There is a word processor program that is an alternative to using Microsoft Word (and Office) It is Oracle’s OpenOffice.org. It does most everything MS Office can do only it is free, at least from paying money for it. If you have ever loaded Sun Microsystems’ JAVA (now owned by Oracle) you have probably seen a promo to download this suite.
When installing there is now a lot of ad-ins that need to be avoided. At least I avoid them. For example I don’t need another browser helper bar taking up space on my little netbook screen. I turn off as many menu bars that I can on the browser just so I have more viewing space.
That is not the way I remember OpenOffice.org loading on early editions. It could be because it usually was the Linux version but I can’t blame Oracle with the MS version as it seems they are just trying to find more ways to make a profit from their free product.
No real problem. The human installer just needs to pay very close attention to what is attempting to load and turn off what is not wanted. Not a bad trade for free and very powerful office software.
However, I noticed in one of my recent Linux installs that OpenOffice.org has been replaced by another almost exact (and free) Office program called LibreOffice. I have to wonder if there was a fundamental idealistic falling out. Oracle is now a supplier of of a Linux distribution which is an offshoot of Red Hat Linux who also spun off Fedora, another free Linux distribution (often called a “distro” in Linux speak).
The Oracle distro is a commercial (what is termed an) “enterprise” product like Red Hat. This means the commercial customer is totally supported and tied (through proprietary software tweaks) to Oracle for purchase and support. Nothing wrong with that as many if not most business users actually want someone “responsible” for a fully functional system.
These “enterprise” versions are a natural progression of a very good operating system. They go against the grain of the original Linux fundamental element which Linux was designed to be a forever “free” and modifiable computer operating system. The fact is there are now two Linux worlds that actually benefit each other.
Getting back on track, if OpenOffice.org gets tangled in the politics of Enterprise Linux profit making, there is already a fully functional alternative. I have actually used LibreOffice in Fedora Linux and found it functionally the same.
As far as I am concerned, there is no longer need for even the lesser Microsoft office software such as Microsoft Works which is barely surviving these days. I can stay with OpenOffice.org for use here in Win7 on a netbook to write articles for my blogs. Word processing don’t get no better or cheaper than this.