For those of you who want to be able to use the kinds of software products found in Microsoft Office, but not enough to shell out major bucks to get it, or you're not running a Windows machine, or your just a rebel, there is good news. There is an organization called OpenOffice.org (OO.o) that has been developing an open source, multi-platform, Office-like suite of products that can share documents with other popular software suites.
What this means is that if you run Windows (and yes Vista too), Linux, Unix, Mac (Intel or GX), or other OS you have a suite of software you can use to share document with users of MS Office.
Since it's open source, anyone can make plug ins, embedded versions, custom features or whatever they want. It also means it is free. Now as good as free is, understand that this thing is under constant development, so there will be versions within each platform that have undergone more testing than others. The website will tell you which versions are the most stable and which are still being debugged. Be sure to read all the documentation before installing a package.
I got daring and installed Beta 3 Release Candidate 1 for Mac OS X on my Intel Mac. That version of OO.o reminds me of Office 97, and contains a word processor, spreadsheet program, a database engine, a presentation package, and some kind of math program (I haven't investigated that yet). I set OO.o to open and save documents in native Microsoft Word, Excel, Access, and Power Point format. As I get more time, I'll begin porting documents off of my Windows box and see how this all works out. I'll keep you informed as I go.
Oh, one other thing. Even though Unix, Linux, and Mac OS X (Unix based) are inherently infection resistant, the documents themselves can still be infected by MS Office viruses and it is possible to pass along the infection in the document, while the machine itself remains immune. Be sure to practice safe document sharing.
-- Edited by RangerPaul at 09:28, 2008-09-15
Luvglass said
09:24 AM Sep 15, 2008
Thanks for the tip. I refused to pay for the Microsoft suite with my new computer, since I so rarely have need for any of it, but you do need parts every once in a while. This should be perfect. Fred
RVDude said
07:34 PM Sep 15, 2008
Just to reiterate, OpenOffice.org is full scale hard core production quality software. It is based on the open source architecture model and has and will be around for a long long time. As open source it is continually improved and expanded to become increasingly more functional and continually secured. It is used on countless millions of computers some even in major businesses. So, fear not, it is not toyware, does not contain spyware, runs on just about all platforms, and is not Bill-ware or even Steve-ware (not that that is any concern!).
What this means is that if you run Windows (and yes Vista too), Linux, Unix, Mac (Intel or GX), or other OS you have a suite of software you can use to share document with users of MS Office.
Since it's open source, anyone can make plug ins, embedded versions, custom features or whatever they want. It also means it is free. Now as good as free is, understand that this thing is under constant development, so there will be versions within each platform that have undergone more testing than others. The website will tell you which versions are the most stable and which are still being debugged. Be sure to read all the documentation before installing a package.
I got daring and installed Beta 3 Release Candidate 1 for Mac OS X on my Intel Mac. That version of OO.o reminds me of Office 97, and contains a word processor, spreadsheet program, a database engine, a presentation package, and some kind of math program (I haven't investigated that yet). I set OO.o to open and save documents in native Microsoft Word, Excel, Access, and Power Point format. As I get more time, I'll begin porting documents off of my Windows box and see how this all works out. I'll keep you informed as I go.
Oh, one other thing. Even though Unix, Linux, and Mac OS X (Unix based) are inherently infection resistant, the documents themselves can still be infected by MS Office viruses and it is possible to pass along the infection in the document, while the machine itself remains immune. Be sure to practice safe document sharing.
-- Edited by RangerPaul at 09:28, 2008-09-15
This should be perfect.
Fred