Free Alternative To MS Office!

[tonyp56]

Hello everyone, if you'd like a FREE office suite check out http://www.openoffice.org/. I recently downloaded it and installed it on my computer and it seems to work OK. It opens and edits MS word, excel, and powerpoint documents, and it also saves documents so that they can be opened by MS Office as if it were created in MS Office. Of course it doesn't have all the bells and whistles that MS Office does, but it doesn't cost $300+ for it either. I like it!

It's a 45MB zip file download, it would take awhile on dial-up!

It is Freeware, not shareware, or a stupid trial version. Sun Microsystems and others are the ones that have created it, it is more or less a community of people who work on the software. Check it out.

Thanks

[cclement]

I agree, I've used it before and it works great.

[Jacob S]

Thanks, now I can finally open up these other documents. Sure could have used that towards the end of last week.

[cdru]

It is Freeware, not shareware, or a stupid trial version. Sun Microsystems and others are the ones that have created it, it is more or less a community of people who work on the software. Check it out. ThanksIt's not freeware, it's opensource under the GPL/LGPL/other license(s). To many there isn't a difference, but there is a significant difference. With freeware, the author retains all the control and if he can do whatever he wants had you have no choice in the matter. With Open Source, ANYONE can make a change if they want. The only condition is that any changes also must be open source.

[Richard King]

Their website is VERY slow, even on my new cable modem connection. I had used this suite a few years ago and had some problems with it so, after several tries deleted it and went back to my Lotus Smart Suite. I guess since I am making so many changes (new cable modem service, new computer, new office, etc.) I guess I should give it another shot. I hope it goes to a faster site for the download though.

[Richard King]

Downloaded in 3 minutes 32 seconds. Not bad.

[tonyp56]

It's not freeware, it's opensource under the GPL/LGPL/other license(s). To many there isn't a difference, but there is a significant difference. With freeware, the author retains all the control and if he can do whatever he wants had you have no choice in the matter. With Open Source, ANYONE can make a change if they want. The only condition is that any changes also must be open source.Your right, I knew that but, figured it would have been easier to say freeware, than to say open source under the General public license, I just figured it would have confused some people. But thank you for letting everyone else know what the difference is between freeware and open source.

[music_beans]

I noticed that OpenOffice uses some Mozilla components. (some Mozilla files are present in the programs folder). But Mozilla isn't credited anywhere on the site or program.

[tonyp56]

I noticed that OpenOffice uses some Mozilla components. (some Mozilla files are present in the programs folder). But Mozilla isn't credited anywhere on the site or program.
Read really close on the web pages, Mozilla is mentioned in there. Perhaps indirectly, but it is nontheless.