By George Norman - Software News Editor
Added on 22 Oct 2008(560 Views)
OpenOffice (the free version of Microsoft Office, for those of you that are not familiar with it) has been around for three years now. During this time the software has gotten better and better. As of last week version 3.0 of this rather popular piece of software is available for download.

It is in fact so popular that over 3 million people have downloaded it in just one week. The software was officially released on the 13th of October – a sign of bad luck if you ask me, considering the fact that the download site got so many hits that it crashed. It's no wonder, since the install file weighs in at 127MB. As a matter of fact, two days later the site still had problems supplying the software.


What does the latest installment of OpenOffice have to offer? Well, here is a quick list: it can be used on Windows as well as Mac, Linux, Solaris, IRIX and OS/2; ODF 1.2 support; docx and xlxs support, works faster; is better suited to run on Vista. But the best feature of OpenOffice 3.0 is the fact that it is free. Just think about it for a second – 3 million people that are using it for free equals three million people that did not pay Microsoft for a similar product. It all adds up to a considerable amount if you bare in mind that Microsoft Office will set you back between $149 and $679.

To my mind, there is no competition here. Let's take a minute to compare the two:
- You can use OpenOffice 3.0 no matter what OS you are running; Microsoft Office on the other hand works on Windows and MacOS X, but the Mac version does not come with Outlook and Access).
- Both products perform in a similar fashion, but OpenOffice is a lot simpler to use.
- OpenOffice is freeware, while MSOffice will set you back a pretty penny.

It doesn't bode well for Microsoft's product, as you can clearly see from the comparison.





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