There are many fancy reasons that OpenOffice.org is a great choice for your office work. For example, it’s Open Source and it supports an open format document standard, OpenDocument.

But let’s put “openness” to the side. Let me get down to the nitty-gritty: It’s free (as in free beer) and it works. What’s not to like?

I’ve been running a late beta of OpenOffice.org 2.0 on both my SuSE 9.3 and 10 Linux boxes and on Windows XP. And, you know what? It works great.

I’ve started writing with vi on Unix and WordStar on CP/M. Over the years, I’ve used Lotus Word, WordPerfect and, yes, every version of Microsoft Word for Windows from 2.0 to 2003. Along the way, I’ve also used spreadsheets starting with VisiCalc, with many years spent on Lotus 1-2-3 and Quattro Pro and for the last five years, Microsoft Excel.

I could go on, but suffice it to say, “Steven knows office software.”
 OpenOffice.org also boasts an interface that’s much more like the Microsoft Office interface. Unlike Microsoft Office, though, you can run it on Windows, Linux or Solaris and, regardless of platform, it looks and works the same.

[Continue reading Why OpenOffice.org 2.0 Is Your Best Choice at eWeek]

[tags]openoffice,opendocument,word processing,office[/tags]