Shoutbox

How good is open office? i'm considering using it on my new PC instead of forking out 200 bucks for MS Office. i know that most of the file formats are compatible between the two... but wha ti'd like to know is how similar is it ti MS Office and what components does it have? eg. MS Office has word, powerpoint, outlook etc. what does Open Office have?

it has Word Powerpoint etc.. there just named differently,   i only use Openoffice in Windows an Linux

if i'm going to download it do u think i shoul get the latest stable version, the beta, or wait till 2.0 has been released? how long is it expected until 2.0 is released cos i dont exactly wanna d/l 1.1 then 2 days l8r 2.0 be released!

get the latest stable version .. i dont think 2.0 is going to be final for a few more months .. prolly sometime in october/november

I switched to OpenOffice.org recently. Only light usage, but I am really satisfied with it, I don't miss anything that was there im Office. I had installed it to try out, but I lost my Office CDs, so it became my main productivity suite.

one state in america chose openoffice over MS Office, so its must be good i use it

Well they didnt choose it beacuse it was good. It was merely for legal reasons of using a propietary format.

I myself will continue to use Office. Its worked fine for me, so why change for the sake of it?

I use OpenOffice too, and gotta say, it nicely meets the needs of a uni student like me.

Actually just lately when I had to use MS Word instead of OpenOffice, I was pleasantly surprised at the ease with which I found most functions in there - just because they aren't that different.

It has a wonderful Export to PDF feature. I just discovered it when I needed to print from my other computer, because my printer wouldn't install here (it has now). If I had been using Microsoft Office, I would be screwed, so to speak.

I think Open Office is very good but i really dont like the interface lol.

They should work a really good bit on it.
In the feedback survey i said i could help but they didnt reply me .