[markedmannerf]

Use it all the time! It works great! Just as good as microsoft office.

[mudblood]

I use it, but I’ve had some folks complain that they can’t open my documents with office. Not sure why, or if this is the experience of other office users. I know I like to write sometimes, and it works better than notepad.

[Doug TX]

I own MS office. I’ve used open office on other computers and recommend without reservation.

[KoRn]

I use it.

It’s just as good as MS Office, if not better, and doesn’t cost a thing.

[joseph20]

"When did it switch from free to member fee based?"

Never. It has never been member fee based. Open Office has been and always will be FREE OPEN-SOURCE SOFTWARE.

[martin_fierro]

6 Free Office Suites That Are NOT Microsoft

[Paperpusher]

Yes.

It’s great, doing most anything microsoft will do.

It’s still free.

[steve0]

I got it free, it works for me. It is fine for all simple to moderately complex office productivity tasks. For upper end stuff you may want a linux type person to support you or a more commercial product that has so much more documentation sources. Money to Gates goes to Americans, right?

[Nervous Tick]

It’s still a free download. I use it quite a bit (although I use MS office more). Example: installed “Impress” for Mrs. Tick so she can use PowerPoint the two times a year she needs it.

Slow to launch, IMO. There are a few quirks with some of the programs (example: the “drawing” features in Impress.) But for free???!? Who’s complaining?

[taxcontrol]

I use writer, impress and calc on a regular basis. Very much the same look an feel as MS Office with some minor differences. The only real caution is how you save the file format as native open document formats are not yet readable by MS Office. So there might be an extra “step” of asking the receiver of the file what extension they use on their spreadsheets, documents, etc.

Other than that ... works great!

[VanDeKoik]

Have to use it at work.

It is slow, confusing, and not structured very well.

But it’s free.

[CriticalJ]

Use it home and work.

I have installed it on several relative and friend pcs.

If you need something to mimic MS Office, you can switch some defaults to make it save as office files.

[KingTurnip]

I use OOO often, but I have found that in Vista it will occasionally freak out, crash, and devour my system resources. Not often enough for me to stop using it (and I do a lot of writing,) but often enough to frustrate me when it happens.

On the plus side, the document recovery is fantastic, and I don't lose any work when it decides to not play nice.

[Brown Deer]

We use it here and it's free.

[Brown Deer]

I also highly recommend GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program).

[pvoce]

I use it on my linux laptop, and it works great! I’ve used it since it was known as “Star Office”, that was before Sun Corp bought it out.

Also free is Abiword, but OOO is the full suite of appilcations - including a database

[paudio]

The Word equivalent is okay. If you simply want to use it for writing without any other add-ons (e.g., Endnote, MathType), then it’s fine. The powerpoint equivalent is not quite there yet, especially the interface between them. File created in one may look different when you use the other.

[krb]

I have tried to use OpenOffice on my mac and I think it totally sux. half the time it won’t even start up. it causes X11 to start up, then times out.

Had to uninstall it.

[prophetic]

yeah I use it at work and its ok and best of all - its FREE!!

While saving the files you create you can always save it in a older microsoft office format.

[backhoe]

I use it on both home PC’s, and like it well. My wife however, swears “you have to know Microsoft Works to work in any office...”

Then again, I miss Volkswriter...