Friday, October 21, 2005

OpenOffice.org 2.0!

Version 2.0 of the free, open-source office suite, OpenOffice.org, is out. I've used only OpenOffice (instead of, say, Microsoft's Office Suite) for years. Not only is it stable, powerful, and full-featured, but its compatibility with programs like Microsoft's makes it a viable alternative.

But it just got even better: OpenOffice.org has become the first office suite to integrate--as default--the OASIS open document standards. Governments and businesses are finally recognizing that open standards are a better way to ensure public access to documents that may outlast the proprietary formats of one dominant software company or another.

Go download yourself a copy of OpenOffice.org. That will at least matter to the hegemon.

3 comments:

Eric Gordy said...

I'm just downloading the monster now -- haven't tried it yet, still waiting for it to download. But I have high hopes that it could solve the issue that has plagued me as a Mac user, that the Mac version of MS Word does not support Unicode, which limits the number of languages one can read and write in.
My question: how has your experience been with sending files to other people and opening the files they send to you?

barba de chiva said...

Eric figured this one out before I could respond--I should have mentioned NeoOffice (the OSX version), which is at 1.1, and which also works wondefully.

Here's Eric's post with tips for the unicode-curious:

http://eastethnia.blogspot.com/2005/10/open-source-unicode-everything.html

Eric Gordy said...

Sorry, I misidentified you as Helmut. I'll fix that. Should have learned better at Cabrillo College.