Realistically, can OpenOffice replace MS Works Suite?

[joflow]

We know its going to be a looooong while before OO really scratches the surface of MS Office's user base but what about Office's feature-deprived little brother MS Works? Right now, many computer manufacturers ship their consumer grade desktops with MS Works Suite. Since the desktop PC market seems to be all about selling PCs for as cheap as possible, it would make since for manufacturers to switch to OO in order to save money on lincense fees. In the next couple of years, I think we should be seeing this shift.

And of course, as more people get used to using cross platform open source software...the easier it is to switch to alternative OSs.

[mostwanted]

It is much better than MS Works, how can anyone have any doubt about that? Have you ever tried Works? It's a piece of **** software :P

Also, I don't miss anything from MSOffice in OO.o except a grammar checker. The latex style equation editor for OO.o I find to be much better than the equation editor in Word.

When it comes to Word-compatibility of course Word is more compatible with itself, but OO.o also supports more formats than MSOffice so when comparing compatibility overall, OO.o is better too. I never really use the excel and powerpoint counterparts in OO.o so can't say much about compatibility there, but they're not really as important a factor as Writer is.

[phanboy_iv]

Yes.

I haven't used MSOffice for at least a year.

I write all my essays and such for school in Linux. I've never had a problem with OO's ability to export in ".doc" format.

Actually, I use Abiword whenever I don't need to export in ".doc" format.

I don't miss MSOffice in the least. It's a pain in the rear.

[Master Shake]

Actually, I use Abiword whenever I don't need to export in ".doc" format.

I use AbiWord also. IMHO, its better than MS WOrd and OOo Write.

Heck, I even have the Win version installed on my Win partition and office PC.

[joflow]

It is much better than MS Works, how can anyone have any doubt about that? Have you ever tried Works? It's a piece of **** software :P

Also, I don't miss anything from MSOffice in OO.o except a grammar checker. The latex style equation editor for OO.o I find to be much better than the equation editor in Word.

When it comes to Word-compatibility of course Word is more compatible with itself, but OO.o also supports more formats than MSOffice so when comparing compatibility overall, OO.o is better too. I never really use the excel and powerpoint counterparts in OO.o so can't say much about compatibility there, but they're not really as important a factor as Writer is.

Yes, I've used Works and OO and I know OO is better. Works' niche seems to be "OEM Office suite for home/consumer grade PCs". Just wondering if anyone thinks OO will eventually fill this area instead.

[Master Shake]

Just wondering if anyone thinks OO will eventually fill this area instead.

It certainly is possible, but M$'s licensing can be pretty strict.

I recall that a computer mfr in the US wanted to start selling computers without an OS. Well, their license with MS stated that all systems MUST have an OS. So they shipped the OS's with a FreeDos floppy. :D

[mishranurag]

OO.o is good as such, but when you have to use it for research OO.o is a big pain. It has no compatibility with Endnote :(. If you open MS Word doc in OO.o, it loses all the endnote tags too. Moreover, the way MS word displays comments and reviews in documents, it is definitely more user friendly.


That was my two cents.
Anurag

[mostwanted]

Yes.

I haven't used MSOffice for at least a year.

I write all my essays and such for school in Linux. I've never had a problem with OO's ability to export in ".doc" format.

Actually, I use Abiword whenever I don't need to export in ".doc" format.

I don't miss MSOffice in the least. It's a pain in the rear.

I haven't used it at home for 2½ years now :)

Problems only arise when I get homework in word documents that includes equations. Shame on schools for using closed formats so heavily.

Once I sent in a biology report in PDF because 1) It's an open standard of course, 2) I knew my teacher wouldn't bother with downloading OpenOffice for looking at my report and 3) I knew my teacher had Adobe Acrobat Writer installed. Still, he refused to grade it because I didn't send it as a Word document. What an ***-hole.

[DrFunkenstein]

I think the real battle is in the formats.

Obviously, OpenOffice is more than enough for what most people need. However, what is a big letdown is that it doesn't use the file format that many people perceive to be the standard, though of course it isn't a standard, but a propietary crapload.

/me dreams of a future where people will be able to choose what office software they use solely on the merits of the software and not because of some propietary file format.

[commodore]

Not only works is a piece of crap, Oo.o will beat office too oneday.

[endersshadow]

Calc needs VB Macros...that's the one thing that I wish it had and the only thing I can't do on my comp. Impress needs to be more like Keynote...it's already at the same level of PowerPoint (and perhaps even better), but it needs the 3d animations and great features of Keynote...that program blew me away.

[Taino]

I think what some people secretly miss from MS-Office in OpenOffice is Mr PaperClip, :mrgreen: "heh kidding"... Personally i despised Mr PaperClip's interruptions while working at times, No autonomous "personal assistant" should be as interfering as "Clippy" always was.

Die Clippy!!! :KS :mrgreen:

[TeeAhr1]

I admit, my office suite needs are very basic, but I haven't so much as opened MS Office in more than a year. Just sayin'.

Now, can OOo replace MS Office? I don't even like that question, I think it's loaded, and there are just too many variables. A better question would be: "can OOo be a superior product?" And I think the answer is yes. Not in 2.0, and probably not for a while. But you need to remember, MSFT has had years to tinker with MS Office, and it's still a bloated piece of crap.

OOo hasn't had the luxury of time and funding, and I'd say it's at 80% of MS Office's features, including some (styles spring to mind) that are already hands-down better. Wait and see.

[Bandit]

I haven't used it at home for 2½ years now :)

Problems only arise when I get homework in word documents that includes equations. Shame on schools for using closed formats so heavily.

