Here is what I use, for what, and why: I use OpenOffice Write for basic docs because of the export to pdf feature, but often times it is just as easy to use Google's doc writer for this. I use Word when I need reliable TOC and formatting and latex when I need serious control over formatting and layout.
On the rare occasion I need a spreadsheet, I use Excel, no doubt. OpenOffice's Calc program is no where near Excel; and Google's spreadsheet is an absolute joke. For drawing diagrams and such, the clear winner for me is OpenOffice's Draw program. It is simply the best as far as I am concerned. I even prefer it to programs that are meant specifically for create flow charts. I keep presentations simple, so normally I bounce back and forth between OpenOffice Impress and Powerpoint. I have been pretty happy with how well this works, but there is always the issue of fonts. I don't do databases, so but I would never use Access for anything, but I recall their gui tools to be very well done - too bad the itself DB sucks. If OpenOffice made it simple to create easy-to-distribute client apps (like Access did/does) that connect to MySQL, SQLite, or PostgreSQL DBs, then I might find a reason to use it :) Overall, the big best things about OpenOffice are the "Draw" program and its ability to export to PDF natively. Word is still king in my eyes and Excel has no equal, anywhere. Google is nice for notes and hammering out a document that I need to send via PDF, but overall its functionality does not bode well for the future of web based apps. So, I guess it sounds like I use a mix of all of them. Choice is good, and I don't think that there will ever be a clear winner. In fact, office applications were "good enough" years ago. I doubt there is a lot of room for any office suite to become the clear cut winner. I mean, what else could any of these apps add that would make it "killer"? I can't think of one single thing that would be such an evolutionary step forward as to render the rest irrelevant - well maybe if it did the work for me. :) ... so I think office apps are a finished technology - like cars; they all minimally do what you need well enough to get out of a bind, we all know how they work, what to expect, and anything above the basics is not really all that exciting. Cheers, Brett On 5/16/07, Dustin Puryear <dustin at puryear-it.com> wrote: > I'm curious what you guys think about OpenOffice vs. Office and even vs. > Google Office. > > http://www.techevangelism.com/2007/05/16/who-uses-openoffice/ > > -- > Puryear Information Technology, LLC > Baton Rouge, LA * 225-706-8414 > http://www.puryear-it.com > > Author: > "Best Practices for Managing Linux and UNIX Servers" > "Spam Fighting and Email Security in the 21st Century" > > Download your free copies: > http://www.puryear-it.com/pubs/ebooks/ > > _______________________________________________ > General mailing list > General at brlug.net > http://mail.brlug.net/mailman/listinfo/general_brlug.net > -- 225.578.1920 AIM: bz743 http://www.loni.org/ estrabd at lsu.edu estrabd at gmail.com
