Four alternatives to Microsoft Office

Sorry for the spam... but here is my list of nice Free Office Programs! :D

Free Office Programs...

Have you tried OpenOffice?
http://www.openoffice.org/
Or Lotus Symphony?
http://symphony.lotus.com/software/lotus/symphony/home.nsf/home
Or AbiWord?
http://www.abisource.com/
Star Office (which is made by Sun Microsystems - similar to OpenOffice) is available as part of the Free Google Pack
http://pack.google.com/
E-press has a nice Office Suite Demo which is quite functional...
http://www.e-press.com/
or here...
http://easyoffice-freeware.en.softonic.com/
Marcus Schiesser's Easy Office....
http://easyoffice.sourceforge.net/
Gnumeric is Gnome's Free Spreadsheet program...
http://www.gnome.org/projects/gnumeric/

LyX is a document processor that encourages an approach to writing based on the structure of your documents (WYSIWYM), and not simply their appearance (WYSIWYG).
http://www.lyx.org/Home

OpenProj: OpenSource Project management replacement for Microsoft Project
http://www.dzone.com/links/rss/openproj_opensource_replacement_for_microsoft_pro.html

Dia is organisational chart software...
http://live.gnome.org/Dia/Download

and a nice free Accounting package as well...
http://www.turbocash.co.za/
or here...
http://sourceforge.net/projects/turbocash/

Cubit also has a Free Accounting Package and Point of Sale Software...
http://www.cubit.co.za/

and a free Money Manager...Money Manger Ex...
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=163169&package_id=184394&release_id=555079

Here is a list of other Free Productivity Tools!
http://productivity.en.softonic.com/

Free Vector Clipart and Images...
http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/50-websites-for-free-vector-images-download/

Free PDF Tools...
http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/mastering-pdf-80-free-tools-tips-and-resources/

Mind Mapping and Brainstorming Software...
http://www.xmind.net/
What is Mind Mapping?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_map
 
bwana said:
Out of curiosity - Do the same people that believe OpenOffice is as good as Microsoft Office also believe The Gimp is as good as Photoshop?
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I think its BETTER than M$ Office, and no, I think gimp is not better than photoshop as far as I'm concerned, but then it's made by Macromedia not M$

gerhardd said:
What about VBA macro functionality in Excel? I use that extensively, would this work in openoffice?
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VBA is for sissies, OO has very good java and javascript support to start with

Cyberdude said:
Really? ;)
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They might have missed the date slightly on that one :D
 
I just did my ICDL (exams and all), so as a expert (cough cough) in this field I can say a Office Suite is only as good as the user.

MS Office has awesome features and kicks Open Office to the ground, yet I use Open Office at both work, home and my wifes business.

The reason is simple, I want an application that is not OS dependent and with reasonable license fees.

My wife runs her entire accounting system off a spreadsheet yet we could not justify the expense of R3K for a application license (not mentioning another R1500 for the OS).
 
The conversation around Open Source is almost as bad as bandwidth in South Africa. Open Source is a good thing. We all want more of it. Everybody promise real change/features. But somehow it always just fall short.

MS Excel vs. OpenOffice spreadsheet. If you want to play use OO - Excel is just probably one of the best applications in the world (even if Microsoft wrote it). It is fast, the futures just work, lots of rows, lots of columns in the new version. And it is a zillion times faster than OO for 99% of the work. Pulling data from databases is a snap, summarizing and reporting on it fast if you know what you are doing. OO is slow and its user interface will slow down any user.

Microsoft Word vs. Write - complain what you want about the Word grammar checker - AT LEAST IT HAS ONE. It is next to impossible to spent time proofreading every sentence of documentation within tight timelines. The grammer checker helps improve the quality of most documentation. I would not rely on it for a novel though.

Microsoft Visio vs.. .... err. Nothing. Open Source only have dinky toys. If one more person recommend OO Draw then I will strangle that person. I don't want to draw pictures - I want to create models of abstract ideas in a software assisted environment. If you don't know the difference then you haven't modeled before. Dia is a joke.

