OpenOffice.org 2.0, an open source office suite, has been released providing serious competition to Microsoft Office and OpenOffice XML. Some
governments have put a priority on open source software and Massachusetts has rejected Microsoft's OpenOffice XML, which has helped OpenOffice.org
2.0 gain footing in the battle to become the most popular office suite in the world. OpenOffice.org 2.0 is described as a mature program by expert
Tim Bray, a creator of XML.
www.informationweek.com
An open-source group Thursday launched the final version of OpenOffice.org 2.0, a free application suite that's drawn attention from governments
interested in breaking away from Microsoft's office application bundles.
OpenOffice.org 2.0, which has been in development for more than two years and recently delayed by some last-minute bugs, can now be downloaded from
the Web in versions for Windows, Linux, and Solaris. A native Mac OS X edition is still being ported.
"OpenOffice.org is on a path toward being the most popular office suite the world has ever seen," claimed Jonathan Schwartz, the chief executive of
Sun Microsystems, in a statement.
Sun and OpenOffice.org are linked by the code on which the suite is based. In 2000, Sun, which a year earlier had acquired a German company that
developed StarOffice, released the code as the OpenOffice.org project. The two continue to share code, with Sun's StarOffice -- version 8 went final
in late September -- sold commercially with bundled support.
Please visit the link provided for the complete story.
For my purposes, the Microsoft Works suite "works" for me, but when I needed more power to create documents, I was partial to Word Perfect, finding
Microsoft Office to be a pale and annoying shadow. I was very disappointed when my employer adopted Office over Word Perfect. Now, however, with the
availability of this free version, I might just be lured away from the lean but adequate Works. At any rate, it's good news for those who don't
like Microsoft and those who prefer free anything to anything costing money.
[edit on 2005/10/21 by GradyPhilpott]