I am waiting 2.0 final...

Now all we have to do is show our INSISTANT IGNORAMUS pea-brained clients that OpenOffice is just as good, if not better then MS Office. That's a harder task then getting Bill Gates to run out of cash...

It's too bad those pea-brained clients cannot see your real name so that you too can run out of money. Have a little respect for the people who pay your bills you techno-loser!

Hopefully, when the user-base is wide enough, businesses that block or will not deal with OO documents/workflows will find themselves getting hamstrung by their policy, and start lobbying M$ to provide better compatibility. M$ will hold off for a few years and then have to cave in. Let it be!

I love OO.o - i won't be downloading this as I got sick of downloading all the huge snapshot builds posted here but I'm really looking forward to 2.0 final

And to think I spent thousands of dollars in the past on M$ office products. What was I thinking? (Banging head on desk) Not only does this product do everything my company requires it does it better. I'll be sure and spread this company wide. Hopefully other businesses will catch on before throwing away their money as well.

And then you'll find that powerpoint, excel aren't the equivalent at all, and you REALLY need outlook's features, but can't use them because you've gone off MS Office. then what?

Where I work at they can make the switch because we use Lotus Notes and not Outlook. A company could use Open Office and by Outlook seperately. It would be cheaper to buy just Outlook than buying the whole MS Office suite.

Alister

We use in conjunction with Microsoft Office. A few clients insist on it. A great package that we'll stick with. it gives us leverage in the future should we decide not to go with Microsoft.

I've been beta testing this for over a month now and haven't found a single bug. Makes me feel like I'm not doing a good job testing. But I've been using it, and I like it, and I'm going to download this RC version as soon as I get home tonight.

I don't hate MS Office, but it's nice to have an inexpensive (FREE!) alternative. Besides, OO.org is GOOD for Microsoft, because it gives them a prod in the butt to keep improving their own code. OO.org is also good for the public, because not everyone can afford MS Office.

I think it's a win-win for everyone, really. Bravo to the OO.org team.

Agreed.

Well said, JJD.

And it cuts down on pirating too!

lol!

I love this package. When I first installed it, it was a bit of a learning curve to know where everything is, but now that I've gotten to use it for a while, I preferr it over Office. It seems faster - more responsive, I have yet to be able to crash it, even in beta, something I can do on Office XP (running in Windows XP) quite easily, and it's free!

Unfortunately, I don't know that I will switch over any time soon soon and rid myself of MS Office entirely. The fear lingers in the back of my mind that I will find I need functionality that isn't there in OO.org only AFTER I uninstall MS Office.

"due to a problem with the Windows Installer."

What's this, market-speek for "we couldn't be assed"?

I really don't want 'em taking shortcuts on what will likely be a godsend for many thousands of dis-illusioned Office users.

They are blaming Windows Installer, however, i think they just didnt implement their stuff right with the Installer. That installer is pretty darn easy to use, and to customize.

"Windows users will need to remove older betas of version 2.0, due to a problem with the Windows Installer."

They are not blaming Windows/MS for this, they are simply excluding Max & Linux from first having to un-install the beta version.

I suppose they could have gotten more specific, but they didn't see this wording as a problem.

'... due to a problem with the windows version of OpenOffice's setup file'

That might actually be the whole reason I made the above comment.

Thanks for pointing that out to me!

The version number used for RC1 -- although newer -- is older according to Windows Installer. This means that installer gets confused and thinks the beta versions are newer than RC1 and won't upgrade properly.

Basically, Windows Installer interprets the version number wrong (for example 1.9.9 vs. 1.9.10 - the installer may think .1 is older than .9).

borked it.

There's ways around everything.

In other words, fixed by 2.0 and good when final.

Sounds good to me. They can do what they want with anything leading up to 2.0, as long as they get that right.

Yes, it's finally here! Well, not yet, but "Real Soon Now(tm)". No more reason for folks to whine about how bad office sucks...now they have a *real* alternative.

It's a happy day.

FINALLY!!! I think I see light at the end of the tunnel. It's faint, but it's there.

=))

I really like the OO package. It's really good and it's not bloated with MS crap. People say it's not as good as MS Office, but for those people who can't afford MSO this is a great alternative and it's compatible with MSO.

I use MSO at work, but I use this at home. Five stars.

For most people that say OOo is not as good as MSO it's because some things are not in the same place and they could not find it easily...

Or it's because they did not even tried OOo...

Or they were told that...

Or they doesn't want to bother...

Have a try and judge yourself !!! It's FREE so you have nothing to loose trying it ;)