Whats an alternative to Microshit Office???

[bwid_s_01]

I'm sick and tired of using Micro$hit Office and want to switch. Which office do you recommend? This is the list of alternatives from Microsuck's front page:

602 Pro PC Suite
AbiWord
Ability Office
AppleWorks
EasyOffice 2001
GoBe Productive
KOffice
Lotus SmartSuite
OpenOffice
Ragtime
Softmaker Office
StarOffice
ThinkFree Office
WordPerfect Office 2000
WorkDesk Office

So which one is the best? Here's what I'm looking for in an M$ Office alternative:
     - MUST be for Windoze 2000 and XPee so-called Professional
     - MUST read/write M$ Word files (cause other people still use M$ Word)
     - MUST read/write Windows plaintext txt files and be Notepad compatible
     - Preferably read (not write) M$ Powerpoint files (need it to read lecture slides)
     - Should install nicely, meaning a nice
       installer which doesn't throw useless files
       all around and preferably put files ONLY
       in the selected install directory.
     - Should be customizable, meaning I want to
       be able to install the word processor only,
       or the spreadsheet app only, without
       having it other shit like M$ does.
     - Would be good if the programs are easy to
       use, can do everything M$ Office
       does (not the pointless shit), and have
       nice GUIs.


Also, besides suggesting the best Office suite replacement, can someone ALSO suggest the best Word processesor only program, not one that comes as part of a suite, but separate (if there are any). Thanks.

[xyle_one]

OpenOffice.

[suselinux]

Openoffice VS M$ Office

[mobrien_12]

Those which I have not used personally or which do not run on Windows are omitted.

AbiWord:  word processor only.

Lotus SmartSuite:  descent productivity tools.  I have a copy of the 97 version.  I used it but wasn't impressed enough to drop other stuff and switch to it.

OpenOffice:  Full featured.  I have it on my Linux partition.  Operation is somewhat similar to MS Office but has some other very nice features (so it is not just a clone).

StarOffice:  Think OpenOffice with some proprietary addons (LH spell checker, clipart, etc.)

WordPerfect Office 2000:  Wordperfect is good stuff.  Stable and less bloated than MS.    Wordprocessor offers composition power and flexability via embedded codes.  Spreadsheet commands are significantly different from excel.
Havn't used the 2000 version but it should be better than the earlier version that I use.  

Also, you should consider LyX as a document preparation tool.  Takes some setup work on Windows, though.

As propritary software goes, I like WP.  OpenOffice and StarOffice are nice.

[ August 27, 2003: Message edited by: M. O'Brien ]

[Aaron Ni]

I've heard StarOffice and Open Office both rock.

[Calum]

openoffice for a first stop, also you might want to look at gnumeric, gnucash (replacements to excel and MS money) and some other word processors. here's a roundup of some open source office (specifically word processing) programs for you.

[suselinux]

quote:  Because of the new sophisticated techonology currently known as Palladium or Trusted Computing, all those Office Suites might not be supported once Windows Longhorn hits the market. My advice to you is to just get Microsoft Office 2003 once it is released.
www.microsoft.com/Office[/QUOTE]

uuuuum, Fuck no.

MS Office is where MS really makes its money, Windows is only put out so you can use MS office.

That's why MS really dosen't care that Wine, and Cross overs exist, They still get to flog there Money Magnet

[Commander]

open office is really cool.  but if u r looking for something different, Corel does put out some AMAZING stuff out there.  i did use their office2k, it was great.  i forgot if it had the ability to save MS word docs but that can be figured out in a flash.

[Aaron Ni]

rkmaster24 is on the banned list for my sections.  Even though his/her/it's post wasnt total shit he/she/it is a troll already and I'm zero tolerance.  His/her/it's post was deleted rather than edited to prevent him/her/it from reediting.

[Faust]

Open office.
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