MS Office vs Open Office

I have always used MS office . I use Outlook 2007, Excel 2007 and Word.
I rarely use power point unless someone sends me one.
I am a individual doing small business applications occasionally. Excel and word are necessities.
Would you recommend d switching over to Open office?
The reason I ask is because I understand Open office does all MS Office does but it take up much less space and I need more space on my HD.
any advice?
thanks

 

I'd suggest downloading Open Office, it's free.

Try out both suites (especially for compatability) and decide for yourself what's best.

Personally I use Open Office but my requirements are minimal so that package suits me fine.

You may find upgrading your HD is the best option though, it's not that expensive and a fairly simple procedure.

 

seriously, you may gain some hard drive space, but the difference between the two is not really that much and you would likely end up filling that shortly anyway.

I work the other side of the Microsoft Office/Open Office issue.

I see the nightmares Open Office has unintentionally created through its supposed compatibility.
in theory it is, butthen there are the "undocumented features" like bugs and holes.

Open Office may be smaller, but from my observations, it also runs slower, and in some cases a LOT slower, such as Calc (Excel) and Base (Access).

I just got done working a case where a sample sheet was sent to me for an escalated customer because it took forever to open (approx 5-7 minutes).
Sure enough, it did take that long.
I copied the sheets into a fresh and authentic Excel workbook and saved it and closed it.
It then opened up fine.
I sent it back to the customer as fixed.
A week later the same case came back with a new workbook with the same issue.
I fixed it the same way and aksed them wht they think has happened to the workbooks just prior to it starting to take forever to open.
They replied the workbook is created in Open Office Calc and edited in Open Office Calc and then distributed to several users and some of them have Excel and Excel users are having problems from the start.
I suggested they use Excel at the point of creation and for editing, and the problems went away. Turned out to be a certain type of data the Calc does not seem to like in certain quantities.

Unless you're strictly light personal use, I would not suggest it, and for a business, I would not suggest it at all.
Ask yourself this, how much do problems cost, and can your business afford the risk of problems?

If so, give it a shot.
If not, I would not suggest it.

 

I'm with BilbO on this one.

I have both installed (MSOffice 2007 & OpenOffice (latest version) on my main PC and IMHO MS kicks OO. Don't get me wrong I do like OO but MS just works better IMHO. Now I did get a free (legal) license of MS 2007 and didn't have to pay for it but if I did have to pay I would probably just use OO. I also have no problems recommending OO to anybody who asks.

So for someone who does not want to pay for an "Office" suite I recommend OO.

 

I'm with you on this, but as Barcann already has MS Office the cost of switching to OO, not finacially but in man hours (training/learning etc), would probably outweigh the cost of a new larger Hard Drive.

 

Hi wildfire...I do agree with you on that...

Sorry, I missed this point you made and should have answered in my original post that I also agree with you on getting an newer, larger HDD. So, in conclusion , I do agree with you on a newer larger HDD and I do agree with BBilbO on his point on gaining minimal space with removing MS and installing OO. I think we are all agreed...

**Phew** I hope that all made sense...

That last paragraph of mine that you quoted was meant for anybody who read this post and wanted a free office.

 

I am a long-time experimenter with Open Office, having dabbled with it in its pre-1.0 days (its now at version 3), and I have to say that every time I've installed it, I've always heard the same thing: 1. now it is faster, and 2. now our handling of MS Office files is more accurate. I've always found it to be as slow as molasses, and although it can handle basic files (with minimal formatting), the more complicated documents are, the more likely OO is to goof up the file. I've learned the hard way not to create a ppt file in Open Office and try to show it in MS Powerpoint.

I keep waiting for OO to cross that threshold, but my needs/skills keep increasing as well, and the differences at the high end are much greater. I tell my students if all they want is something to type up a term paper on, OpenOffice is great--but the more complex things will cause grief.

Believe it or not, at this point, MS Office is now the sine qua non for operating systems on my computer. If an OS won't run MS Office, I won't bother installing it.

 

Oh No - Not OO

There was a suspect that was very resistant to interrogation and the police were about to give up when the lead detective wheeled in the suspects computer. Looking the suspect directly in the eye the detective said, "We are going to install Open Office on your PCâ€.

The suspect eyes narrowed and he started to sweat.

The detective put a boot disc in the drive.

The suspect said, "OK, OK, I shot the sheriff but I did not shoot the deputy down'â€.