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Product Reviews

Please note that OpenOffice.org does not purchase reprints from magazines which print favourable reviews. Neither do we buy advertising space in magazines which are about to review or which have reviewed OpenOffice.org. If reviewers say that OpenOffice.org is a great product, then that's their genuine, unbiased, uninfluenced opinion.

OOo 2.0 Keynote Review

PC Pro Magazine delivers its verdict on Version 2: Our pick of the low-cost office suites has had a much-needed overhaul, and now battles Microsoft in terms of features, not just price.
OpenOffice.org 2 earns six stars in Issue 135, Jan 06. The magazine's reviewer concludes: OpenOffice certainly doesn't lack features compared to the market leader, and most of its ease-of-use issues stem from people's familiarity with Microsoft Office rather than an inherent problem with the program itself. As such, you should certainly try OpenOffice's offering before donating another UKP100 or more to Microsoft's coffers. After all, it's free.

OOo 2 Reviews

  • OpenOffice.org 2.3 Impresses By Tiffany Maleshefski, November 28, 2007 eWeek.com Review: OpenOffice.org 2.3 sports a nifty set of feature improvements, but the suite's sweetest features remain its low cost (free) and its strikingly broad platform support.
  • Open-source a software alternative Krysten Appelbaum, 10/21/07 College Publisher Network OpenOffice.org is, as the name would suggest, a full open-source suite of office programs. Every program a student ever needs is in here, from a writing program to a presentation creator similar to PowerPoint.
  • Spreadsheets Are Free John Edwards, August 02, 2007 CFO.com Liberated from license fees, Calc can be downloaded and installed on as many PCs as you please.
  • Users' Guide: A free Office alternative? Sweet By Etan Horowitz, Saturday, July 28, 2007 Orlando Sentinel I was able to do virtually everything I could do in Office, such as create pivot tables from spreadsheets and add animations to slides. If you want free software that operates the most like Microsoft Office, this is it.
  • OpenOffice.org 2.2 outstanding free office suite (29/06/2007) IT Reviews Recommended We can't stress enough how impressive this is for a freebie suite. Both Writer and Calc in particular perform admirably compared to full-priced rivals, and Impress and Base are right up there in terms of power and usability.
  • OpenOffice Sports All-Around Improvements By Tiffany Maleshefski June 13, 2007, eWeek.com IT managers looking for alternatives to Microsoft Office—particularly those unwilling to make the leap to Office 2007—will find OpenOffice.org 2.2 well worth evaluating because, as the suite offers a good solution for cutting software costs while expanding platform options and minimizing compatibility issues.
  • OpenOffice free office software suite By Andrew D. Wright Monday February 26, 2007, The ChronicleHerald OpenOffice.org is a completely free Open Source office software suite that not only can read and write to the various commercial office software file formats, but also writes to the now-standard OpenDocument format.
  • Another office By Leslie D'Monte May 24, 2006, Business Standard This Office Suite can give established players a run for their money ... anyone who wants a feature-rich but free office suite should give this option a try.
  • OpenOffice 2.0 By James Dickinson Saturday, 1st of April, 2006 Good Gear Guide Not only is it completely free, it's very useful - an entire suite of programs a la Microsoft Office. Cynics might argue that there's no such thing as a free lunch, but in this case OpenOffice.org 2.0 bucks the trend and emerges as a viable alternative to Bill Gates' product.
  • Microsoft Works Suite 2006 Software Review, February 21, 2006 PC Advisor Home users, small businesses and educational facilities on super-tight budgets are now regarding OpenOffice.org as a valid alternative to the dominance of Microsoft's mighty Office Suites.
  • Free Office software subs well for costly version By Al Fasoldt Sunday, February 19, 2006 Syracuse Post Standard I've been using a free alternative to Office for many years, through a number of revisions. The latest version, called OpenOffice, is exceptional in some ways. Considering the price, it's downright outstanding
  • Open Office a lot like Microsoft product - and free By Nick Francesco - February 19, 2006 Rochester Democrat and Chronicle Open Office (or, as they prefer, OpenOffice.org) is a complete office suite, much like the more familiar Microsoft Office. For those of you who are familiar with Microsoft Office, you'll feel right at home with OpenOffice.org ... Give OpenOffice.org a try. It's free and you can have it loaded on the same computer at the same time as Microsoft Office.
  • The latest OpenOffice comes with new file formats and many new features [PDF, 1336 kB] By Michael Bona Issue 63: February 2006 Linux Magazine All in all, the developers have done a great job with OpenOffice 2.0. This office package can do everything better than its predecessor, just like you would expect of any healthy five-year-old.
  • OpenOffice.org 2.0 Has Edge over Its StarOffice 8 Cousin By Jason Brooks October 21, 2005 eWeek.com eWEEK Labs' tests of OpenOffice.org 2.0 show that it is an excellent office productivity suite option, particularly in the case of Linux distributions, which typically come bundled with a well-integrated version of the suite.
  • Why OpenOffice.org 2.0 Is Your Best Choice By Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols October 20, 2005 eWeek.com OpenOffice.org's price tag: 0. Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003's list price: $499 new, $329 as an upgrade. Day in and day out office usability? For all practical purposes, they're about the same. So, which would you rather 'buy?'

OOo 2.0 previews

  • Migrating to OpenOffice.org 90 per cent cheaper than to Microsoft Office 12 Vol. 11 Issue 23 | 23 September - 6 October 2005 Computer World The industry's two major office suites, Microsoft Office and OpenOffice.org, will soon be releasing new versions. Recent research into these versions by large government departments indicates that for many sites, it is now 10 times cheaper to migrate to the new OpenOffice.org 2.0 than upgrading to Microsoft Office 12.
  • OpenOffice is great alternative to Microsoft by Andy Ihnatko, September 22, 2005 Chicago Sun-Times ...you won't use it because you hate Microsoft or because you don't like tying your whole office's (or your government's) ability to function to the proprietary whims of one single company. Maybe you won't even use it just because it'll cost you $0 to Microsoft Office's $365. You'll use it because OpenOffice 2.0 is an attractive and compelling suite of office apps in its own right.
  • Openoffice.org 09.06.05 PCMag.com Unlike the slow, clunky original version, version 2.0 of this free productivity suite is surprisingly slick and highly compatible with Microsoft Office file formats. It even offers features not found in its expensive Microsoft counterpart.
  • Openoffice.org 2 - a new, improved version that gives Microsoft a run for its money By Cliff Joseph, 22 Jul 2005 Personal Computer World ...there's no doubt version 2 is more than powerful enough for most home and business users and can certainly give Microsoft a run for its money, especially since it's free.
  • Open source moves into Microsoft's Office block By Simon London Published: April 21 2005 03:00 Financial Times The latest incarnation of OpenOffice was last month released for testing by users. Early reviews say it marks a big advance over earlier versions of the free word processing, spreadsheet and presentation package.
  • Looking forward to OpenOffice.org 2.0 Joe Brockmeier, 5 Jan 2003, Linux Weekly News From a test of the 1.9.65 build, it's pretty clear that the OpenOffice.org project has a way to go before it's finished. However, this release does provide a pretty good overview of what to expect, and it does look like 2.0 will be a formidable suite when finished.