Why is most open source software so FUGLY? And I have yet to see real innovation from any of the open source office competitors.

Now my comments above will indicate that I don't like open source - the opposite is true. I can't get enough of it. I really just wish I could comfortably switch to open source without taking a huge hit in productivity. It is just not worth it. Most IT professionals get paid by the hour - and frankly most of them will earn Microsoft Windows + Microsoft Office in a week. Some might say it is expensive, but the problem for open source it is that Windows/Office is not expensive enough.
 
The issue with Open Office is they are still trying to catch up to Office 2000. Its done a great job and for a large group of end-users this is great.

But OO3 vs M$O97 - you just cannot compare. M$Office97 is far superior but then again not everybody needs this extra power or even knows howto use.

If M$ ever bothered to make their products for Linux, I would consider it (sucks under Codeweaver). Until then I'm sticking to OO.
 
@Veroland

VBA might be for sissies, but what about a corporation that went to a lot of effort and expense to have a whole batch of excell/word VBA macros written for them? So for them to switch to a free piece of software they need to spend a good couple of K to get the same effect?

Not everyone knows Java or Javascript, remember that for the average office drone Java could just as well be greek (unless they know greek, then substitute any other foreign language of your choice). So if they are faced with a choice of spend R20k to upgrade our 10 pcs to the latest office where or macros still work or spend R50k to go open source and have our macros redone in Java, guess what they gonna pick?
 
Veroland said:
VBA is for sissies, OO has very good java and javascript support to start with
Click to expand...

Okay, I am happy to use java. But, can I do everything in Java that I could in VBA in Excel? Can I connect to databases, call external functions (compiled .dll libraries, like com objects in Excel), manipulate spreadsheet cells etc?
 
cbrunsdonza said:
The issue with Open Office is they are still trying to catch up to Office 2000. Its done a great job and for a large group of end-users this is great.

But OO3 vs M$O97 - you just cannot compare. M$Office97 is far superior but then again not everybody needs this extra power or even knows howto use.

If M$ ever bothered to make their products for Linux, I would consider it (sucks under Codeweaver). Until then I'm sticking to OO.
Click to expand...
I really hope you meant Office 2007 and not Office 97 :D
 
There is a version of OO with VBA support. Look at http://go-oo.org/discover/
It is the version that is supplied with most Linux distro's, and is not compiled by Sun, so have more features. Read on the website for all the features.
Go-oo provides VBA macro support for OpenOffice.org
Click to expand...
 
gerhardd said:
Okay, I am happy to use java. But, can I do everything in Java that I could in VBA in Excel? Can I connect to databases, call external functions (compiled .dll libraries, like com objects in Excel), manipulate spreadsheet cells etc?
Click to expand...

I have with no problems

friedpiggy said:
@Veroland

VBA might be for sissies, but what about a corporation that went to a lot of effort and expense to have a whole batch of excell/word VBA macros written for them? So for them to switch to a free piece of software they need to spend a good couple of K to get the same effect?
Click to expand...

You make a good point, but would a large corporation really rely heavily on macros?
 
Veroland said:
You make a good point, but would a large corporation really rely heavily on macros?
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I have worked for several investment banks, local and international. You would be horrified if you knew the extend of VBA macros used. Thing is, it is great for reporting, pricing, scenario analysis, simulations etc. And most people can easily learn VBA, so more and more code gets added. It is a mess, but there is no other alternative. It is about productivity, vs control.

If, for some reason, VBA should stop working tomorrow, the credit crunch will be nothing compared to the chaos that will ensue...
 
Veroland said:
You make a good point, but would a large corporation really rely heavily on macros?
Click to expand...

All of them. I work in the insurance industry and for all its fancy mainframe systems, Excel is the glue that holds it all together. And there are a million macros that do some pretty advanced things.

