A good alternative to MS Office.

[endirio]

Hey guys,

You may have already know this already but for those of you who don't, there's this software suite called "Open Office" which does the exact same things regular Office does, but completely free. We've saved a lot of money after switching to it and we'll never use the expensive MS Office again. The functions are completely identical, and you get Word, Excel, and Powerpoint for all your basic office needs.
Enjoy.

[kornee]

Openoffice I think is out of business as they were now not supported. The existing suite that's better than it is LibreOffice. I'm not sure if some of the linux distro supports openoffice still but libreoffice works to almost all kind.

[endirio]

Openoffice I think is out of business as they were now not supported. The existing suite that's better than it is LibreOffice. I'm not sure if some of the linux distro supports openoffice still but libreoffice works to almost all kind.

Where did you get that from? Not supported by whom? The suite is still working perfectly and they're updating it, the latest version was released in May this year. I'll try LibreOffice too though, looks nice from what I'm seeing. Thanks.

[MyDigitalpoint]

Being based on Java, Open Office, I've also heard the suite was discontinued but being renamed to become a different development.

This wouldn't be strange to me as this suite was originally named Star Office in the early 2000s, but it was not full-MS Office compatible by then, discontinued to rename it as Open Office later.

By that time I used to prefer another Office compatible product, 602 PRO PC Suite. It was free till 2006 being less system resource intensive than Open Office.

There are also other Microsoft Office free and paid alternatives such as Kingsoft Office 2010 or AbiWord for those who don't need Power Point nor Excel.

[kornee]

I've read it somewhere that oracle has withdraw its support to open office a year ago. I'm not too sure about the issue though but this I suppose openoffice's last update was last year yet its still present in most distro repositories.

[endirio]

I've read it somewhere that oracle has withdraw its support to open office a year ago. I'm not too sure about the issue though but this I suppose openoffice's last update was last year yet its still present in most distro repositories.

Oracle transferred OpenOffice to Apache Software and the last update (actually a new version, 3.4) was released in May 2012, not a year ago.

[izzypopa]

Whenever i get tired of MS office i like to use OpenOffice (Google it), It basically is the same thing but you can get some plugins and mods for it if you choose
It is also free from what i remember and a lot of people use it for small business's

[Victor Leigh]

I have just checked. Openoffice is definitely well and alive. The only change is that Oracle has donated the entire suite, lock stock and barrel, to the Apache Foundation. Libreoffice is created by a group of Openoffice programmers who were unhappy with Oracle. At the moment, Libreoffice is slightly ahead of Openoffice in features.

If you just want to do wordprocessing, you can just use Abiword.

[Parker]

I have just checked. Openoffice is definitely well and alive. The only change is that Oracle has donated the entire suite, lock stock and barrel, to the Apache Foundation. Libreoffice is created by a group of Openoffice programmers who were unhappy with Oracle. At the moment, Libreoffice is slightly ahead of Openoffice in features.

If you just want to do wordprocessing, you can just use Abiword.

I use LibreOffice. I like it much better than OpenOffice. It definitely uses less computer resources than OpenOffice.

[rollybooz]

I second that OpenOffice is a really great alternative to MS Office since they have almost all the same features and functions just that I'm still not really familiar with the layout of everything and it can be hard to find certain functions since they are renamed and I'm been used to using MS Office all along. I guess OpenOffice would be great for start-up businesses that are low on capital but need an office suite to kick-start and coordinate the business' running. I'll definitely be checking out LibreOffice. Haven't actually heard of it before!