Sun Microsystems plans to release a plug-in for Microsoft Office 2003 that will allow two-way compatibility with the OpenDocument Format, the company announced Wednesday in the US.
Minnesota and Texas may become the next US states to adopt the OpenDocument Format as the required standard for their agencies, thanks to two state bills currently up for vote.
The US state of Massachusetts is set to mandate the use of Microsoft's Office document formats, including Office Open XML, across its agencies.
The company will sponsor an open-source project to create converter between Ecma Open XML and Chinese standard as well as new ODF converters.
IBM has launched a commercially supported version of its Lotus Symphony productivity suite, ready to take on Microsoft Office.
What is it about Microsoft's proposed OOXML standard that has boffins hurling death threats at each other?
Michael Meeks is a distinguished engineer at Novell. But his current project may be his toughest yet. He is in charge of tackling interoperability between Novell's OpenOffice.org productivity suite and Microsoft Office. And as with anything relating to Microsoft, this involves more than just technology.
While the interface of IBM's free office suite is sexy, its hunger for system resources and lack of features mean that OpenOffice.org 3 is still the best free office suite. Also, watch out for Symphony's lack of OOXML support.
OpenOffice.org 2.4.0 is a free, open source alternative to Microsoft's Office application suite. It is fantastic if you need basic office applications such as a word processor or spreadsheet at no cost. However, large organisations and power users may be disappointed by its lack of features and support.
OpenOffice.org 2.0, the freeware version of Sun's StarOffice 8, is a great deal for small-business users who don't mind browsing online forums for technical support. But enterprises are better served by StarOffice 8.
Many free and inexpensive office suites are available for download or for use in a web browser. So what's the advantage of paying a pretty penny for a desktop office suite? Corel's WordPerfect Office X4 offers a strong software package that comes closest to the breadth and depth of features found in Microsoft Office.
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