2008/7/17 F Shoppers <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > hi there, I m looking for open office for a small business, I found ebay > have lots of them for sale but they are too cheap sounds to be not > reasonable, so I wonder how can I define if it is a legal version for > business or not
No need to buy it on eBay or anywhere else; OpenOffice is *completely free*. That is to say it is free to download and to use on as many computers as you like in any context you like - personal, buiness, education, whatever. You can download it from <www.openoffice.org>. You are also free to give the software to others who are then free to use it under the same conditions. Support is also free via this email list run by users of the software who volunteer time to help other users. The web site also gives a variety of other support groups, some of which are more specialised than this one. There is also a large body of free documentation; see the Documentation Project on the web site. In addition there are a few books for sale. If you are in doubt, you can read the licence (or have lawyer read it if you are willling to spend the money) at < http://www.openoffice.org/license.html>. OpenOffice runs on Windows (including Vista), Mac, Linux and several species of Unix. The licence allows others to sell the software. Some people sell it on a CD for very little money; this provides a service to those with slow and/or expensive and/or unreliable internet connections - it's a fairly large download. Some people sell it with additional goodies such as installation support, training or extra functionality. The value of these offers obviously depends on the prospective buyer's needs. Others sell it simply to make a fast buck, taking advantage of the fact that people don't realise they can get it free. Unfortunately we can't do anything much about them. Complaints to eBay or wherever may work but ... -- Harold Fuchs London, England Please reply *only* to [email protected]
