6 Free Office Suites That Are NOT Microsoft
Oct. 13th, 2007 | by Aseem Kishore |
Microsoft Office may be the most popular office productivity suite currently on the market, but don’t expect this to last forever considering the slew of new, web-based, and open-source alternatives coming every day. Recently, in only the last 2 to 3 years, not only has the number of MS Office competitors grown significantly, but also the quality of these products has increased immeasurably.
The best part about these new office alternatives is that they are completely FREE and they work with Microsoft Office, so if you or your company are locked into Office currently, you can integrate open-source software into your systems slowly and carefully. If you’re a consumer, you can now create documents, spreadsheets, and presentations on the fly, access them from anywhere, and open them in MS Office for compatibility purposes.
Here’s a list of six of the most popular alternative office productivity suites out there today:
Online Office Software
1. Google Docs - This is probably the most heard of Office competitor that most people already know about. Google Docs is completely online and includes a web-based Word Processor, Spreadsheet application, and a Presentation app. More on Google Docs features (incl. introduction video).
2. Zoho - Zoho is probably the best online office productivity suite with not only word processor, spreadsheet and presentation apps, but also includes online project management, CRM solutions, web conferencing, online database with reports, online planner, group chat, wiki, and lots more. It also includes a plug-in for MS Office so you can work both online or offline. Learn more about Zoho.
3.Thinkfree - Thinkfree claims to have the best integration with Microsoft Office. Also, the interface for each app is very similar to MS Office including the toolbars, icons, and functions. Thinkfree also has advanced collaboration features such that users can share, edit, and contribute their ideas remotely. More on Thinkfree (incl. video demos and screenshot).
Downloadable Office Software
5.StarOffice - StarOffice is from Sun Microsystems and has recently been released under the Google Pack as a free download. StarOffice runs on Windows, Linux, and Solaris systems. You’ll have to download OpenOffice if you want it for the Mac.
4. IBM Lotus Symphony - IBM Lotus Symphony is a direct competitor to the Microsoft Office suite because it is also a desktop application aimed at individuals and businesses. The suite consists of Symphony Documents, Symphony Presentations, and Symphony Spreadsheets. I wrote about it before, so if interested check out my IBM Symphony review.
6. OpenOffice - OpenOffice is a multi-platform (Win, Mac, Linux) and multi-lingual office suite which is compatible with all major office suites (i.e. Microsoft Office). It includes Writer (word processing), Impress (presentation), Math, Draw, Calc (spreadsheet), and Base applications. IBM Lotus Symphony and StarOffice are both based on the code from OpenOffice.
And if that’s not enough choices, Adobe is planning on releasing it’s own online word editor called Buzzword. Plus, Yahoo may be joining the crowd soon also with it’s recent purchase of Zimbra. So if you’re still stuck on Office, be sure to check out all the new alternatives as they will probably be the future of office productivity suites.
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” …. please fix your website so it can be viewedon firefox”
Huh ? It works fine on my end. What problems do you encounter?
Aibek
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Have to agree with you on these. I really like what Zoho is doing, bringing users a complete package, and using ODF. Next month they’ll offer a local version for their apps which will auto-sync with your online files if you choose, so you’ll have the best of both worlds.
Meanwhile, there’s nothing but good news on the OpenOffice, StarOffice, and Lotus Symphony fronts, given IBM’s recent dedication of 35 full-time programmers to the code. Simply put, MS-OOXML is dead in the water.
[...] has posted 6 free office suites that are NOT Microsoft. As Microsoft continues to focus on other projects, many of these free alternatives are slowly [...]
Actually, StarOffice is the commercial software that OpenOffice.org was derived from. Lotus, however, was directly derived from OpenOffice.org.
Unfortunately, at least 3 of the above programs have compatibility issues with office documents, at least word and powerpoint.
I work in the PR department of a big company, and it is of utmost importance to me that all recipients of a press release (99% of which have MS office installed) will see it exactly as I see it in my computer.
Considering that I don’t like Microsoft, I’d really like to finally fomd an office suite whose generated files are viewed by MS office exactly as they were created.
Any feedback?
It’s a tough call, I think the best way to find it out would be to test all of the listed tools.
Generate a document with tool X and than try opening it both with MS Office, Lotus and OpenOffice. Your winner tool should generate the document that looks identical in each program.
MS Office files can be modified. If you’re not sending it to be modified, why send it in a modifiable format? This exactly is why PDF exists.
[...] 6 Free Office Suites That Are NOT Microsoft [via MakeUseOf] [...]
[...] 6 Free Office Suites That Are NOT Microsoft | MakeUseOf.com (tags: free_programs) [...]
No other online office suite gives you the exact user interface as Microsoft Windows with many other amazing applications which work both offline and online, applications like spreadsheets etc can be uploaded into your eDeskOnline login without logging into your account… It also has many other features which i would wish you people to explore on your own.
eDesk Online - Free Online Office Suite
Nice post Aseem, and thanks for making Zoho a part of it!
Your site has been twitterized by http://twitter.com/nlnnet
[...] 6 Free Office Suites That Are NOT Microsoft | MakeUseOf.com MakeUseOf reviews six non-Microsoft Office alternatives, all of which are free. You’re almost guaranteed to find what you need in this list. Subscribe to the RSS feed or get email updates var bz_url=’http%3A%2F%2Fchillycool.com%2Flinks-for-2007-10-17%2F’; var bz_num_comments=0; var bz_comment_date=”; var bz_bgcolor=’fff’; [...]
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[...] here. If you want to know more about the OpenOffice, I have previously covered OpenOffice here and Aseem covered it here. (No Ratings Yet) Loading [...]
Don’t forget that there is a native port of OpenOffice for the Mac called NeoOffice. It’s way more integrated with the system. yreg
Don’t forget that there is a native port of OpenOffice for the Mac called NeoOffice. It’s way more integrated with the system. yreg
Thanks for the info. I have never heard about it. )-:
Lies! I mentioned in my Getting Things Done part 1 article.
not many Operating Systems online seems to support any type of accounting or taxation softwares. a unique one that i
found was edeskonline.com. Has anyone done a comparison on its features?
eDeskOnline - Free Online Office
[...] Suite) Long-awaited online office offering from Microsoft. I know, there are plenty of other online office suites, but many of us are still hesitant when it comes to compatibility issues. What if the document [...]
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Hey, kalivds link seems to be pretty good. Edeskonline.com is faster than the other online operating systems / online office apps that I have used. Google Docs is also quite a stable office app, but edesk has a package of all the most wanted office tools. its worth a glance.
[...] used MS Office although with the dawn of AJAX and fancy new technology I use online word processing more. Open Office is also a great alternative although Excel is very hard to [...]
office simply gr8 all are way behind the ms office
compare each every aspect office suites and derive any results
They all have their ups and downs. MS Office is *terrible* for getting a nice layout. OpenOffice.org definitely beats it there, since it takes a bit from desktop publishing apps (like frames). Last time I use MS Office, it couldn’t do wiki output like OOo can either. Has this changed? I know O2k7 finally caught up to OOo’s bibliography support, but then they went and changed the interface so everything’s in weird places.