difference between open office and microsoft office?

Question

why is open office free and microsoft office so exepnsive when they are about the same thing. what are some major differences? is microsoft office "better"?? any information will help. thanks!

Answer 1

Word and Excel are pretty much the same because well there's not really room for improvement when it comes to word processing and making spreadsheets..

PowerPoint 2010 makes OpenOffices Presentation look like flash cards.

OpenOffice doesn't have Outlook, Communicator, or Access.



Just find out for yourself.



Free 90 days Microsoft Office 2010 trial:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/try/



Free forever OpenOffice:

http://www.openoffice.org/

Answer 2

Short answer: Microsoft Office is about getting the best user experience possible. OpenOffice is about promoting the licensing arrangement that provides the freedom for developers to work for free and contribute their work to the community.



Microsoft Office and OpenOffice both started off as commercial ventures. Microsoft Office succeeded. OpenOffice failed. Sun Microsystems sank a ton of money into what is now called OpenOffice in an effort to beat Microsoft in the Office market. OpenOffice did badly against Microsoft Office, so Sun decided rather than lose their entire investment that they would turn it over to the open source community and give it away. Sun continued to invest money in the product, and even for free it has barely made a dent in Microsoft Office sales. Sun went belly-up and was acquired by Oracle corporation. Hardly any of the developers of OpenOffice did not work for Sun Microsystems, so the idea that there's a bunch folks working for free is not very accurate.

Answer 3

Once upon a time, nonprofits that wanted a powerful, useful-friendlylword processing, spreadsheet, and presentation package were faced with two options: Microsoft Office and ... Microsoft Office. But over time, an open-source alternative, OpenOffice.org, has become increasingly popular, making it a viable, affordable option for organizations seeking a productivity suite.







There's more to both office suites, of course. OpenOffice's Base is similar to Access. OpenOffice’s answer to Microsoft's Visio is Draw. OpenOffice offers an equation editor called Math, while Microsoft Office offers Publisher for desktop publishing. Due to limits on word count (and patience), however, we'll leave these comparisons for another article.



* Share/Save/Bookmark |

* Get a donation |

* Join TechSoup



Underlying Philosophy



Before we examine the specific features of Microsoft Office and OpenOffice, it may be helpful to step back to compare the philosophical differences between the two packages, and how these differences might impact how you purchase and use them.



With commercially licensed software like Microsoft Office, a product is developed by a single company; sales help fund product testing and development, marketing and sales, as well as salaries and shareholder dividends. In contrast, open-source software like OpenOffice is developed collaboratively, often by volunteers, and freely distributed, allowing anyone to use, redistribute, adapt, or improve the code — all free of charge.



The open-source philosophy is not just limited to software, and can attract loyal adherents who believe that information should be shared freely. Likewise, some consumers feel more comfortable with a for-profit model they feel rewards ingenuity and innovation. If you have deep convictions in either direction, we suspect that we're not going to change your mind here. However, each model does offer tangible advantages:

Answer 4

Open Office is an open-source program while Microsoft Office is not.



An open-source program is a program that has no real "owner." Open-source programs are usually developed by a small group or community and every contributer agrees to waive any licensing rights to their contribution. That's why open-source programs are free... no one holds a license to the software and all developers agree to allow free distribution. If you were able to write code and came up with a great feature for the next version of Open Office it could be included in the next distribution since the software is developed by an active "hobbyist" community.



Microsoft Office, on the other hand, is developed by programmers who work strictly for Microsoft. Microsoft holds patents and copyrights on all of the code and makes money by selling licenses to use the software. Microsoft Office is expensive because Microsoft has to pay for all the programmers and developers who work to create the Office product line, where Open Office is created by people who write the code in their spare time or donate their contribution for free.



Of couse, the major differences are in development. Because Microsoft has dedicated engineers working on each new itieration of Office there can be sweeping changes and more features in the Office line than there are in Open Office. Microsoft Office 2010 looks different and operates differently than Microsoft Office 2007 because Microsoft has the time and money to develop a new look and feel.



Open Office, on the other hand, has had the same look and feel for quite some time now. Not that that is a bad thing... some people like the stability!



Whether or not one is any better than the other is open to debate and really depends on your usage. If you are a home user who only types a letter now and then and may want a simple spreadsheet, you just can't beat the value and simplicity of Open Office. And since Open Office can support the pre-Office 2007 file types, you can even use it to open Office documents created in Microsoft's products.



However, if you are a high-end user and make complicated spreadsheets or fancy word documents; or if you are a business user who needs e-mail integration with Outlook, then Microsoft Office is probably your best choice. The full professional version of Microsoft Office includes things like Microsoft Access and Project which can be handy in business situations.



So the basic difference between the two is how they are developed; one (Microsoft Office) developed by a dedicated, in-house team and the other (Open Office) developed by a non-profit community.



I hope that helps you out!

Answer 5

open office is not as technologically advanced but serves the same purpose and can possibly be transfered into a Microsoft office format with the right tech, i think.

Answer 6

Open Office is free although it is somewhat comparable to Office 2003 which you can get pretty cheap on eBay. Open Office doesn't have Outlook, but that's not a big loss.

Answer 7

Before you make the switch heed this warning: Openoffice will mess up the formatting of your MS Office documents, so keep that in mind if you will be sharing documents with other people

Answer 8

ask on techjungle.info