MS office replacement

davemc

My bro. is thinking about changing from M$ office to something else...and maybe the OS in the future but for the mo. just office and he was asking me for some suitable replacements......Sun office seems to be the likely choice but he also needs a mail client and all the trimmings as this is going into an office environment.....any thoughts on this??...suggestions??......his main concern is compatability and ease of use...surely comebody has been in the same boat before...I'm interested in the nightmare problems they had or the seemless integration of using something else......
regards..

DeadBankClerk

www.openoffice.org

Pimp Ninja

Star Office is another one, quite good, at the start. I havnt had enough time to give it a good look, but what I've seen of it was brilliant.

I believe that the latest version does cost money, but older versions are just as functional, and free... Or so I believe.

dahamsta

Unless your brother is willing to experiment, the two that have been mentioned are pretty much it for mainstream, popular office suites on Windows. That said, they're extremely good suites with good support for Microsoft Office formats, and definitely worth a try.

Since Sun's StarOffice is effectively OpenOffice.org with a few addons, my advice would be to download and try OpenOffice.org, and then compare it to StarOffice to see if you need the extra functionality offered by the commercial package.

adam

GoneShootin

i too recommend openoffice

you'll find it on the July 2002 edition of LINUX Format (DVD)

Jaden

Openoffice is now the standard installed office suite in our company. 1.1 beta with inbuilt PDF export is a God Send. Just use the latest HP drivers for printers, and yer laughing.

davemc

Well guys...many thanks for the options offered.....having spoken at length to him about this I feel the biggest problems M$ competitors have is getting people to experiment........I have discovered that he is wary of experimenting and feels that "if it aint broken why fix it".. but with about 17 workstations it would deffinately pay to fix it......I'll try out sun office and see what the degree of compatability is..but by all accounts it seems to be spot on.....I'll let ya know how he gets on...regards..

Ronan|Raven

Originally posted by DeadBankClerk
www.openoffice.org

Agreed, a very nice alternative to MS Office. Bit of configuring and ya can set it up to save as MS file types by default.

Dun

OpenOffice is really good. Big progression from the days of StarOffice and its annoying integrated desktop.

dahamsta

Originally posted by dun_do_bheal
OpenOffice is really good. Big progression from the days of StarOffice and its annoying integrated desktop.

I never tried it on Linux, but boy was it awful on Windows. Took over the machine almost completely. I couldn't get rid of it fast enough!

adam

Spunog UIE

nice link must give it a go.

Downloadin now on the trusty 56k la la la.

LastIrishMonkey

i use both Microsoft and Corel Wordperfect there both as good i use two for college, very good indeed:rolleyes:

DeadBankClerk

On a tangent, i was reliably informed that since Sun have begun to charge for SunOffice, instead of offering it for free, usage has increased.

OpenOffice wins my pants though, because it is free as in beer and free as in speech!

davemc

The brother doesn't mind paying a few quid but doesn't want to get something that means large elements of retraining......and excellent compatability with the usual suspects (word docs/excel etc..) is a must.....If sun office delivers the goods I think it works out at about €50 which if it works is excellent.....but I keep ya informed...regards.