OpenOffice

OpenOffice.org is a multiplatform and multilingual office suite and an open-source project. Compatible with all other major office suites, the product is free to download, use, and distribute. To help build the community, join us. StarDivision, the original author of the StarOffice suite of software, was founded in Germany in the mid-1980s. It was acquired by Sun Microsystems during the summer of 1999 and StarOffice 5.2 was released in June of 2000. Future versions of StarOffice software, beginning with 6.0, have been built using the OpenOffice.org source, APIs, file formats, and reference implementation. Sun continues to sponsor development on OpenOffice.org and is the primary contributor of code to OpenOffice.org. CollabNet hosts the website infrastructure for development of the product and helps manage the project. The OpenOffice.org source code includes the technology which Sun Microsystems has been developing for the future versions of StarOffice(TM) software. The source is written in C++ and delivers language-neutral and scriptable functionality, including Java(TM) APIs. This source technology introduces the next-stage architecture, allowing use of the suite as separate applications or as embedded components in other applications. Numerous other features are also present including XML-based file formats based on the vendor-neutral OpenDocument standard from OASIS and other resources.


Pros & Cons
Pros:

•Free
•Simplified, more lightweight word processor (Writer vs. Word)
•Very closely mimics the interface and functionality of Microsoft Office
•Open-source software
•Uses and helps promote the OpenDocument standard

Cons:

•Not all Excel charting functions supported in Calc
•Not as much support as MS Office (books, manuals, training)
•No support for Excel macros (does support Word macros)

More information

Office Suite Applications

Writer - word processor similar to Microsof Word
Calc - spreadsheet software similar to Microsoft Excel
Impress - presentation program similar to Microsoft PowerPoint
Base - database program similar to Microsoft Access
Draw - vector graphics editor comparable in features to early versions of CorelDRAW
Math - A tool for creating and editing mathematical formulae, similar to Microsoft Equation Editor

Releases

The current stable release of OpenOffice is 2.4. In September 2008, OpenOffice.org 3.0 is expected to be released, and will include Office 2007 file format support.