In recent years, open-source alternatives to Office have matured to the point where IT managers are beginning to investigate the viability of moving from the Microsoft Corp. suite to a license-free alternative.
Working with Microsoft Office you can appreciate the Task Pane - an interface feature that lets users carry out operations related to the document at hand, such as using the thesaurus while working on a Word document.

As for OpenOffice.org, you are able to launch any of the suite's document types from the application you are using. Another advantage is that you have all the OpenOffice.org application instances available from the Window tool bar menu item. The Window item in Office's apps, in contrast, shows only open instances of like applications.

OpenOffice.Org Suite Considerations

Pros
- No licensing costs As a free-software project, OpenOffice.org has no licensing.
- Good integration among suite applications For example, you are able to create new spreadsheet documents from within the word processor application.
- Variety of export options OpenOffice.org ships with PDF export capabilities, as well as support for saving presentations in Flash format.

Cons
- File-format compatibility issues Although OpenOffice.org does a good job of handling Microsoft Office file formats, small formatting inconsistencies will require reworking of complex documents.
- Lack of traditional support Office suites typically do not require much vendor support, but the fact that OpenOffice.org is an open-source project means software support must come from the community, generally spread out across various Web sites and newsgroups.
- Interface differences OpenOffice.org is similar to Microsoft Office in its design, but users will need some time to grow accustomed to differences between the two.

Microsoft Office Suite Considerations

Pros
- Familiarity Most knowledge workers use some version of Microsoft Office already, and an upgrade to a new version of Office presents the flattest learning curve.
- File-format compatibility Microsoft Office file formats are de facto standards, and no rival suite handles these proprietary formats as well as Office does.
- Advanced features Microsoft Office has more features and capabilities than competing suites. Although many users do not require or use much of this functionality, advanced users, particularly of spreadsheets, often find it vital.

Cons
- High licensing costs Microsoft Office licenses are priced at a few hundred dollars each—a cost that can be difficult to justify when your users require only basic productivity suite functionality.
- Advanced features require latest versions Some of the most compelling features added to the last two versions of Office—such as extensible smart tags, document protection and Smart Document creation—are not backward-compatible with earlier versions of the suite.

Open-source office suites such as the OpenOffice.org project's OpenOffice.org have the best chance of eroding Microsoft's stronghold in small and midsize businesses, where paying licensing fees for Office may not make financial sense.
At larger sites, however, volume licensing significantly mitigates the cost savings of open source, making the move from Microsoft Office far less attractive.

Helpero recomands OpenOffice.org. You can get it from here.

written by Robert M.