Open office 2?

[Wildtim]

Anyone ever use this software suite? Hows it work out for you? Is it a good replacement for microswipe?

[Jimbo]

I don't use it all the time, but when I do it works pretty well. The best thing about it for me is that it will open Word and Excel etc., and save to them too. So yeah, I'd say it's pretty good as a replacement, particularly if you need to interact with others who use Microsoft.

Mind you, I only have it on my Linux machine. Haven't tried it in windows for quite some time.

James.

[CactusBob]

Open office is about 98% good as a replacement for M$ Office. I'm not sure about a database component but even microsoft cant make access compatible from one version to the next. The presentation function works for most powerpoint files. I have only seen one or two MS PP files it wouldn't open. They were Office XP files that other versions of M$ wouldn't open either.
Once you get by the differences, layout, terminology, etc it works very well. I have found MS does a somewhat better job with cut and paste from websites.
My dos pennies and YMMV

Bob

[Nickelking]

I use it and I love it. as bob says it can take a bit of time to learn the new terminology et al, but once you do it's just as powerful.

[Wildtim]

Thanks guys

[moviemaniac]

I use it too and there are some functions I like even more than the corresponding ones in MS Office

For example: Try to embed a flash-flv-Video-file in MS Powerpoint

[foundlingofdollar]

It is a great suite. Your first few interactions with it may be a bit awkward, and it may feel like an older version of Office, but after a while you will wonder why you ever wasted money on MSOffice.

[jockeys]

It might be ok for some people to use at home, I tried it a few times and didn't like it. It's slow as snot (love that Java) and doesn't support some features that I like in Office. Most of the time when I use Office at home it's work related anyhow, and I have to password documents and digitally sign them and things like that, so OpenOffice is out. As a previous poster mentioned, the spreadsheet program will not connect to an MSSQL db like Excel will, which makes me not like it.

[gugi]

I do my typesetting in TeX - it's faster and infinitely better, but I don't see a reason not to just try OO and see how it works for you. Last time I had to use OO was few years ago for an Excel document- the password protection worked both ways.

[Bruno]

OO works reasonably for reading word docs.

The problem is if you make complex design documents in word, the layout won't be correct in OO, editing embedded drawings is an issue, embedded Visio drawings won't be editable, and might fail to load...
I realize that this is not a typical home use example, but since I use my computer also for work related things, there is no point in using both.

For databases I'd use SQL Server Express. It's free, powerful and robust, and does everything I need. As a contractor I've seen it used in enterprises for lots of different things.