From my previous, I still can not vote. OpenOffice is not what I use every day. Gnumeric is the best open source spread sheet program. Actually the open source community lacks a good word processor and presentations. I would not say OpenOffice as the best because MS Office still have to reformat the document, spreadsheet, presentation after OpenOffice has saved to a MS Office format. For the best Office Suite in Linux is SoftMaker Office. SoftMaker Office is by far better than OpenOffice because it saves documents, spreadsheets, and presentations that complies to MS Office formating and it displays graphs correctly. I do not mind paying $80 or $100 (includes Windows and Linux) for an Office Suite that actually works.

SoftMaker Office should be in the list. It is actually the best Office Suite that I tried for Linux. It should be in the list because the list also contains commercial programs.

I have had hardly any troubles of formatting with OO.o and MS Office, so I would be curious to know about your troubles with the formatting

AceofSpades19, the following are some of the problems that I have and are still experiencing with the latest OpenOffice version.

OpenOffice Writer:
1) Left, center, and right tabs does not carry over correctly to Word.
2) Table formating and positioning does not carry over to Word
3) Body formating does not carry over correctly to Word.

OpenOffice Calc:
1) Graphs not accurate compared to Excel
2) Colors are off compared to Excel
3) Excel have to re-calculate data after being saved in Calc

OpenOffice Impress:
Too few features to really do a comparison.

It makes me sick that people are recommending an Office Suite that does not comply to industry standards. The industry standard is MS Office and OpenOffice falls way too short to deliver an open source project for the office. After using Linux since 2002 on a daily basis, the open source community always lacks full industry standard of office programs.

After years of finding an alternative Office Suite that complies to industry standards, SoftMaker Office is the one. The best is always hard to find.

I suggest try it out instead of being skeptical about SoftMaker Office. It will not hurt anything.

I currently use only Open Office v2.4.x on all my Linux PC's. One of my MS PC's runs MS Office only because the suite and other programming software came with the PC notebook when I graduated college. I have 2 Netbooks that I've opted to install OOo.

I can't really say much about this because I mostly use latex
Again, I haven't really used calc enough to say much
I think impress is pretty much on par with powerpoint as far as I have used it, I haven't really noticed any missing features
Really, the only reason most people use office is because its all they have ever used, and don't give much thought to use anything different. The place that I work at is standardized on openoffice and as far as I know they haven't had any problems with it. MS Office is no more the industry standard as windows is on desktop machines.
Openoffice does a fine job for me, thanks. I have no real reason to switch to any other office program, especially a proprietary one at that.

Same here.

OpenOffice "just works" for me; so I have no reason to try another.

-C

i voted Gnome Office for the speed, lightness and integration, although OO.O writer seems more useful than Abiword.

OOo. Doing a great job by showing people that free software can be a serious alternative.

I laugh at OpenOffice. People rave about it but it does not deliver. OpenOffice does not complies to industry standards which is MS Office.

AceofSpades19, sure your company is using OpenOffice. Other companies are using MS Office. Any documents, spreadsheets, and presentations will not transfer well from OpenOffice to MS Office.

The best open source spreadsheet is Gnumeric because it displays colors and graphs the same as Excel. I would not call OpenOffice the best for alternative Office Suite and I would not use it for businesses. I would use SoftMaker Office for an alternative Office Suite that can be used by businesses even though it is a commercial product.

MS Office 2007 on Wine .....

OpenOffice has the ability to pretty much save as any other file type whether it be Micro Soft or other Open Source.So for me I would say that gives it the edge.Remember choice; not everyone will choose to use OpenOffice but you don't have to change your preference to accommodate another user's, just change the file format

Where can I get a pdf of this "standard"?
I have never had any trouble with this before, the only thing that has happened to me before was when I opened an impress .ppt file in powerpoint 2k, the first slide was a bit off center.
What makes SoftMaker Office adhere to this "standard" when openoffice doesn't?. MS Office is no more the standard in office products, than windows is the industry standard os.

OpenOffice.org got my vote because it is streets ahead of where it was last year.

(particularly on a mac.)

TG

OpenOffice!
 

OpenOffice every time. Yes KOffice does a good job, and AbiWord is a nice word processor, but if you need a proper integrated suite, the OO is the one. I make documents with embedded drawings, spreadsheets, etc. and it does the job. I can export to PDF and send them to anyone. A lot of my clients think I have Acrobat! If I have something really complex, I do the final document in Scribus.

To those who claim MS Office is the "industry standard", who says so? M$? Which version? I work with people who have Office 2007, and they keep sending out stuff which nobody else can open!

Tex/LaTex are fine if you take the time to learn how to use them properly, but I would never let a beginner near them. Anyway this poll is for the Office SUITE, not a cobbled together kit of parts, and at the moment OO is the one in the lead.

PS For those who try side by side comparisons with MS Office, I suggest you try it in Linux. It works much better! ;)

Open office is very nice one