The usability is about the same as Office, but without the bloat. And with no hint of Clippy. Recently I even tried putting MySQL database fields into a document, and it didn't take long to figure it out.
>>The (OOo) usability is horrible compared to commercial alternatives.<<
Give me some examples. The ONLY one I know of is the lack of a format painter in Word that doesn't exist in the version of OO that I have. Oh, and envelope printing might also be a problem for some users.
What else? My law firm has gone completely to OO and we won't be buying MS Office in the future.