Once I sent in a biology report in PDF because 1) It's an open standard of course, 2) I knew my teacher wouldn't bother with downloading OpenOffice for looking at my report and 3) I knew my teacher had Adobe Acrobat Writer installed. Still, he refused to grade it because I didn't send it as a Word document. What an ***-hole.
I would have taken that up with the school board, or if your in college I would have went and spoken with the school dean. He can not not except it, if he doesnt except it because its not in word then he is discriminating against you. How is he discriminating? You can easily say to the school board/dean that you can not afford M$ Word (regardless if you can or can't or just dont want like me) and that you provided it in a easily to read and adiquate format. If he doesnt take it then he can be charged with discriminating you becuase of your financial situation..
Just little FYI... ;)


I think OO.o can easily replace M$ works.. IF they can get it to load faster..
I use KOffice now, at first I thought it might not be as good. But after spending some time using it I find it is actualy little more flexible. But it can be little harder to cetch onto at first. But also KOffice loads in like 3 seconds or less on my system compaired to OO. that can take up to 10-15 seconds.


Cheers,
Joey

[jimbren]

We have a sort of shared laptop at home that we keep in the living room and use as a jukebox for our streaming mp3 server. I recently had some windoze problems and decided to just throw up my hands and put Breezy on it instead of having to deal with any more crap.

My only hesitation was that my wife used the machine for writing papers and such for school, and I didn't want her to panic. I also didn't want to spend hours and hours explaining the differences between win2k and Kubuntu before or after the fact. So I installed it and then themed it to look as much like win2k as possible on my wife's desktop, and renamed the Writer link in the K menu to Word. Then I set the default document type to .doc did a couple of other things I can't think of right now.

About two weeks went by and finally my wife asked me what I had done to the machine. I asked why, and she had noticed some slight differences in the look, along with overall stability being better and "word" being much faster and easier to use.

"Word," in case I've lost you in the rambling, was Open Office 2.

Anyway...my .02.

[BWF89]

The main thing that MS Works/Office has going for it is that it has all kinda of precreated templates avalible as soon as you start the application. OpenOffice as far as I know doesn't have that.

[xequence]

Anyone should be able to use MS Office or OO.O and be able to switch between the two very easily.

I used to have OO.O installed but then I uninstalled it and installed MS Office. Wow, what can I say... Its a wonderful piece of software. Really fast and it works really well. But then again OO.O works really well also. My 12 year old brother had no problems switching between the two.

MSFT has had years to tinker with MS Office, and it's still a bloated piece of crap.

Dude. Office is extremly fast and not bloated.

I opened up Word from Office XP. 4 seconds to load. The one from Office 2003 is even faster.

[simon_is_learning]

My school uses 10 Open Office suits.

Saved some money there. And We get educated on the aplication, so for many of us it become more natural to get OO on our windows machines to.

[engla]

OpenOffice certainly can replace that other office:

This summer I was working extra with some data sheets and translation that was to be done in .doc format. We were three guys working on it and passing files around -- we worked with MS Office on different platforms, but it all worked well.

After a week I found out that one of the guys was using OpenOffice.org (he didn't know much about the difference, happily working along so he never reacted himself) -- we had some small issues with that but as soon as we found out that he was using OOo it was trivial to adjust the workflow so that everything went smoothly.

So to me, it seems like OOo is a great plug-in replacement for MS Office.

And had we known from the beginning we would probably use OOo all the way, and save some trouble with MS macros editing.

[aysiu]

Once I sent in a biology report in PDF because 1) It's an open standard of course, 2) I knew my teacher wouldn't bother with downloading OpenOffice for looking at my report and 3) I knew my teacher had Adobe Acrobat Writer installed. Still, he refused to grade it because I didn't send it as a Word document. What an ***-hole. As a former teacher of five years, I heartily concur--your teacher was being an ***hole. Oftentimes when students say teachers are ***holes, the student just doesn't understand things from a teacher's perspective. In this case, though, your judgment is justified.

[BWF89]

I used to have OO.O installed but then I uninstalled it and installed MS Office. Wow, what can I say... Its a wonderful piece of software. Really fast and it works really well. But then again OO.O works really well also. My 12 year old brother had no problems switching between the two..
Even if your useing MS Office you should still keep OpenOffice installed so you can read OpenDocument files and support open standards.

[xequence]

Even if your useing MS Office you should still keep OpenOffice installed so you can read OpenDocument files and support open standards.

Heh. I just like MS Office.

If I couldent use it id be perfectly happy with OO.O, but I use what I like. And really, why would I want to read opendocument files? I dont care what format my docs are in.

Want me to save my files as XML now instead? Thats open or something.

And by using MS Office I am not supporting microsoft in any way.

[BWF89]

If I couldent use it id be perfectly happy with OO.O, but I use what I like. And really, why would I want to read opendocument files? I dont care what format my docs are in.

Want me to save my files as XML now instead? Thats open or something.

And by using MS Office I am not supporting microsoft in any way.
Because OpenDocument files are an open standard that anyone can adopt. Microsoft .doc files are a proprietary format that developers of competeing software have to backwards engineer in a clean room enviroment inorder to get working. And if some of these laws their trying to get passed do pass you nobody except MS will be able to use MS formats. And everyone woudl be locked into useing their software.

By useing MS Office and saving as .doc files you ARE supporting Microsoft.

EDIT: XML is an open standard but Microsoft's version of it isn't. Think embrace, extend, and extingush.