OpenOffice Final Beta Released!

I wish that Apple had seen OpenOffice.org as an opportunity to build AppleWorks 7 instead of promoting Microsoft's junk. This is sure to harm Microsoft's sales now.

 

OpenOffice.org link to OS X build center

http://porting.openoffice.org/mac/index.html

 

The problem isn't that Microsoft Office is the only productivity suite in the world--there's ThinkFree Office, AppleWorks, OpenOffice, StarOffice, among others--but that everyone already uses Microsoft Office wants to ensure compatibility in their files. As someone who works in the corporate world, I know that our company will not switch from Microsoft Office until many of our clients do the same. We want to ensure that our documents could be read by our clients without any problems. I know, I know: incompatibility of simple document and spreadsheet files among different productivity suites is Microsoft's own doing as part of its plan to maintain its monopoly. However, you get my point: if all you plan on doing is editing your own documents without any presentation concerns, then alternatives to MS Office already exist but until corporate America (the biggest customers of Office) moves en masse to another productivity suite, MS Office will still be widely used.

Personally, I will still continue to buy MS Office in the foreseeable future: Word and PowerPoint are pieces of junk, but Excel is truly a great spreadsheet tool. VBA is probably one of the best things MS has come up with, and I am truly impressed by its power.

 

Your posts mentioned getting some of your friends and colleagues to use OpenOffice or StarOffice, and I merely suggested why the mere existence of a MS Office alternatives might not be enough of an incentive for many to make the switch. Also, I did not toot my horn about how great ms office is in my post ("Word and PowerPoint are pieces of junk").

BTW, I may like Excel, but I am less than-enamored with Microsoft's other products and its tactics. You can read my post on this other subject here.

 

Heh. Their ports page has extensive info on a bunch of stuff about 10.0.x and nothing about 10.1.x or 10.2.x

 

X11 required?

Do I need X11 (or some other window manager like Xfree86) to run OpenOffice or can it run directly under OS X?

 

Re: X11 required?

You will need Xfree86, which is included in the package you will download. They most likely want to make it as compatible with apple's X11 dealie, and they say they do. So don't worry about having to d/l Xfree86.

 

Finally! OpenOffice has come out with (at least) a final beta. I don't have to put up with the likes of Micro$oft Office or ThinkFree ever again!

 

I wonder what the time tables are for the Aqua interface...

I wonder what the time tables are for the Aqua interface... I thought they were still developing that part of OpenOffice... Hmmm...