Microsoft Word Alternative??

Discussion in 'other software & services' started by bgfalconboy, Aug 12, 2008.

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  1. KookyMan

    KookyMan Registered Member

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    I'm interested to see how Open Office v3 does. It's currently in Beta 2....

    Might be worth some bugs to try it out.
     
  2. mercurie

    mercurie A Friendly Creature

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    nomarjr3,
    while I understand what you are saying there are some who just don't need to fork over all that money to type a letter, book report or school paper. Open Office is more of a movement by a group that feels there should be a MS compatible product without being forced to buy MS program. It certainly should be more affordable.

    I refer you back to the original post. Note what the question is. Not only do I agree but think Open Office is the right choice. ;)
     
  3. Chuck57

    Chuck57 Registered Member

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    Frankly, if I hadn't got Office Ultimate for free for participating in the Microsoft thing, I'd have OO on this laptop.

    Word has a grammar checker that's pretty good. It isn't perfect by any means, but it comes in handy sometimes. I don't need it enough to spend the kind of money Office costs, though. But for free, you betcha I'll take MS Office.
     
  4. Arup

    Arup Guest


    OO has Language Tool extension which does the same.
     
  5. jrmhng

    jrmhng Registered Member

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    MS Office and Photoshop are ****ing expensive. Students like myself just cant afford it. We have to resort to OpenOffice and GimpShop.
     
  6. Arup

    Arup Guest

    Hungaker,

    Have you tried the free Paint.Net?
     
  7. KookyMan

    KookyMan Registered Member

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    If your a student, check out this posting that I put in another thread.

    https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showpost.php?p=1299252&postcount=2

    Basically if your a student there is a version of MS Office Ultimate for $59. Thats the $600 version for $60. You can't beat that to stay legit. That thread also has other software that students can download for free (different site) such as MS Visual Studio and MS Windows Server 2K3.
     
  8. sosaiso

    sosaiso Registered Member

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    The problem with the other options is that once you convert over sometimes your formatting and your macros are thrown completely off.

    While they're great if you stay in their native format, I have had many problems with Open Office's and other office suites that are on my linux machine when opening files made in MS Office or vice versa.

    While not deal breakers for most, if you're looking to do this in a MS Office business environment, then there really aren't that may options out there.
     
  9. nomarjr3

    nomarjr3 Registered Member

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    That's the problem with most open source programs.
    They tend to be buggy and incompatible.

    Yes, indeed it is good that community people can alter the source code to provide patches and stuff.
    But overall, the industry standard programs (most which are closed source) are still better.

    Only Firefox and a handful of open source programs were able to stand out from the fray.
     
  10. Pedro

    Pedro Registered Member

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    nomarjr3: you're confusing standards with market domination. And confusing buggy and incompatible. Yes, OO is not completely compatible with .doc, etc. -read proprietary and closed formats- but it's not OOs' fault.
    That's it. End of story. ;)
     
  11. jrmhng

    jrmhng Registered Member

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    No I haven't but I don't do much graphical editing any more. Thanks for the suggestion though.

    Yes I've heard about that. Will be getting it when it comes out. Thanks for the mention.
     
  12. nomarjr3

    nomarjr3 Registered Member

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    What would happen if EVERY software becomes open source?
    Just think about it.
    There'd be no competition whatsoever.

    Market domination?
    What are you talking about?
    Microsoft didn't become an industry leading company in a day.
    They worked their butts out to make programs that are efficient and useful for the average joe. Not much need for technical know-how to use their programs.
    And most people are satisfied with them.
     
  13. Pedro

    Pedro Registered Member

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    You're bringing into discussion all things that don't matter in this thread.
    I stopped discussing things in this manner, and those ridiculous over-generalizations.
    I'm talking, had you actually read the post, about confusing things. As above, i'm not going into MS's history.
     
  14. nomarjr3

    nomarjr3 Registered Member

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    o_O
    Anyway, fine with me.
     
  15. mercurie

    mercurie A Friendly Creature

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    ...And how many average joes can afford it.