Sure everybody tries to get rid of it, but the idea is pretty much like the paperless office. IT projects have a lead time of several months, and cost hundreds of thousands if not millions. Sometimes a quick and dirty Excel macro saves a lot of money, gets the job than in a fraction of the time and manages to give the finger to the internal auditors.
 
gerhardd said:
I have worked for several investment banks, local and international. You would be horrified if you knew the extend of VBA macros used. Thing is, it is great for reporting, pricing, scenario analysis, simulations etc. And most people can easily learn VBA, so more and more code gets added. It is a mess, but there is no other alternative. It is about productivity, vs control.
Click to expand...

Johand said:
All of them. I work in the insurance industry and for all its fancy mainframe systems, Excel is the glue that holds it all together. And there are a million macros that do some pretty advanced things.
Click to expand...

As I mentioned before, there are a version of OO that so support VBA macros. I don't have any excel files with macros, so maybe you guys can test it?
 
gerhardd said:
I have worked for several investment banks, local and international. You would be horrified if you knew the extend of VBA macros used. Thing is, it is great for reporting, pricing, scenario analysis, simulations etc. And most people can easily learn VBA, so more and more code gets added. It is a mess, but there is no other alternative. It is about productivity, vs control.

If, for some reason, VBA should stop working tomorrow, the credit crunch will be nothing compared to the chaos that will ensue...
Click to expand...

As far as some of the reporting/predicting in managment works yes, however I am currently working in one of the "BIG 4" and all the hard data and reports are kept on the host. There will be chaos if VBA has to dissapear, but I don't think it will catastrophic.
 
Nod said:
As I mentioned before, there are a version of OO that so support VBA macros. I don't have any excel files with macros, so maybe you guys can test it?
Click to expand...

Why? In the big corporations I don't pay for Excel and I certainly are not going to waste time and money trying to "test" OpenOffice. My only conclusion would be that it worked for a specific case or it didn't. Full deployment of OpenOffice will require several hundred years of man-power. Compatibility is not a "yes"/"no" thing because all of the spreadsheets will need to be tested and a lot of them are pretty esoteric in their use of Excel functionality.

The only way to migrate is to keep using Excel but a standard file format (like ODF) must be mandated and deadlines be set for its use (governments are actually quite good at this - better than corporations funny enough). Only after all the spreadsheets are using the new file format can you change one spreadsheet software implementation with another - because you work against a standard and not a version specific implementation.

This is happening in governments around the world - it will be a few years before private industry catches up.
 
Johand said:
The only way to migrate is to keep using Excel but a standard file format (like ODF) must be mandated and deadlines be set for its use (governments are actually quite good at this - better than corporations funny enough). Only after all the spreadsheets are using the new file format can you change one spreadsheet software implementation with another - because you work against a standard and not a version specific implementation.
Click to expand...

Why, OpenOffice happily reads Excel files, even the new format.
 
Johand said:
Why? In the big corporations I don't pay for Excel and I certainly are not going to waste time and money trying to "test" OpenOffice. My only conclusion would be that it worked for a specific case or it didn't. Full deployment of OpenOffice will require several hundred years of man-power. Compatibility is not a "yes"/"no" thing because all of the spreadsheets will need to be tested and a lot of them are pretty esoteric in their use of Excel functionality.
Click to expand...

Just wanted to know if it actually works (VBA support), not trying to convert you to OO. If you don't want to know, that's fine too ;)
 
Veroland said:
Why, OpenOffice happily reads Excel files, even the new format.
Click to expand...

Make that "OpenOffice happily reads SOME Excel files. Compatibility is not a yes/no thing.

Just wanted to know if it actually works (VBA support), not trying to convert you to OO. If you don't want to know, that's fine too
Click to expand...

Sorry - misunderstood you. Version 2 allows you to open VBA but all code is commented out - if you want to convert to StarBasic it is up to you. Apparently a Novell version of OpenOffice distributed with SuSe has got excellent support (I guess the agreement between them allowed that even if it offended the Stallman's of the world). OpenOffice 3 has some rudimentary support. Short answer - if you know VBA and want to automate stuff in OO then you can (with StarBasic). If you already automated your stuff in Excel and want to convert to OO you are on shakier ground.
 
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