New beta versions of the Open Source based office suites OpenOffice.org and StarOffice are now available. For those of you unfamiliar with them, OpenOffice.org (a.k.a., OOo) is a free office suite rivalling Microsoft Office and WordPerfect Suite: it’s not quite as good in some ways, but it’s better in others, such as offering some great drawing tools for posters, native PDF and Flash export, and some cool navigational aides. StarOffice is a value-added commercial version with more templates, fonts, clip-art, etc. that’s produced by Sun, who is one of OOo’s major sponsors. I’ve been using OOo/SO for years instead of Microsoft Office, and no one has ever remarked of any incompatibilities with me: these suites read and write most MS Office formats with ease.
While you should treat any beta with caution, these offer a peek at the “next generation,” including a high-power database tool, Office XP-like features to aid migration, better adherance to standards, WordPerfect compatibility, and more wizards to handle complex or repetitive tasks. Links: OpenOffice.org 2.0 Beta (summary of new features) and StarOffice 8.0 Beta (“what’s new?” PDF).
