===distribution information===
slackware 12.1/xfce(whichever version comes out of box with 12.1)
===message===
Right now I'm using koffice as it came with Slackware. In general, it does what I want it to at the moment. Thing is, I've heard a whole ton about openofffice and I'm wondering what if anything I'd gain by switching.
The biggest complaint I've heard levied against KDE and it's related applications was that they're bloated and therefore slow and hard to use, with the oft-quoted example being Konqueror (and that IS slow). I haven't heard much about OpenOffice, but what I have heard about it makes it sound good with one exception, that it's written in Java (and therefore slow).

So are there any great things I'm going to discover if I switch?
Also, is there anything else I should consider?

Well openoffice really isn't as slow as many people think. It is actually really fast for me. As for KOffice, I really don't know about it's usability, even though I use KDE . But I have heard very good things about KOffice. I do think one plus that KOffice has over openoffice is that if you run KDE, it is part of the KDE system, and these 2 things just kinda mesh together. Also, KOffice has more components to it and can do more. The good thing about these 2 are that they both use the Opendocument format, so file exchange between koffice and openoffice would be pretty easy. openoffice is a very good microsoft office copy and if you are familiar with this environment, then openoffice is very similar to it. but give both a try, no harm in trying. besides java isn't really that slow that you would have to wait 5 minutes extra for it to start.


good luck,
rabbit2345 ^_^

I run both , OpenOffice is slightly slower on my box(just a few seconds slower). the other thing is Koffice sometimes messes up my .doc files created on MS Office while sometimes its OpenOffice that does that. So I pair them just in case.
I also have abiword for backup.

So my take is like rabbit2345's, knock yourself out! install them all.

I just installed OpenOffice 3.0 on my slack 12.1/xfce - seems works fine, but the proposed by Slackware installation method via rpm2tgz cuts off the last letter in the some file names (actually a bunch of them spread wide) from the OOO distro, making OOO non functional, so I used the RH and then everything seems to work. Bye.

Why not just get the build from SlackBuilds.org.........

http://slackbuilds.org/repository/12...penoffice.org/

Ok! I'll try bye

Make sure you get it for the correct Slackware release.