg K]

dan_mps3 check out Mozilla Thunderbird