Document, Spreadsheet, Database Suite Freeware Review

Okay, I got off to a rough start getting the motivation to write the actual first evaluation blog. I decided to evaluate the OpenOffice.org Suite. This is basically an alternative to Microsoft Office Suite. MS Office 2007 has various versions pricing from $400.00 to $680.00 per Microsoft Office product website. You get a suite of 6 applications with OpenOffice.org suite. Writer which is similar to MS Word, Calc is similar to Excel, Impress is similar to PowerPoint, Draw is similar to Visio, Base is similar to Access and Math which is an application designed to create mathematical formulas. All this for free??? YES! This application is run under the GNU Lesser General Public License which means its free to download, use, modify and distribute. Not only that but the download is pretty painless as long as you have broadband, 128 MB downloads in no time. The setup is MSI based which means its pretty easy. The best part is you can save your documents as .doc files, your spreadsheet files as xls, and your slide presentations as .ppt. It doesn't appear that OpenOffice.org suite has incorporated the new .docx and .xlsx file format that is native to MS Office 2007. You have to understand that the GUI and other minor functions may not be as smooth as MS Office, however, the price outweighs the negative aspects of this application. I give this application a big thumbs up, download and install it. You can download your copy at http://download.openoffice.org/index.html. This is a great Windows freeware catch!