Microsoft and others move over; another giant killer is coming to town. The “open source” movement is now gaining wider acceptance and challenging your dominance and high prices by providing competitive software either for free, or a nominal charge. “Open source” means that the programming code is available such that anyone can access the code and write new software, and accessories to supplement the original code. Open source is not new, and there is much software available, but it is only fairly recently that the open source movement has made it to the main stream, and is no longer only of interest to geeks and nerds. As name-brand software often remains expensive, in some cases prohibitively expensive, free and inexpensive open source programs start to appear more attractive. Open source is a maturing area improving rapidly, such that in terms of quality and features, open source software is now seriously rivaling the commercial leaders.
Open source code is being used for the popular operating system Linux, and the free and very popular Firefox browser (www.mozilla.org) now competing with Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. Firefox has an open source companion product, Thunderbird, which is a very capable competitor to Microsoft’s Outlook, also available for free download from the Mozilla website.
Open source software may become even more mainstream as the newly released “OpenOffice” version 2.0 becomes widely used, and continues to battle head to head with Microsoft Office. While lacking some of the polish of Microsoft Office, OpenOffice is available for free download from www.openoffice.org, and is available in formats that will run on Windows, Mac OS X (X11), GNU/Linux, and Sun Solaris. OpenOffice is also currently available in 36 languages, which obviously has international appeal. For those unwilling to download the large files necessary to install OpenOffice (up to 90 Megs, depending on version), it is also available on CDs for a nominal fee; I found OpenOffice 2.0 listed on Amazon for about $14 with free shipping. In the spirit of open source, almost anyone can apply to distribute OpenOffice on CD, which will obviously enhance the distribution of the software. For those concerned about the legalities of the software in terms of licenses and intellectual property rights, the OpenOffice.org website says, “… you may download OpenOffice.org Version 2 completely free of any licence (sic) fees, use it for any purpose– private, educational, government and public administration, commercial – and pass on copies free of charge to family, friends, students, employees, etc.”
The newly released OpenOffice version 2 is intended to be a comprehensive suite of office products which will appeal to home users, businesses, and educational institutions who desire a full featured and compatible suite of office products that can read and write files in most of the popular formats. Current users of office suites will find it quite easy to use OpenOffice 2.0 as the menus, appearance, and commands are very similar to those used in Microsoft Office, Corel WordPerfect Suite, Lotus SmartSuite, and other comprehensive office products, with a near-zero learning curve to use OpenOffice. To insure compatibility with most existing data formats as well as future formats, OpenOffice implements the new international standard “OASIS” format. According to the OpenOffice.org website, this standardized format, which will also be incorporated in the upcoming Microsoft Office 12, is referred to as “OpenDocument”. “OpenDocument is a genuine vendor-neutral, open-standard specification free from intellectual property encumbrances. All developers are free to work with it.” For those already using a word processor, database, spread sheet, or other office software, OpenOffice 2.0 can read and write almost all data formats including MS Word “Doc”.
OpenOffice 2.0 is full featured including a word processor “Writer”, the “Calc” spreadsheet, “Impress” presentation utility, “Draw” graphic utility, and the “Base” database program.
“Writer” has all of the features a user will expect in a comprehensive word processor, including “… embedded illustrations, cross-references, tables of contents, indexes, bibliographies... Auto-complete, auto-format, and real-time spelling check …” Personally, I have three other suites on my computer (Microsoft, Corel, and Lotus), and found Writer to be every bit as easy to use as the commercial competitors, and could not find any meaningful features that were missing from Writer.
The spreadsheet “Calc” is a complete spreadsheet offering dozens of integral formulas, two- and three-dimensional graphics, database sort functions, automated charts of several variations, statistical analysis, and other intelligent features. One thing I especially like about Calc is the “Natural Language” function, where simple terms (such as “sales”) may be used in the formulas, instead of the more traditional cell address (such as “D6”), which can still be used when needed. For those who have used other spreadsheets, Calc can import and write data in most of those formats, including the Microsoft Excel format.
Impress is a first-class presentation manager, easily capable of preparing professional appearing presentations. In addition to the traditional presentation features available on the competing products, Impress also offers animations and other slide show features, as well as the ability to create 3-D images. Impress can also read and write Microsoft’s PowerPoint format, allowing easy importing and exporting of files. Presentations created in Impress can also be saved as Flash (.swf) presentation viewable on almost any browser, complete with animations and sound.
Draw is a powerful graphics package allowing for simple or complex graphics to be easily created and edited. Draw can read and write most popular graphics formats, including BMP, GIF, JPEG, PNG, TIFF, and WMF. Images created can also be animated and saved in the Flash (.swf) format.
Base is the database utility integrated with OpenOffice. Databases can be created or maintained using wizards, design views, or SQL views, and offers options for users at all levels from novice to expert. In terms of compatibility, according to OpenOffice.org, “BASE supports many popular databases database natively (Adabas D, ADO, Microsoft Access, MySQL), or any database through industry-standard ODBC and JDBC drivers. It also supports any LDAP compliant address book, as well as common formats such as Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Windows, and Mozilla.”
One feature that I found particularly impressive with the entire suite is the ability to create industry standard PDF files as a print option available within each program, without the need to have an exterior PDF utility. Since PDF is universally accepted as a readable format, this feature enhances the attractiveness of OpenOffice.
Since it is available as a free (but large) download, and inexpensively on CD, and can be distributed freely without traditional license restrictions, OpenOffice is an excellent alternative to the pricey commercial competitors. I strongly suggest that OpenOffice be obtained, and tried. If budgets are tight, such as often experienced by students, small businesses, and non-profit agencies, OpenOffice may be an ideal solution.
SCREEN SHOTS FOR DOWNLOAD:
Listing and samples for all components
Write Word processor
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