Preston Gralla of InfoWorld tests the current beta of OpenOffice 3.0 and asks “Can OpenOffice 3.0 finally replace MS Office?”

Grandiose headline notwithstanding, the article is a useful comparison of the two competitors. Gralla ran into instability and bugs that I have not personally encountered in the Mac version I’ve been testing, but is nevertheless quite impressed:

“If you’re not working in an enterprise that has standardized on Microsoft Office, you should think twice before paying full freight for Office, and give serious consideration to this free alternative when the final version is released.”

In conclusion, Gralla sums up:

“For most of what you use an office suite for, you’ll find that OpenOffice 3.0 will more than fill your needs. Whether you’re creating documents, spreadsheets, or presentations, the suite offers all the basics and much more. There are excellent formatting tools, mail merge, macros, solid charting tools, and the ability to easily create presentations.

“If you’re thinking of switching to OpenOffice from Microsoft Office, expect practically no learning curve. Many keyboard shortcuts are exactly the same, as are many menus and toolbar choices. You’ll be able to import your existing Office documents, and create them in Office formats as well.”

Gralla recommends OpenOffice to home users, students, and small businesses. In my own estimation, at least 90% of current Microsoft Office users could switch to OpenOffice without significant interruption to their work processes.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 20th, 2008 at 8:12 am and is filed under OpenOffice.org. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.