Anyone Use OpenOffice or Libre Office?

[=MGN=RedEagle]

As my company grows I am thinking about switching to OpenOffice or Libre office. Is this a decision I will regret? Anyone use these two?

 

[Digital Doctor]

How do you use Office now ?

 

[Russ]

OpenOffice for life , I love it. Slight changes from the normal office but overall you get use to it quick.

 

[euantor]

I used to use Open Office and have been using Libre Office since it was forked. No complaints here at all.

 

[=MGN=RedEagle]

How do you use Office now ?

The issue is the license is per user. Do I want to pay that licence as my employee base grows?

 

[Biker]

From a business standpoint, do you exchange files between offices or other companies? If you do, you may want to remain with MS Office for compatibility issues. Open Office and Libre Office does a rather decent job of importing and exporting, but it's not 100%.

If you do absolutely no file swapping with other organizations, then there's no reason not to switch to an Open Source solution.

 

[Martok]

LibreOffice here is what I suggest to those who want a free Office solution (used to be OpenOffice but development on that stalled until it was taken over by Apache, even now it's not moved on much).

From a business point of view, you do need to think about how you want to use Office. LibreOffice/Open Office/ standard MS Office are fine if your users are just creating documents individually. If you want more collaboration and sharing when it comes to documents, then you may want to look at Google Apps for Business or Office 365. These of course also give an email solution, which you may want to consider.

 

[Digital Doctor]

The issue is the license is per user. Do I want to pay that licence as my employee base grows?

When I look at employee costs ... a measly Office license isn't even on the radar.

 

[Brandon Sheley]

I've used openoffice for years, it does what I need

When I look at employee costs ... a measly Office license isn't even on the radar.

Check again when you have 100 or more employees

Every dollar counts

 

[Sim]

I made a decision to stop using MS Office in my business several years ago - I now rely 100% on Google Docs for any wordprocessing or spreadsheeting requirements for my business.

I do admit that I don't use them terribly much - my business doesn't require me to create much of those types of documents anymore. However, I have on occasion used the collaborative features of Google Docs with my (geographically distributed) team members and it worked really well.

I do occasionally have clients send me Office documents, but I either use the Office reader applications provided by Microsoft, or I convert them using Google Docs.

 

[Sheratan]

LibreOffice user in here. I'm using Ubuntu and LibreOffice is in the package by the default.

 

[agison]

I use Apple iWorks.
$60 for 5 machines with Mac Store. Great deal.

I use Google Docs sometime.

 

[=MGN=RedEagle]

What if I buy one of the older copies of office which does not have the multiple use restriction off ebay?

 

[Mayers]

I've been using OpenOffice for ages now. I'm happy with it, does everything I need.

 

[Reeve of Shinra]

I'm a big fan of MS Office and use it both at work and at home. MS Word and Excel are very powerful, just depends on your specific needs and if it needs to go to outside clients.

 

[Fufu]

What if I buy one of the older copies of office which does not have the multiple use restriction off ebay?

All Microsoft Offices are licensed to one computer and one computer only, except for the Microsoft Office Home & Student (2010 and 2013) edition where one can install one copy on three computers at home. Microsoft Office 2007 lets one install two copies, one on a desktop and one on a portable device. However possibly the best scenario for you is to buy Microsoft Office 2007 Professional on the cheap on ebaY as it has the latest "X" format.

How many computers are there in your business? Why would you buy licenses for the future instead of when they are needed? Does all computers need the full Microsoft Office suite: Outlook, Access, Publisher, Word, InfoPath, SharePoint, PowerPoint, Exchange, OneNote, Visio, Excel, Project, and Lync? I would seriously think which computer(s) need which applications.

Sounds like you are wasting a lot of money on licenses on most applications that employees will never use. Make a budget and contemplate do they really need these and the latest of each of these every two years? Most businesses do not upgrade frequently unless they have a need or they have a discounted contract from Microsoft.

Maybe you should look into this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BYOD

Think about Cloud computing and a centralized server for employees to access. Cloud computing cuts the cost of even a small business. Look up nVidia CES 2013 Conference on how Cloud computing can change a business. There are other business out there that does this, but nVidia does a great visual presentation of Cloud computing.

 

[shawn]

I use OO on my personal computer, mostly because I'm cheap and it's free.

But if the layout of your documents is any more complicated than a basic letter format with some tabs and stuff mixed in, Word is a million times more powerful. It's not inDesign by any means, but if you need to have any graphics/lines/etc, complex tabbing, multiple columns, etc, OO is crude in comparison. Google Docs doesn't even compete.

Google Docs is awesome if you need a couple of people to collaborate on the same thing at the same time. It does that really well. Everything else, not so much.

 

[=MGN=RedEagle]

I use OO on my personal computer, mostly because I'm cheap and it's free.

But if the layout of your documents is any more complicated than a basic letter format with some tabs and stuff mixed in, Word is a million times more powerful. It's not inDesign by any means, but if you need to have any graphics/lines/etc, complex tabbing, multiple columns, etc, OO is crude in comparison. Google Docs doesn't even compete.

Google Docs is awesome if you need a couple of people to collaborate on the same thing at the same time. It does that really well. Everything else, not so much.

I am a creative cloud member so I have ALL the adobe apps. I do not mind paying for it as it provides us HUGE value.

 

[=MGN=RedEagle]

After a lot of debate, I decided to get the new Office for my team as I share documents with other companies often. Thanks so much guys!

 

[Deepmartini]

Libreoffice is all you need. Do it. You won't regret it.