You are here: ZDNet.co.uk > News > Software

Office applications Toolkit

OpenOffice.org gives MS Office a run for no money

Jack Wallen Tech Republic

Published: 27 Nov 2002 10:42 GMT

It's so hard to let go.
Even those IT managers who want to make the break from Microsoft to Linux can't find the strength to let go of Microsoft Office. They can't imagine something that could replace it. So they certainly can't imagine that there is a package out there that can not only replace Microsoft Office but can replace it for free.

OpenOffice.org is the powerhouse suite that is raising the ante in the battle for office space. Here's an overview of this product so that you can judge whether it would work in your enterprise.

What does OpenOffice.org have?
The OpenOffice.org suite is a set of office tools similar to those in Microsoft Office. OpenOffice.org is based on Sun's StarOffice code but is not tied to the proprietary Sun application in any way. The suite consists of a word processor, spreadsheet application, presentation package, formula editor, drawing program, data charting application, HTML editor, and file filters that enable the importing and exporting of various formats. Obviously, OpenOffice.org contains everything you'd expect in an office suite. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case with the original StarOffice.

When StarOffice first came to be, it was Linux's only answer to the Microsoft suite. That was unfortunate because the application was clunky and slow, and had problems with many file formats. OpenOffice.org isn't weighted down with any of these issues. No longer is the suite an integrated desktop (as was the original StarOffice) but a modular set of tools. Now, if you want to open or create a spreadsheet, you only have to open the spreadsheet application. Needless to say, the original StarOffice left a rather bad impression on both Linux and non-Linux users. Since then, both StarOffice and OpenOffice.org have fought hard to break away from that stigma. They are both finally managing to do so.

One other area of major improvement is in file filters. The OpenOffice.org suite of tools has the ability to work with all the standard Microsoft Office documents (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) without the addition of any third-party add-ons. This makes using OpenOffice.org's office suite a much more viable option, since it can now easily interact with Microsoft's offering.

What does OpenOffice.org not have?
Outside of a price tag, OpenOffice.org is missing only one piece from the office suite toolkit: the database component. If you're looking at this from a Linux perspective, this omission makes perfect sense. Why add a database component when Linux has two very good open source database components already? And if you are a Linux user and you need a database, you will be using either MySQL or PostgreSQL. In light of that, the OpenOffice.org team opted out of the database tool.

How well does OpenOffice.org perform?
I've had the opportunity to work with many different office suites (including Microsoft Office, WordPerfect Office, Applixware, KOffice, Hancom Office, StarOffice) and, in my experience, OpenOffice.org performs as well as its competitors -- if not better. And OpenOffice.org is the only suite that is free.

Let's take a look at some of the issues that any IT administrator or end user will face when deciding between OpenOffice.org and Microsoft Office.

Ease of installation
It's no secret that Linux has come a long way in regards to installation. OpenOffice.org is no exception to this trend.

After downloading the 67 MB tar.gz file, installation requires only a few simple steps:

Untar the package with the command tar xvzf OOo_1.0.0_LinuxIntel_install.tar.gz.
Change into the newly created install directory with the command cd install.
Run the setup command (as root) to begin the installation process.

The actual installation is completely GUI-based and is, therefore, very simple -- albeit a bit slow. The only hitch might be in the location you choose to install the suite. The size of this application would dictate an installation in the /opt directory. Because you will be installing into the /opt directory, you will have to be running the installation as root.

Running the application
One of the biggest complaints about earlier incarnations of StarOffice was that, because it was not modular in nature, it took forever to load. Well, not too much has changed in that respect. OpenOffice.org is still slow to start -- even on a 1.6-GHz processor with 256 MB of RAM, the application took more than 20 seconds to open. Of course, once any of the applications has opened (word processor, spreadsheet app, presentation app, drawing app), all the others open very quickly.

Opening specific applications from the suite is a bit tricky if you're not used to the process. Below is a list of the commands you'll need to run to open each of the corresponding applications. These commands are located in the programs directory within the OpenOffice main directory.

swriter
The OpenOffice word processor
scalc
The OpenOffice spreadsheet application
smath
The OpenOffice formula editor/creator
sweb
The OpenOffice HTML editor
simpress
The OpenOffice presentation package

There are numerous other commands that actually run subprograms from within the main applications (for instance, sfax runs the fax editor from within swriter), but these applications are typically not run on their own.

1 2

Did you find this article useful?
54 out of 103 people found this useful

More In Office applications

Featured Talkback

Why do so many (virtually all) software packages think that they are so important that they have to be started automatically every time the computer boots? What is the largest number of "speed access", "update check", "camera download" and whatever other background programs you have ever seen running? Of those, how many did you really need?