I wanted to give a quick update on a product that we started talking about on the show about four years ago. It's called OpenOffice . OpenOffice is considered an open source project which means that no one entity owns it (although Sun Microsystems pushed it hard in the early going), and anyone can use it for free. OpenOffice, as the name implies, is a productivity software. It contains a Microsoft Office compatible word processor, spreadsheet, presentation manager and database. I installed it for my kids almost a year ago and have been rolling it out for more and more clients. I can honestly say that I'm impressed with the product.
OpenOffice opens and edits any of the Microsoft products and can save in the Microsoft format. Therefore compatibility is nearly seamless. Some smaller government jurisdictions are giving the expensive licensing fees attached to Microsoft Office in favor of the free OpenOffice. If you are looking for an alternative to Microsoft Office products, take another look at OpenOffice . I think you will be pleasantly surprised.
