Hello. I am Muhammad Fahd Waseem, and I am a very experienced home user, as well as a student of computer studies.
I have used OpenOffice.org ever since it was launched, and I always thought of it as a better product than the otherwise prevalent Microsoft Office series. Version 2 was what should have been a nail in the Microsoft coffin in terms of office suites, but then along came Office 2007. OpenOffice should realize that finally, Microsoft has pulled a fast one over OpenOffice.org. A revolutionary interface coupled with a huge array of features that OpenOffice does not support or have, and Office 2007 is a major success story. Things are much easier to find than ever before, and the minimizable ribbon is a clever piece of work, specially for those that do not use the toolbars very often and reach most functions by shortcut keys. Office 2007 has also added pdf support, albeit as a plugin. Default galleries, fonts, functions, etc are well included in here too. Microsoft also offers higher functionality in terms of components: Sharepoint Designer, Visio, Project, InfoPath, Publisher, OneNote. Yes, they charge money for it; but for the situations where power, and not money, is the major concern, Office 2007 is a better product. I am sorry to say, but for what I consider the first time, closed source has defended against the open source onslaught. I have always believed in the open source approach. I wish OpenOffice.orgwould retaliate. The Version 2.x line should be discontinued (and retained only for slower, ageing systems) and a new version should be developed from ground up, using the more advanced hardware and software technologies available nowadays. New features should be introduced, and the overpowering, info-deluxe interface of 2.x should be replaced with something much more subtle. Advanced features should be readily available too, but off the face. Directly speaking, the Office 2007 benchmark needs to be broken. I wish I could do something about it, apart from distributing OpenOffice in my community, and donating. It seems so sad to see my favourite office suite being finally beaten. Regards, Muhammad Fahd Waseem
