Seven reasons for using a free office suite (instead of MS Office)

Posted on August 16, 2007
Filed Under Software |

With Google bundling Sun’s StarOffice office suite for free (it otherwise costs USD 70) with its Google Pack software set , perhaps it is time businesses started considering the benefits of using a free office suite instead of investing thousands of rupees on Microsoft Office. And StarOffice is not the option – one can also opt for OpenOffice.org, the open source office suite.

Seven very obvious benefits of using a free office suite are:

Well, it’s free. When you compare that with the cost of MS Office 2003 (leave alone Office 2007), which generally runs into five figures, you get an idea of just how much of a saving that is.
Both OpenOffice and StarOffice are completely compatible with MS Office 2003. That means any document, presentation or spreadsheet that is made using MS Office will open without any loss of formatting in these office suites.
Unlike MS Office that runs only on Windows and Mac OS platforms, StarOffice and OpenOffice can run not only on Windows and Mac, but also on Solaris and Linux. So one can actually consider shifting to Linux – which, of course, would result in even greater software savings.
Contrary to popular belief, both StarOffice and OpenOffice are just as easy to use as MS Office. The interface is very similar and even most shortcuts are the same. And yes, they more than match MS Office in terms of features of everyday use – they introduced the concept of “save as PDF” years before MS Office incorporated it. Unless you are looking for major multimedia effects, both office suites are more than adequate replacements for MS Office.
Both StarOffice and OpenOffice consume far lesser system resources than MS Office. So it is quite possible to run them smoothly even on relatively “less powerful” PCs. Again, imagine the amount one could save by not having to worry about system upgrades.
Both office suites are perfectly legal. So one is free from the worries that accompany pirated software (let’s face it, a number of organisations use pirated versions of MS Office) such as random crashes, data corruption and of course, the absence of proper support.
A myth about free office suites is that they are not accompanied by enough technical support. While this is true to an extent, both StarOffice and OpenOffice are backed by huge communities of users and developers who are easily accessible. Both suites also issue frequent updates to ensure that they keep pace with the office suite from the folks at Redmond.