OpenOffice Or Microsoft ? openoffice.org or Microsoft Office

	OpenOffice Or Microsoft ? - openoffice.org or Microsoft Office
	Discussion by JMC with 34 Replies. Last Update: October 21, 2005, 3:57 am (View Latest)	Page 1 of 3 pages.

JMC

What do you prefer to use?
I am now only using Open Office and stopped to use Microsoft suite, since Open Office read/amend/write Microsoft document.
Sometimes I used Microsoft Draw because I still did not take the time to learn the corresponding Open Office program. But...
A really good suite! You can even insert information from PostgreSQL and MySQL RDBMS in your documents.
Fantastic, no?

Fri Jul 8, 2005 Reply New Discussion

hatim

Since i switched to total Open Source about 6 months ago I don't have Microsoft Office on my system (even though i have got original licences to both Office2003 and WindowsXP. rare in my country where pircay reigns)

Microsoft Office is an awsome piece of Software but OpenOffice also does every thing. IMO drawing tools of MS office are suprior to OpenOffice. MS Office seems slick and is more robust (there was a story that OpenOffice is using more and more java code. And I think most of MS Office content is in C++)

The only reason some would want to switch to OO is taht its FREE (as in BEER)

Fri Jul 8, 2005 Reply New Discussion

rhodesian.dragon

Well Open Office is a good program. However I will not totally use Open Office yet because there are some formating issues when making that Open Office has with Microsoft Office file formats. This same Issue is talked about on my astahost post you can look at it by Clicking Here

Sat Jul 9, 2005 Reply New Discussion

Grafitti

I prefer MS Office as well, because of the standardization factor. give Open Office a few more years, and it'll probably be good enough to use well. but then again, by that time there will be a new Office suite out, with even better features. i think that the open source will always be a step behind.

Sat Jul 9, 2005 Reply New Discussion

BlueMountain

well, MS office of course, I've heard of open office but never use that, but I know that in terms of price for a copy of the software open office is much cheaper than MS office, correct me if I am wrong. and also I can see more people are using MS, so there is no point to make the switch.

Tue Jul 12, 2005 Reply New Discussion

jipman

Cheaper???.... it's kinda free....

The problem with users and software is that users don't choose for quality, they choose quantity, example. Windows users are so common because microsoft did a good job building up the marketing. But windows is not much compared to any *nix distro. Same goes voor office software, since most people already use ms office, it's very unlikely for them to switch over SINCE everyone uses msoffice.

Where the few Openoffice users differ (including myself, is that they are strong enough

to conquer the majority and go for what is better (although ms office is probably slightly better on stability and speed), however, openoffice's development is much faster than ms office's is, so I expect them to defeat ms office in quality in a few months

Tue Jul 12, 2005 Reply New Discussion

Grafitti

Even if Openoffice gets ahead of Microsoft, it'll be a hollow victory. Because i'm sure if it emerged as a serious competitor, Microsoft would step in and take measures legal or illegal to secure the huge market they have for Microsoft Office.
I prefer the M$ Office Suite myself. that said, i believe in trying everything at least once, so i'll try Openoffice as well.

Tue Jul 12, 2005 Reply New Discussion

musichere

Well to be honest Openoffice is more importantly 'Free Speech' as opposed to 'Free Beer' becuase anyone can view and modify the source code to suit their needs. The problem is if it goes wrong you won't get official support, and there aren't people trained and employed to know how to sort out problems with the software This is Microsofft's main argument for why people will not use open source software.

Tue Jul 12, 2005 Reply New Discussion

Trojan

I prefer openoffice due to three reasons:

1. It opens all Microsoft office documents,
2. It doesn't ask for those stupid Registration Codes (which can be a nightmare if you get Office from a package and don't have the code!)
3. It's totally FREE!!!

Tue Jul 12, 2005 Reply New Discussion

Trojan

Hmm I didn''t notice that post but musichere has a point there...

Tue Jul 12, 2005 Reply New Discussion

muksimp

hmm i think that microsoft office better. but open office is free :|

Tue Jul 12, 2005 Reply New Discussion

GM-University

I use Microsoft Office, I am very familliar with it, because I've used it so long, and like it's features, it's really the small things that count when it comes to comparing them..

Tue Jul 19, 2005 Reply New Discussion

Quatrux

i am using openoffice and don't really need anything more, except in school they make you use the ms office.

Wed Jul 20, 2005 Reply New Discussion

MajesticTreeFrog

Unless you use certain very specific features, they are equivalent, except price. If you use Mac OSX, OpenOffice (or really, NeoOffice J) still has a ways to go, and MS Office on the Mac is better than Office for PC (go figure). Using linux, of course, you only have openoffice, so it doesn't really matter.

Wed Jul 20, 2005 Reply New Discussion

Cassandra

I have used both for a long time, and actually prefer Open Office. Many of the features are similar, once you get used to them. OO starts faster on my system. It's also much easier to install OO, or to install new components which you didn't know you wanted when you first installed.

And here's a strange one. I've now got Windows 2000. I had bought MS Office for Win 98, I think. The Word part of office now almost always crashes, but OO runs fine. That means that my version of Windows is more foreign to MS Word than it is to Open Office.

Wed Jul 20, 2005 Reply New Discussion