OpenOffice.org 3 milestone: 100,000,000 downloads
If you aren’t using OpenOffice.org 3, you’ve probably heard of it. Today, Sun Microsystems, the creator of this free productivity suite, has announced the newest version of its popular software package has been downloaded one hundred million times.
Now this is one heck of a milestone: more than 100 million people have downloaded OpenOffice.org. Even more impressive, perhaps, is this number only represents the latest version, 3.0, announced just over a year ago.
For the uninitiated, OpenOffice.org is a software suite for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases, and more. Consider it a free alternative to Microsoft Office, but without Outlook and not as much depth as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and such. But hey, free is free.
Plus, OpenOffice.org works on many different operating systems (including open-source Linux machines) and is available in many languages. You can import many different files types, including the most popular ones (.doc, .xls, .ppt) or you can create and save your work in an international “open standard” format instead.
And did we mention it’s completely free? And that means you can install it on as many computers as you like or give it to friends and family.
You can also download a “portable” version that runs off a USB thumbdrive.
Sun Microsystems, the makers of Java, say OpenOffice.org 3 is the result of more than 20 years’ worth of software engineering.
Do you use OpenOffice.org or are you faithful to Microsoft’s Office (or another productivity suite)?
Filed Under: In The News > Microsoft > News > Uncategorized
Tags: 100, download, free, Microsoft, microsystem, milestone, million, Office, open, presentation, spreadsheet, suite, sun, word
Bonsoir Marc:
I have in the past used open office, it is a fantastic suite. Unfortunately I have had to stick with MS Office due to compatibility issues with my customers and I am able to do some really cool in-depth things that Open Office cannot do, for now. Things like creating graphics, mathematical tables, pivot tables then putting them into ready to play interactive presentations that can be uploaded to the web, played with outside or within MS Office.
One thing that MS did that Open Office has not is to change the interface (Office 2007) so drastically that it takes one weeks to relearn the programs, horrible waste of productivity, I am not the only one to say this in the corporate world.
There are times that I miss using Open Office and may as yet reinstall it onto one of my HDs just to have and play with it.
A new laptop is in the offing, if I am not able to load my current MS Office onto my laptop because MS wants me to buy another licence then I will write several department heads of MS to protest and will announce that they have lost me (my laptop that is…) to Open Office. Surely that will devastate them, no?
I do like the fact that Open Office does Asian languages like Japanese 日本語 Mandarine not so well and not Hebrew, but the good far out weights the bad.
Have a good day,
Phil
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I wonder how many of these so called 100 000 000 downloads were from new users, or is it from everytime that you need to update your office suite.
Although OpenOffice is a great office suite to use, when you have the time to wait while it opens, I personally tend to favour SSuite Office’s free office suites. Their software also don’t need to run on Java or .NET, so it makes their software very small and efficient. http://www.ssuitesoft.com
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Hy
Really cool theme, where can I get it?
Thanks
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