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OpenOffice 2.2 Released
xsspd2004 wrote with a link to a Desktop Linux post about the newest version of OpenOffice.org. Bug fixes and the usual changes can be found in the project's release notes. The developers are using the turn of phrase 'a real alternative to Office 2007', hoping to win over some folks not too thrilled with the commercial software's new look. "Overall, version 2.2 should appear better to users thanks to its support for kerning, a technique that improves the appearance of text written in proportional fonts; kerning is now enabled by default. OpenOffice's PDF (Portable Document Format) export function has also been enhanced with the addition of the optional creation of bookmarks feature, and with support for user-definable export of form fields. A quick look at the release notes also reveals that many minor bugs have been repaired in this new version. Most of these appear to relate to the Calc spreadsheet and Base database programs."
Was Einstein a news anchor too? That guy was the total jack of all trades!
I know for a fact that all of us have met people in our lives that don't care about price, they care about functionality and ease of use, and lucky enough for me my dad displays this trait very strongly.
This means that whenever we're buying anything new, he'll always want to make sure that it will work well, not just do what it's supposed to. In this regard, there is no comparison between OpenOffice and MS Office, as OO have yet to release a significant upgrade over several years, while MS has a 3-4 year cycle, sometimes less.
While some do carry the opinion that MS is only doing it to keep profits coming in, that's what most software companies do, so why single MS out for it? Granted it is true in minor cases, it isn't with office 2k7. I've been using it since it came out pretty much, and I find it about twice as productive as previous versions, and my friends are getting jealous of the documents it's able to produce. I don't know if it's the calibri font or what, but printing from office 2007 just looks better in every case, than both previous versions of office and OO.
The windows-linux battle may be raging, but I think this war is over.