AbiWord is an "Open Source" word processor. To learn more about the concept of Open Source, you should look at http://www.opensource.org. Because AbiWord is Open Source, it is freely distributable and available for use by anyone, without restrictions. With AbiWord, there is no need to worry about piracy. We encourage you to make as many copies as you like and to give them to your friends and colleagues.
Note that AbiWord is not "shareware". You are under no moral or legal obligation to pay anyone for the right to use this program. If you are not familiar with this kind of software, please rest assured that there is no catch. AbiWord is free, and it will always be free. It is developed in a public fashion, by members of the software community from all over the world, communicating and collaborating together via the Internet.
Microsoft Office may be the most popular office productivity suite currently on the market, but don’t expect this to last forever considering the slew of new, web-based, and open-source alternatives coming every day. Recently, in only the last 2 to 3 years, not only has the number of MS Office competitors grown significantly, but also the quality of these products has increased immeasurably.
The best part about these new office alternatives is that they are completely FREE and they work with Microsoft Office, so if you or your company are locked into Office currently, you can integrate open-source software into your systems slowly and carefully. If you’re a consumer, you can now create documents, spreadsheets, and presentations on the fly, access them from anywhere, and open them in MS Office for compatibility purposes.
Here’s a list of six of the most popular alternative office productivity suites out there today:
Online Office Software
1. Google Docs
– This is probably the most heard of Office competitor that most people
already know about. Google Docs is completely online and includes a
web-based Word Processor, Spreadsheet application, and a Presentation
app. More on Google Docs features (incl. introduction video).
2. Zoho – Zoho is probably the best online office productivity suite with not only word processor, spreadsheet and presentation
apps, but also includes online project management, CRM solutions, web
conferencing, online database with reports, online planner, group chat,
wiki, and lots more. It also includes a plug-in for MS Office so you
can work both online or offline. Learn more about Zoho.
3.Thinkfree
– Thinkfree claims to have the best integration with Microsoft Office.
Also, the interface for each app is very similar to MS Office including
the toolbars, icons, and functions. Thinkfree also has advanced
collaboration features such that users can share, edit, and contribute
their ideas remotely. More on Thinkfree (incl. video demos and screenshot).
Downloadable Office Software
5.StarOffice – StarOffice is from Sun Microsystems and has recently been released under the Google Pack
as a free download. StarOffice runs on Windows, Linux, and Solaris
systems. You’ll have to download OpenOffice if you want it for the Mac.
4. IBM Lotus Symphony
– IBM Lotus Symphony is a direct competitor to the Microsoft Office
suite because it is also a desktop application aimed at individuals and
businesses. The suite consists of Symphony Documents, Symphony
Presentations, and Symphony Spreadsheets. I wrote about it before, so
if interested check out my IBM Symphony review.
6. OpenOffice
– OpenOffice is a multi-platform (Win, Mac, Linux) and multi-lingual
office suite which is compatible with all major office suites (i.e.
Microsoft Office). It includes Writer (word processing), Impress
(presentation), Math, Draw, Calc (spreadsheet), and Base applications.
IBM Lotus Symphony and StarOffice are both based on the code from
OpenOffice.
And if that’s not enough choices, Adobe is planning on releasing it’s own online word editor called Buzzword. Plus, Yahoo may be joining the crowd soon also with it’s recent purchase of Zimbra. So if you’re still stuck on Office, be sure to check out all the new alternatives as they will probably be the future of office productivity suites.
Posted by Aseem Kishore from Online-Tech-Tips