    I am not against MS making money, but how about making it more affordable. If the product is truly a good one, you can make it up in volume. If you dominate as in monopoly then you don't need to care so much about the price take it or leave it. But I think I agree we are drifting a little off topic. So I guess I am done too. ;)
     
  16. Arup

    Arup Guest


    Absolutely right, same sad plight goes for the lack of IM video clients in Linux. Its all about proprietary closed formats, sort of exclusive club.
     
  17. LenC

    LenC Registered Member

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    I agree. I purchased home/student version of Office. I use those programs every day and will do so for years. It seems to me the $120 (approx) that I paid for it is peanuts. The programs work, are stable, and I know I can exchange files with a gazillion other people who also work in the Office file formats.

    Why does everyone love to hate Microsoft?
     
  18. Kerodo

    Kerodo Registered Member

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    When I bought this new Vista PC a month ago, I also bought Office 2007 Home/Student version for $99 at Fry's, gives me Word, Excel and Powerpoint. Then I spent another $110 on Outlook cause I love Outlook more than anything else. So for only $200, I got all I need, latest and greatest, and it does it all. I personally much prefer the MS products.

    But that said, there is absolutely nothing wrong with competition and free alternatives, which is the subject of this whole thread. OO is great, especially for the price. It would be a sad world if there were no alternatives and no free software. I think the same for Linux as well. I for one am happy that it's there.. It tends to keep the big guys honest, at least to some degree. ;)
     
  19. Arup

    Arup Guest


    No one hates MS but don't you think with the price they charge for the OS the least they could have done is given a decent WP with spell check and all the viewers for PPT, Excel etc. No need for full office suite.
     
  20. nomarjr3

    nomarjr3 Registered Member

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    Why is it that most people just look at the industry's leader and not the other companies?

    Everything revolves on 'proprietary closed formats'.

    You can't use Mac OS without buying Apple PCs.
    And you can't use Sony products without buying Memory Sticks(TM).

    Same thing goes with Microsoft.
    Albeit they are generous enough to share some of their source codes to other manufacturers.

    I think some of us are getting a little biased here towards Microsoft.
    Microsoft Word is still the industry standard in word processing no matter what some people say.


    Quality comes with a price. Keep that in mind.
    You can't rent a first-class hotel suite for free. You have to pay for the QUALITY of services that you receive.
    Such is a rule of life.

    If OO (or any other office suites for that matter) puts a price tag on its products, I'm pretty sure they'll start implementing more features on most (if not all) of their products.
    But I guess you get what you pay for :cool:
     
  21. Arup

    Arup Guest

    OO has all the features and is most secure with far less vulnerabilities and is frequently updated, as an ex MS Office owner and user who got hacked due to inherent fault of Outlook I on purpose switched to OO and never looked back ever. Sometimes the best things in life are indeed free.

    Of course when I pay.........I expect it all including the kitchen sink and therefore as any paying customer, the expectations are high and sometimes, MS fails to deliver.
     
  22. nomarjr3

    nomarjr3 Registered Member

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    Then I pity you.
    :(

    You just can't be satisfied in having the best, since MS Office is THE BEST office suite available.

    OO does not (I repeat, DOES NOT) have all the features you can expect from an office suite.
    MS Office is the complete package.
    It's ease of use, coupled by it's extensive multitude of format-compatibility makes it the industry standard.

    OO being 'most secure'(?) is highly questionable.
     
  23. Arup

    Arup Guest

    MS Office is good but its far from the best and best is a relative term certainly. Its slow, usually lots of security holes, there was a time MS .doc format was a harbinger of worms.

    OO has far less holes and has all an average office needs including Draw, Database, Writer, Calc as for PIM, there are many other free alternates.

    Of course, you don't have the good feeling and vanity of paying $$$ for OO ;)
     
  24. nomarjr3

    nomarjr3 Registered Member

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    I bet you wouldn't say what you're saying now if OO was paid software.

    If OO was paid software, and I had to choose between OO and MSO, I'd still buy MSO, regardless of price.
     
  25. jrmhng

    jrmhng Registered Member

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    I'm not a MS hater. I just think the full priced products are too expensive. For a company, it can be justified as it is needed to generate revenue. However as a student who doesn't work full time, $120 is still expensive.
     
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