Yes, it's great news that Microsoft will be releasing a new version of Microsoft Office for the Mac, but before calling in your credit card number, you should check out a free, open-source alternative: NeoOffice.

Ashampoo Office a a tiny humble suite that consisted of a word processor (textmaker), a spreadsheet program (planmaker) and a presentation software (presentation). This suite takes just 39.77MB of install space, and 33.25MB of memory.

The economic situation is eating into your profits, and the MS Office licenses look more expensive than before. OpenOffice.org is a free office suite that includes a word processor, spreadsheet, slide presentation, drawing program, and database. It’s compatible with practically all operating systems and runs well on old and new computers alike..

Most Linux and Open Source enthusiasts are familiar with the OpenOffice.Org office suite. OpenOffice is great, but sometimes you just need a lighter and faster alternative. Maybe you've got a netbook or an older computer and you don't need a full, integrated, office suite, but just a few of the main applications like a word processor and a spreadsheet program.

earthweb.com: The concept of an office suite, with word processing, spreadsheet and presentation software, is one that is well understood by users, which is also why it's often difficult to improve them. Users already expect their office suites to do certain things, making the job of office suite developers often one of fit and finish.
Advertisement:
read more

Siag Office is an office suite for Unix systems which contains a spreadsheet, (Siag), a word processor, (Pathetic Writer) and an image animation program, (Egon) as well as a file manager, (XFiler), a text editor, (XedPlus) and a postscript document viewer (Gvu).

OpenOffice.org 2.4.0 is a free, open source alternative to Microsoft's Office application suite. It is fantastic if you need basic office applications — such as a word processor or spreadsheet — at no cost. However, large organisations and power users may be disappointed by its lack of features and support.

Under the name Sun ODF Plug-in for Microsoft Office, Sun has released its import/export filter for the OpenDocument format (ODF), which the ISO has recognized as a standard, for versions 2000, XP, and 2003 of Microsoft's Office suite; the plug-in can be downloaded via our software repository.

The Microsoft Office productivity suite has risen to become the dominant application of its type for business IT management. But there are open source office productivity suites available that may provide a suitable alternative to Office.