Open Office vs Microsoft Office 2010

[createdcreature]

Which is better? Don't just say 'LibreOffice', only those two. You can mention it, but don't say 'Just use it'.

[uRock]

Moved to Recurring Discussions.

[dFlyer]

Depends what your needs are. I use LibreOffice which meets all my needs. But than I've not used windows in so many years, I couldn't tell ya which is better. My daughter uses Microsoft and Microsoft Office, but thats because her school requires it. My suggestion is to try both and makeup your mind yourself based on your needs.

[createdcreature]

Just want your opinion, because 1/5 of all computer users use Open Office and the popularity of Linux is growing at an incredible rate!

[uRock]

I don't use either. I use MS Office within my Hotmail account.

[createdcreature]

I use Open Office and the Gnumeric-Abiword suite.

[terrykiwi83]

I use LibreOffice as to it meets my needs and comes pre-installed on Ubuntu 11.04 and I also don't run Windows.

[createdcreature]

Open Office's docx, xlsx, and pptx rendering is buggy sometimes, but a lot of people use open office!

[aysiu]

If I need to do some macros stuff or email merges, Microsoft Office wins hands-down. If I just need to type a document, OpenOffice is a cheaper alternative, for sure... but then again so is Google Docs.

[createdcreature]

Google docs you need a constant internet connection. I don't like this LibreOffice vibe, I use Open Office.

[georgelab]

Open Office works really nice for me. Last time I saw MS Office applications, they were called MS Office 2000 Suite... My brother uses MS Office 2007, and I think he likes it.

[createdcreature]

Thread marked as solved to avoid veering off topic.

[alaukikyo]

Google docs you need a constant internet connection. I don't like this LibreOffice vibe, I use Open Office.

why ?

[Roasted]

Google docs you need a constant internet connection. I don't like this LibreOffice vibe, I use Open Office.

Why on earth would you not like this Libre Office vibe? Are you aware of what Libre Office is?

Some history:

Sun Microsystems created Open Office.
Oracle bought Sun Microsystems.
Oracle sucked at maintaining some of their newly founded projects acquired when they bought Sun Microsystems, such as Open Office, OpenSolaris, etc.
Oracle killed OpenSolaris. Illumos is an open source community driven replacement for it.
The open source world created The Document Foundation to resurrect "Open Office".
The Document Foundation created Libre Office, which is basically Open Office, but forked.

The future is Libre Office. I don't see Open Office staying around much longer considering their new-found parent doesn't give a damn about them. Libre Office has a solid backing to it and a lot of support, something that Open Office didn't have once Sun left the picture.

Fun fact: We are beginning to introduce Libre Office at my place of work. It is expected that the use of Google Docs and Libre Office will fully replace Microsoft Office and we will no longer purchase MS Office licenses like we have in the past. I work for a public school district.

[createdcreature]

Oracle are going to ruin Open Office.

[Roasted]

Oracle are going to ruin Open Office.

That's fine. They can. It's open source and because of their failure, Libre Office was born.

Gotta love open source. :guitar:

[juancarlospaco]

Latex

[Alwimo]

Somebody I know online told me one of his children said they didn't like the whole "LibreOffice vibe" and preferred OpenOffice.org! I wondered what that was...

I think they're both fine. MS Office 2010 is prettier but they both do what I want. I don't mind the ribbon interface. It's good if you're going through it methodically, doing the different aspects of document creation one after the other, progressing from the first ribbon tab to the last one.

There is one problem with Open Office. Well, LibreOffice, but I think they're the same with this. I customise the toolbars and get rid of some. But when I open the application the next time, an extra toolbar always reappears. I don't know how to get it to stay gone.

[mamamia88]

honestly all i use is word processing and an occasional powerpoint. i'm fine wrtiting in oo but make sure i proof it on office before printing on campus. i just can't get the hang of powerpoint or open off presentation. the basic features that i need get lost on either one of them for me. personally i would love a more streamlined powerpoint app for college students. who only need a few features. any reccomendations? google docs is slow for me on my netbook wtih debian so i don't use it

[prodigy_]

I only use OpenOffice (now LibreOffice). Partly because I deeply loathe the so-called "ribbon" UI.

[Perfect Storm]

I'm using Abiword. a lightweight office application, though it can't as much as Openoffice but cover my needs.

[IWantFroyo]

I use Abiword and Gnumeric, with Google Docs presentations.

It's light, and any piece of it can be swapped out.

[el_koraco]

I only use OpenOffice (now LibreOffice). Partly because I deeply loathe the so-called "ribbon" UI.

I used to use MSO 2003 till about a year ago, when I made the switch to Linux full time. The reason was not wanting to have anything to do with the ribbon interface, which I first saw on a trial version of Office 2007 in 2007. If I was still running Windows, I wouldn't switch from 2003, and if I was still working with documents as much as I was before, I'd insist that people don't send me stuff with docx.

[createdcreature]

I do not like Abiword/Gnumeric, and I hate the ribbon. Open office and Libre Office are old school, and the better for it.

[BrokenKingpin]

I think MS Office is a better, but I still prefer OpenOffice/LibreOffice because it is free and Open Source and does everything I need.