http://www.openoffice.orgYes, you read that right! OpenOffice is an open source alternative to Microsoft Office, delivered to you with free open license. I've started using it for a couple of days, and from what I can see, it can do exactly the entire Microsoft Office Suite can. Of course, certain features are propriety to Microsoft, but being open source, it means third party could create application or add new features that could simply be integrated into you application.
The application suite includes:
i. Writer - equivalent to Word. Could use any Word document files, template and so on.
ii. Calc - equivalent to Excel.
iii. Draw - almost comparable to CorelDraw or any graphics editing software. Basically a doped up version of Microsoft Paint.
iv. Impress - equivalent to Powerpoint.
v. Base - a database processing/management application (which I doubt we'd ever use).
I've started using it, and it seems a great alternative to Microsoft Office. It has garnered support from the open community, and have been commended in several computer magazines. Consider me converted!
Now, I know students don't usually have much money to spend on software (ahem!), especially in these dark days. At the same time, as an academic community, we preach originality and respect over copyright ownership. Now we have a great alternative to Microsoft Office at no cost at all! I urge students to try this application and report back to me. If successful, I would recommend the department to move towards this application right away.
We already utilized free Google Sketchup. Now free OpenOffice. If only the Draw application could rival CorelDraw or Adobe Illustrator, all we need to buy is Microsoft Windows
.
Download and install it now. Only 142MB.
