Happy Birthday OpenOffice.org!

October 13th was the eigth birthday of the Office Suite OpenOffice.Org. This is an OpenSource office suite that will look familiar to anyone using Microsoft Office, WordPefect Office, etc. It has a word processor (Writer) that does pretty much everything Microsoft Word does, but with a more logical layout for menus and some other cool features; a spreadsheet (Calc) that is comparable to Excel and other spreadsheets; a database system (Base) which is an SQL system that can integrate seamlessly with MySQL an other high end databases; a chart making utility; a Presentation application (Impress) like PowerPoint, a vector drawing program (Draw), and so on.

It runs on Windows, Mac and Linux.

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The apps that make it possible to leave Windows behind. Yay!

I just wish it had a better and more compatible equation editor!

The only thing I've found it can't do is interface with MS Visual Basic.

DEATH TO RIBBON MENUS!

Richard: have a look at Ekee, which is a LaTex equation editor interface thingie. People seem to like it.

If OpenOrifice.Org could open iWork docs (keynote, pages, numbers) it'd be such a fantastic intermediary that it'd become overwhelmingly rich and famous overnight. Turning up somewhere with a Keynote or Pages doc only to find there's not only no Mac with iWork on, but that there's also no Mac, will no longer be a complete waste of everyone's time and an early journey home.