Office Software Shootout is an article/post on Linux.com that compares the latest versions of OpenOffice.org Writer (2.3) and MS Office Word (2007) across several categories.
The result? Each program has strengths and weaknesses, but the reviewer concludes that OpenOffice.org comes out ahead.
My take on the results: I have not used either of the versions reviewed (I use OO.org 2.2.1 at home and via a flash drive Portable Apps package, and MS Office 2003 at work), but prefer OO.org for most tasks. Access still clearly beats out Base, but Base is good enough that I see that changing within a couple of upgrades.
The best part: OO.org is free. Download it, install it, and do whatever you need. Want to put it on all of your public access machines? Go ahead, there’s no charge. Staff machines? Same thing. Give it away to your patrons? Public relations!
The document converters work fine 99.9% of the time (letting you open, edit and save .doc and .xls files) and the learning curve isn’t too bad (especially considering that Microsoft changed many things in Office 2007, giving that program a similar learning curve). If you decide that you don’t like it, then go ahead and purchase another product.
