So you bought your son or daughter a shiny new laptop for Christmas. You are delighted when it boots up and you see the Microsoft Office application icons. Word, Excel, Powerpoint - Perfect! All kids will need to learn to use Microsoft Office, since just about any job they will ever get will require that they know how to navigate an Excel spreadsheet, create a Word document or wow their boss with a snazzy PowerPoint presentation.
But wait! You later find out that the copy of Microsoft office is not a fully licensed version. Typically, it's a trial version and the trial version is only good for a limited time. After 30, 60 or 90 days, you need to pony up the $320 for the full version or $125 for the Home/Student version of Microsoft Office. If not, it expires and cannot be used. Bummer.
I have an alternative for you. Give OpenOffice a try. What is OpenOffice? OpenOffice is a free, open source set of Office applications. In many ways, OpenOffice looks, acts and feels just like Microsoft Office. OpenOffice can read and write Microsoft Office files! OpenOffice comes with the following programs:
- Writer (just like Microsoft Word!)
- Calc (just like Microsoft Excel!)
- IMPRESS (just like Microsoft PowerPoint!)
How can OpenOffice be offered for free?
Originally, this application suite was called StarOffice and sold by a German company as proprietary software (i.e. you had to pay for it). In 1999, Sun Microsystems purchased StarOffice and decided to give away the source code for free in an attempt to fight the Microsoft Goliath. From this, a project called OpenOffice.org was born. Basically, OpenOffice.org was (and is) a group of programmers who dedicate their free time to making improvements to the StarOffice software. They called this new version OpenOffice and offered it to the general public for free. To this day, Sun Microsystems continues to be a major contributor of funds and code to OpenOffice.org.
To download and try a copy of OpenOffice, visit the OpenOffice.org download site.
- Click Here for the Windows Version
- Click Here for the Mac Version
- Click here to see all available Versions
If you are interested in seeing how OpenOffice stacks up against Microsoft Office, see the following articles.
- Microsoft Office vs. OpenOffice.org
- Open Office 2.0 Kicks MS Office Around the Block
- eWeek.com: Office 2003 vs. OpenOffice.Org
Give it a try. I would highly recommend OpenOffice as a home/student/small business based alternative to Microsoft Office. You certainly cannot beat the price!
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