A FREE Alternative to MS Office - alternativeSOHO

At Office Depot, the current rate for Microsoft Office Pro 2003 is $329.97 for the upgrade and $499.97 for the full version (MSRP). If that is out of your price range, you may want to have a look at OpenOffice.org for a substitute that can give Microsoft a run for their money - and it’s free.

OpenOffice.org 1.1 is a feature rich word processing suite. Their WRITE program allows you to create office documents, CALC allows you to create spreadsheets, IMPRESS allows you to create multimedia presentations, and it even has a Database User Tool. With all of this, it’s no wonder why 16 million+ people have already downloaded and are actively using this software suite. It allows you to do just about anything Microsoft Office can do (some would even say better) and you can still exchange files with people using Microsoft Office as well.

I’ve used it myself and was completely amazed at it’s power. The interface is also similar to that of the Microsoft Office Suite so it shouldnt’ be too much of a learning curve if you’re a previous MS Office user.