I moved to Linux. I didn't care much about the softwares in Windozzzz but Office was something.

I got horrified when I received a .docx. I am doomed, I thought. But to my surprise it opened (with some loss of formatting, doesn't matter).

OpenOffice.org

We all know and love OpenOffice.org. I don't know how I would have finished my final year project without it. KOffice and GOffice have a lot of catching up to do.

Great and simple.

• It works on Windows/Unix/BSD/Linux/Mac.
• It has good support for the Office Open XML (.docx) support.
• It has better recovery than MsOffice and it opens a lot of old MsOffice documents that newer versions of MsOffice can't.
• It is open source.

The charts and publish to PDF were two things that made a lot of my friends (who didn't care what Open Source is about) use it.

All of us want to move to OpenOffice.org. But "how to use?" is a big question. Here's the answer from SUN.
Creating Large Documents Using OpenOffice.org Writer

OOo v/s IBM Lotus Symphony

Some of us might have heard about the IBM Lotus Symphony. It has been there for sometime. It is based on OOo source code. Here's a comparision between the two: http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/entdev/article.php/3703501

Key points are:

1. Symphony looks better, thanks to a new interface.
2. The love for the great new interface fades away when you use it and find some of the OOo features moved or removed.
3. Symphony needs more resources i.e. a better PC.
I say don't move to IBM Lotus Symphony, its not open source. Its a freeware.

Other Open Source Office Suites

1. Go-oo : OOo variant with some good patches and features.
2. NeoOffice : OOo variant especially for Mac OS X. Runs only on Mac OS X
3. OxygenOffice Professional : OOo variant with more templates, cliparts, samples, fonts and VBA support.
4. RedOffice : Chinese variant of OOo. UI contains ribbon like in MsOffice. English version is also present.
5. EuroOffice : OOo variant, contains free and non-free (You may need to may) extensions.
6. KOffice : Runs on Windows/MacOSX/Linux/BSD. No support for OOXML.
7. Gnome Office : Runs on Linux. Partially on Windows and Mac. Limited support for OOXML. No presentation software.
8. OpenGoo : Online office suite. No support for OOXML. This is something cool, if you don't trust Google or Microsoft. Upload it to your own website and rock the world.

I couldn't run the OpenGoo demo, can anyone tell me about it?

ODF Plugin

Sun released a plugin for adding odf support to MSOffice. Get it.

Must reads

1. OpenOffice.org vs. Microsoft Office vs. Moore's Law
2. Creating Large Documents Using OpenOffice.org Writer 

P.S. : Novell's build of OpenOffice.org has better support for OOXML.