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I just love the way Stephen J. Vaughan-Nichols (from eWeek) just cuts through the bull shit and shoos away any doubts concerning the recently released version 2 of OpenOffice.org; he says:

"It's free and it works. Next question?"

If you have paid $99 for Microsoft Word, or upwards of $300 for any version of Microsoft Office Suite. You pay for the suite; but it may or may not have that one application that might (Remember: it's microsoft we are talking about!) make your life easier. If you are considering waiting for Microsoft's next version of Office, Office 12, which may cost upwards of $450.

You have a choice.

OpenOffice.org 2.0. It's free of cost. But it is infinitely more valuable than Microsoft's Office. It can work with documents made in Microsoft Office, create MS Office documents, convert them to Portable Document Format (PDF) or Flash Animations (SWF). Best of all, you can redistribute it! No question's asked. Just give it away. To your mom, your daughter, your SO... No need to pay extra... ever!

Already OpenOffice matches up pretty well to Microsoft Office in terms of number of applications. There's the full featured Writer, better than the bloated Word. The capable Calc, akin to Excel. Impress, like PowerPoint. Base, not limited like Access. Math, similar to Equation Editor. Draw, like... huh... there's nothing like Draw in Microsoft Office.

But those people behind OpenOffice.org are not content to provide a better, if not the best, office suite around. There will be more!

I am one of those people. I don't mean I have contributed much to OpenOffice.org yet, but I plan to. You see I have joined one of OpenOffice.org Incubator projects. The one that seeks to create a project management application that gives Microsoft Project a run for it's money. Though I am only an observer right now, perhaps I will be able to help with design, testing. Who knows? I'd like to learn C++ in depth, then I will be able to contribute bugfixes. Think about it, would Microsoft give me Office for free? Would they let me work on Microsoft Office for free?

Right now, the OpenOffice.org Project Management project is in it's incipient stages. Nothing has been written in stone, base functionality has not been set, of course, there's not even a design document yet.

It's perfect!

It's a perfect time to join in and see how YOU can contribute. Perhaps you have lots of experience with project management, have used MS Project, seen it's shortcomings. Well, we need you to tell us what those are! Perhaps you are a programming student but don't have too much experience building large applications. We want you too! Perhaps you are a seasoned and experienced coding guru, why don't you help us build something great?

Care to join us? At least see what the fuss is all about? Click Here.

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Filed in: F/OSS FreeCulture OpenSource

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