IT Professionals

Freedom Of Choice

Posted by on Mar 19, 2008 | 5 Comments

While OpenOffice has made some significant strides over the years, it is simply not doing as well as many users need it to. This leads some people to break down and buy the costly Microsoft Office product instead. I can certainly understand this, it is a simple matter of the tool that fits the job.

Thankfully, from within the closed source world there is still a freedom of choice, both Web-based and localized.

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Now many people to this day have the belief that if Java is powering the application, then it is slow, difficult to use, and generally feels like something from the 1990s. To be blunt, you would be generalizing based on your poor experience with one or two poorly written applications. The truth is that there are many applications that are built on Java technology that do indeed, blow the doors off of other similar applications from the price point to the overall user experience. This said, I think the trend with Thinkfree, Google, Microsoft, Zoho, and others to provide Ajax alternatives is a good idea as it provides even more choices.

As for those who point out that most of these options lack Outlook, I would point out that when I was still bound to that PIM on Windows XP, I chose to purchase the standalone CD, rather than the entire office suite. Later on, it turned out that I did not need that specific PIM any longer anyway. But the point remains, you can mix and match for your own needs. One office suite here, then use whichever PIM you desire with a little searching.

So what is your favorite office suite? Are you partial to older versions of MS Office, alternatives like OpenOffice, or perhaps the shiny MS Office being sold today with its new ‘layout?’ Speaking for myself, while I own a copy of Office 2007, it is the archaic menus and new layout that tend to drive me back to an older version of OpenOffice myself, as it is free to use. But this is just what meets with my own needs. To each their own.

  • Sherwin Delfin

    For non-power users that only use word processing, spreadsheet and presentations, a lighter alternative than MS Office or OpenOffice is IBM’s free Lotus Symphony. It also runs in Linux. And since it’s based in Eclipse, it can be extended with Eclipse plugins.

  • Carl

    Office 2007 has driven many people nuts! So much so, that I’ve had to remove it from at least seven machines and get the users back to Office 2003, just so they could resume being productive employees.
    I on the otherhand, actually like OO particularly Calc the spreadsheet makes more sense to me than Excel (most of the time). Of course, loved Quattro Pro back in the day. I think most people just put up with MS Office just because its either the only thing they know, or because they mistakenly think “everybody” else uses it. And since MS has made a corporate goal of “dumbing down” the users of their products, most of them never even care where their documents are stored, or what the significance of a file extention might be; let alone ever find out that they may actually have options as to what formats/versions etc. are available to them to store their documents in…

  • Alan Monroe

    > if Java is powering the application, then it is slow

    This IS still the case. Sun sped up the execution speed Java well enough, but did so at the expense of using about 10x the amount of RAM. Excessive RAM usage drives you into swapping, which slows you down. Have you ever looked at your task manager process list while running Java-based programs? Try it for yourself.

    At work, we use Lotus’s latest Java-based instant messenger program. It uses 80+ million bytes of RAM to send a 100 byte message to my friend. What’s wrong with this picture?

  • Kevin Crosby

    Isn’t Lotus Symphony based on Open Office?

    I have not used this version of Symphony, but I am a regular user and promoter of Open (Star) Office especially now that Google has included Star Office in their pack applications (pack.google.com). Most people I suggest this alternative to are amazed that you can get a copy of “Word” and “Excel” for free…. They simply do not understand that yes there is a difference.

    The main problem I see in ditching M$Office in corporate use, is that many of the custom programs are tightly tied to M$ Word and Excel scripts or macros, making it either impossible, or a lot or work to get them converted over. So woefully, we are stuck with using M$ Office, but at this point will go kicking and screaming towards Office 2007.

  • http://www.matthartley.com Matt Hartley

    Alan: Think you have a point, about the app – some apps are just not good candidates for java – full office suites/messengers/etc being one of them, despite my love for ThinkFree, it is slow.

    I have used well designed, well thought out Java apps that run like butter. It is those who try to pack in too much that make the rest look really bad. IMO, of course. ;)

    But I do feel where you are coming from on the office suite thing though, not tried the messenger though.