IBM To Offer Free Office Software In Challenge To Microsoft

Information Week ^ | September 18, 2007 | Paul McDougall

[NYer]

Free download here .

[Moose4]

Hmmmm. I may have to check this out. I wonder if the current version has any significant advantages over Open Office 2.2, which is what I’m running now?

}:-)4

[tfecw]

"IBM is calling the suite "enterprise-grade productivity software" and points out that it's based on many of the same tools found in its pricey Lotus Notes 8 e-mail and collaboration platform. "

Ugh. I would like to say 'I wouldn't use Lotus Notes even if you paid me,' But i do get paid to use it. Well, I get paid and I have to use it :)

[expatpat]

I’m not sure why this is needed. Open Office is free and works pretty well, in MS Office format as well as its own.

[djf]

I was so-so with RedHat.

Ubuntu sucked rocks.

I very much like, I mean alot, the latest Knoppix distro. Now I just gotta figure out a way to get it bootable on disk instead of the CD! Who’da thunk it!

[ghostrider]

check later

[stainlessbanner]

ping

[FreePaul]

I've used Open Office off and on for several years. It did everything that I needed in word processing and spreadsheet functions. In addition the price was very attractive. I still have it on some computers. I don't know why anyone would buy a word processor or spreadsheet program unless they needed some very high end capabilities.

I have Office 2007 Pro but haven't opened it. I understand that MS has changed the file system in Office 2007. That may make it difficult to interchange files with Open Office but that will probably be worked out.

[madison10]

:D

As soon as I saw “free software” in the headline I was in. Thanks for the link.

[bobsatwork]

Open Office 2.2, which is what I’m running now.... Just curious, if you send a document created in Open Office, does the recipient need special software to read it?

[laotzu]

download

[Moose4]

Ugh, if they’ve contaminated this thing with Notes cooties, no thanks. :) I am stuck using Notes on our client site and everybody HATES it. The client is switching to Outlook and Exchange fairly soon, so while they’ll be wide open to spam and viruses, at least the user interface’ll be better, right? :)

}:-)4

[Syberyenta]

I used a product called Lotus Symphony for DOS years and years ago. They must be re-using the copyrighted name

I found Open Office to be slow: what do you guys think?

MS Office 2007 has a new file format, incompatible with even previous Office programs (but you can choose to work in the ‘old’ format) And they removed the menus in favor of a Ribbon, which my fingers and I find quite distressing.

[Moose4]

Not really. I can save it in Word’s .doc format or in any number of other formats like RTF. I’ve moved documents in and out of OpenOffice in .doc format and never had much of a problem with it—although I’ve never tried anything really complex.

}:-)4

[P8riot]

Thanks fer the link

[bobsatwork]

I can save it in Word’s .doc format..... OK. Thanks.

[LiteKeeper]

I downloaded and installed yesterday. I will let you all know what I think - but it is promising.

[sionnsar]

Your Knoppix LiveCD doesn't have an "install to disk" option?

I used Knoppix for a while a few years ago, and installed it that way.

I use Kubuntu now. I think Knoppix uses KDE, same as Kubuntu -- a bit different from Ubuntu.

[RolandBurnam]

I use the openoffice that came with SUSE and it works for me editing docs I need to.