If you buy many computers, then you know that purchasing Microsoft Office for every one of them can get pretty expensive. There are many alternatives, but the key is to find a software package you can easily work with. Open Source development means that there is free office software available. The trick will be finding one that does what you need it to do.
Hands down, people will recommend OpenOffice. This software was originally developed by Sun Microsystems to compete with Microsoft, and it was called StarOffice. The goal was to develop an office software that would work on many operating systems. The package includes a word processor, spreadsheets, presentations, and graphics. Although there are some glitches with saving an OpenOffice document to the Microsoft Office platform, they are minor. The bigger issue will be trying to send OpenOffice documents to someone who isn’t used to seeing them attached to an email.
Most people don’t realize that they will be able to open this software by downloading it and or opening it with their .doc program from Microsoft. However, as this free, and very useable, software catches on, we’ll see the issues with unfamiliarity disappear. In fact, OpenOffice users should notify the recipient that they can open the attached document with Microsoft. Then recommend that the recipient give the software program a try when the buy their next computer.
Open Source software development is one of the greatest movements to come out of the computer age. The idea is to make technology accessible to everyone, from the developers to the users.