Microsoft Office
-Office 2003 Standard Edition: $399.99 (at CompUSA)
-Office 2003 Standard Edition Upgrade: $239.99
-Created by one of the most evil companies ever to smear the Earth (Microsoft)
-Closed source
-An End-User License Agreement that allows Bill Gates to eat your babies.
OpenOffice.org
-OpenOffice 1.1: $0 (
www.openoffice.org)
-OpenOffice 1.1 Upgrade: $0
-Created by a less evil company (Sun)
-Open source
-Licensed under the LGPL (allows Richard Stallman to allow other people to eat your babies)
I've been using MSOffice and (occasionally) WordPerfect Office for years. I just tried the new version of OpenOffice 1.1, and so far, it's done everything I need. It opens MSOffice documents without a hitch, with only minor, occsaional quirks in the conversion. It also saves files as MSOffice with only a few minor problems.
So far, it has had every feature I've needed. And it's free. And it's open-source. And it's multi-platform. I'll take it.
Anybody else tried it yet? Problems?