Going head-to-head with Microsoft Office 2007, the latest version of OpenOffice.org touts across-the-board improvements in the software’s word processing, spreadsheet, database, and presentation applications. However, the brightest aspects of OpenOffice.org 2.2, which shipped at the end of March, are its price tag (free) and its impressively broad platform support

OpenOffice.org runs on: Windows, Linux x86 and PowerPC, Solaris x86 and SPARC, Mac OS X and FreeBSD.

Version 2.2 of the OpenOffice.org project’s namesake suite 2.2 has not undergone the same sort of radical user interface overhaul that Microsoft Office 2007 recently underwent, which is both a bad and a good thing. On the bright side, long-time Office users will find this latest OpenOffice.org revision more familiar than Office 2007, but OpenOffice.org could stand to benefit from a dose of the “discoverability” enhancement that marks Microsoft’s new-look release.

During eWEEK Labs’ tests, we noted the improvements in OpenOffice.org’s popular PDF export function, as well as the progress the suite’s Calc spreadsheet application has undergone toward better matching the functionality of Microsoft Excel’s prized pivot table feature.

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.

To read the rest of Tiffany Maleshefski’s eWEEK.com article, go here

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Source: Desktop Linux

~LC

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