"IT" advice needed please.

[Termite]

Would the guru's of IT advise me of their opinion of the "Open Office" program please.
After the fiasco with Sludgepond (now with Internode, and very very impressed) I have learned to respect your opinions.

[namtrak]

Yes Internode is pretty neat isnt it. We spend about $50 a month for 15gb and have around 6 computers connected up at any one time!!

As for Open Office, I reckon it is great. We used it when it was in its Star Office phase, the only thing I remember from that was the need to save Star Office documents in Word format when sending them to the great unwashed. Other than that Open Office is perfect!!!

Next all you need is Firefox and Thunderbird and the conversion is complete.!!

As a matter of fact your message has prompted me to go and download Open Office now and get rid of all that other crap we have!!

Cheers

[Ianab]

Open Office 2 is there for download now.
Unless you NEED to have MS Office or feel a need to contribute to the Bill Gates Benevolent fund then download it and try it.
It's NOT MS Office, but it will do 99% of the things you need and the price is right. :D

Viva the Revolution

Ian

[Bodgy]

I've heard Open Office is now OK. Didn't used to be the case with Star Office, I remember having to replace 30+ Unix desktops with Gateswear on PCs.

I think, for a 'home' user its probably a workable choice and keeps you out of the MikkySoft upgrade merry go round.

Just bear in mind that the rest of the world uses Office, Explorer and Outlook - you're going to be a bit of a pioneer and they often are the ones with arrows in their backs. Compatibility will be the issue, if there is one. You may find yourself doing extra work just to be able to talk to or exchange docos etc with other environments. Support issues will be more tedious to resolve.

Much as I personally dislike it, Windows is the standard. (contradiction in terms??)

If all things were equal (ie cost) I just want a quiet life, so much as I hate to say it, I'd choose MikkySludge.

[bitingmidge]

Just bear in mind that the rest of the world uses Office, Explorer and Outlook - you're going to be a bit of a pioneer and they often are the ones with arrows in their backs.

No they don't :D Idon't!!


Compatibility will be the issue, if there is one. You may find yourself doing extra work just to be able to talk to or exchange docos etc with other environments. Support issues will be more tedious to resolve. I haven't used a microsoft product since Word4, when I discovered a whole suite could be bought for less than the price of the MS upgrade. Strangely, without MS, support is not required!
Exchanging documents is as simple as "Save As" rather than "Save" Occasionally, I have a complex spreadsheet that needs special formatting, I always cut and paste from my "other" spreadsheet, into the formatted Excel version.


Much as I personally dislike it, Windows is the standard. (contradiction in terms??) Big contradiction in terms. Ironically it's just about the most non-standards compliant thing going.


If all things were equal (ie cost) I just want a quiet life, so much as I hate to say it, I'd choose MikkySludge.Even if MS was free, you wouldn't have a quiet life using the product, there are just too many non-compliant things in there. Check out what happens if you cut text from a Word Document and paste it in here for instance.....

One of my favourite oxymorons:

Microsoft Office Works.


P

:D :D :D

[Grunt]

I agree with Midge, Open Office is great.

[meerkat]

hi grunt,

i've used Open Office since when it was a pup and it has certainly come a long way.

Go for it but be aware that It may take a little to get used to if you have been using office etc

Andrew

[q9]

About the only reason people keep buying MS Office, is because they don't want to have to spend $$$ retraining users...and then everyone else buys it because they think they have to use the same thing...most people use 2% of it's capabilities, and the rest is just wasted...

[Termite]

Thanks for the advice folks. After your opinions and a fair bit of research on the web I downloaded Open Office late yesterday. I've been playing around with it this morning and I'm very very impressed, this will do me. I still have trouble realising that this program is FREE!:D

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

The best thing about OpenOffice is the fact that it's open source. It's bugs are usually fixed in the source code rather than simply adding yet another layer to patch it up as does... a certain rival. Another way it's dissimilar to it's rival is it doesn't contain "easter eggs" or other code bloaters, which means that the executables are much smaller and also quicker to execute. :)

Best of all, to update to the latest version there's no fees attached. It has always irked me that a certain company makes us pay top dollar for what, in almost any other company, is a beta version and also have to pay for the privilege of updating to the latest bug-ridden, code-bloated, beta version.