OpenOffice.org 2.0 available.

Ah, the application I use primarily to deal with lame email attachments from microserfs has reached a milestone. Good to see.

http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=172302917



For those of you finding yourself cursing at Word, give it a whirl. I mean, if you have broadband of course -- don't even consider straining it through a dialup link.

http://www.openoffice.org/

I use it and it is a great app

OpenOffice is excellent. I started using it before version 1.0 just to support open software, and because it offers native PDF support (which Word doesn't), but it is every bit as good as M$'s office suite. And free.

to a point, the handheld uses a stripped down version of word and I use it as well.. no prblem though save it in RTF and can use it

Even though OpenOffice exports to Word file format, I frequently exchange documents with colleagues who use Word primarily, e.g. co-authors, so it's useful to run docs through Word before sending them off just to check them. The only thing I've ever had any problems with are mathematical equations and similar embedded graphics, which were easy to fix. I suspect even those issues are solved now, and they never affected 99.9 percent of users anyway.

I should say that I do NOT pay Micro$oft their inflated price for this privilege, at least not personally. My university has licensing agreements that provides the software, so I suppose someone does pay, but if it had to come out of my personal pocket, I'd use OO exclusively.

I have been using it for the past 1-1/2 years at my office and for longer at home. Being a Linux user, OO.org is, of course, my first choice. Hubby was one of the thousands of contributors who helped de-bug earlier versions. It works great, does more than I ever will need, is Free and has lots of world-wide online support.

I plan to download a copy soon.

I'm a fan of opensource software, but also see some adminstration/update problems I'd rather avoid.

this one saves primarlly in XML and supports so many formats it is not even funny

I used, until today, Bata 1.97 build, and had no proplems, now 1.95 gave me some particular headaches which meant I used version until .97

Your problems are going to be with people getting used to where some things are...

Some of the goodies in version two taht did not exist in version one, and i suspect Sun's, is a word count... as an author I cannot live without it, but after that you will find it very intuitive et al

Hell I even use it for page layout for commercial product since it supprts feames very well.

(I guess I have become a somewhat advanced user due to need huh?, let me see frame maker 900,,, Quark XPress over 1000 or open office and a manual for how to use it as a frame maker subs, 30 bucks, no, not the program, the book)

I was never a Quark fan. I recognized Word as the coming consumer/prosumer de facto standard very early on, even though I was (in the 8-bit days) a power user of WordStar which I regarded as superior.

...but it's been a couple of years since I've actually formatted any final copy that way.

StarOffice has some proprietary stuff, like fonts, filters and extra templates. OpenOffice is free, and you get to find your own extra fonts and templates (check the site for links). Sun maintains OO.org on their webservers and uses the code improvements in exchange. I really don't think there is a significant difference in real support, since there are so many OO.org users who contribute to forum answers. SO probably provides office staff to answer questions. The stable versions of OO are quite reliable, in my experience.

As for opensource DTP software, try Scribus. I have been using it to publish newsletters. The version which works on my aging work laptop does have issues, but it is still quite usable, and produces good output. (One of those "don't really care how it works on the computer, as long as the printout looks good" cases.)

Been hoping that comes out. I do run some software on this machine that does not play well wtih Linux... been thininig of a double booting machine...

but check their web site. Dual boot works just fine, I used to do that with my home computer and still have that setup on my ancient laptop. Most Linux distros will help you set up the partitions. Just don't try it with Win XP; I have heard it doesn't like sharing.

(I have to give credit to IBM for the quality of their older laptops. I have a ThinkPad 600E which is still charging right along, in spite of the 366 Pentium II. Slow, but functional.)

I knew there had to be an alternative to buying MSoffice for wordprocessing. (besides wordperfect) I just had to buy an "official" copy of XP Pro and don't want to pay MS another $150.

of fans here... so just download it, instanll it, and run with it.

If yuo have any quetions feel free to PM me

I still use Word for some thigns... like a handy dandy template to put my documents in the correct format for selling short stories... or running the grammar checker (one thing it does not have), but otherwise, solid program...