How would you like to save money on software, especially the most expensive software most people buy? It’s easy if you know the number one thing Microsoft wants kept secret.
Windows is Microsoft’s flagship product. Combined together, Apple Mac OS X, Linux, and every other operating system control less than 10% of the desktop and laptop market—leaving the rest to Microsoft Windows. But Microsoft doesn’t make much money from Windows.
Microsoft makes most of its money from Microsoft Office—Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Access. (Several other tools extend Microsoft Office.)
A full license for Microsoft Office can cost you $250 or more, plus upgrade costs every few years. Yet, without Microsoft Office, your computer is practically useless in a corporate or professional setting—or is it?
Save Money On Software Using This Secret
Microsoft doesn’t want you to know that there is a full-featured competitor to Microsoft Office. No, I’m not talking about Google’s online office tools—those can hardly be called full featured. This competitor offers almost everything Microsoft Office offers and it doesn’t cost a cent to use.
Its name: Libre Office. Some of you might be familiar with it’s old name: OpenOffice.org—I’ll tell you why the name changed later in this article.
Libre Office provides similar tools for everything in Microsoft Office:
- Instead of Word, you use Writer
- Instead of Excel, you use Calc
- Instead of PowerPoint, you use Impress
- Instead of Access(the database application), you use Base
- A new drawing tool is included in Libre Office called Draw
But Will This Really Save Money On Software?
I know you’ve probably used freeware in the past that didn’t stand up to its claims. But Libre Office isn’t just freeware, it’s also open source software that’s been community developed for over a decade. It’s the primary office productivity software for millions of people—including me—and it offers some features not even Microsoft has, like the ability to extend functions in the easy-to-learn Python programming language.
Libre Office also does the number one most important thing for anyone living in a Microsoft Office-dominated world: it seamlessly opens and saves Microsoft Office documents.
None of my clients need to know that I use Libre Office. When they send me a Microsoft Word document or a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, I can just open it right up. Then I can make any changes and send it back to them—Libre Office won’t even make me press any extra buttons to save in Microsoft’s formats.
How Libre Office Got Its Name
I mentioned earlier that Libre Office used to be known as OpenOffice.org. This might confuse you when you discover that OpenOffice.org still exists.
OpenOffice.org was owned by Sun Microsystems, one of Microsoft’s fiercest competitors. But database company Oracle bought Sun and then closed down several of Sun’s open source projects. The OpenOffice.org programmers, fearing they were next, formed Libre Office to continue their work. They offered to take control of the OpenOffice.org domain name and trademark if Oracle no longer wanted them, but Oracle has so far refused to hand it over.
But, freed from the bureaucracy of both Sun Microsystems and Oracle, the Libre Office project has hastened development and also added add-on code which neither Sun nor Oracle would add to OpenOffice.org because they couldn’t control it.
That means Libre Office has taken a major step forward over OpenOffice.org and may soon compete with Microsoft Office not just because it helps people save money on software, but because it offers more features than Microsoft Office.
The Bad News About Libre Office
I don’t want to lie to you: Libre Office isn’t a perfect Microsoft Office replacement. I still think the cost savings more than justify the switch, but here are some things you may not like about Libre Office:
- It isn’t Microsoft Office. Anyone used to working in Microsoft Office at school or work will need to adjust to Libre Office. The toolbar buttons look different, the menu items are in different places, the configuration settings don’t use the same phrases, etc. This isn’t really a problem, but you will need to adjust. You get used to Libre Office really quick.
- It’s complicated to configure. One of the main advantages of open source software is that it’s usually very configurable—much more configurable than proprietary programs. But with additional features comes additional complexity.Libre Office has a slew of configuration options, making it hard to find some of the typical configuration options. Worse, many of these options are all bundled together in the same screen, so you feel like you have to look through endless configuration options just to change the default style.
Later versions of Libre Office might make configuration easier. For now, just think of all the money you’re saving—and that someday you might actually want to adjust these advanced settings.
- Advanced formatting fail. This has never happened to me, but it could happen to you. If you receive a document in a Microsoft Office format that uses very advanced formatting options, it might not display correctly in Libre Office. Worse, if you use advanced formatting in Libre Office, you might not be able to save correctly in Microsoft Office format.
That said, 99% or more of documents should be fine, and it’s always possible to get the text from a document even if the formatting doesn’t render perfectly.
Conclusion: Are You Ready To Save Money On Software?
If you’re convinced—or you just want to give Libre Office a try, remember that it’s free. As an extra bonus, it works on all platforms, so once you start using it, you can always move to Mac or Linux and continue to save money on software.
If you enjoyed this post please consider sharing ! :)
|
|
Related Posts
This post was written by...
David – who has written 54 posts on Computer Tips.
David A. Harding is a Linux Professional Institute certified system administrator and freelance writer with over 10 years experience working with Linux. He’s been published in over a dozen magazines and has given over 50 presentations about Linux–including two Software Freedom Day keynotes. Dave always loves to hear from readers and can be reached at dave@dtrt.org.
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
I never tried Libre Office but now im impressed with it. thanks
Navin kunwar recently posted..7 Pinterest Like WordPress Themes for Inspiration
Woah..didn’t realize so much was going on. I know a lot of people who rely heavily on OpenOffice for their small business needs. It is quite distressing when there is uncertainty over something one relies on.
Adeline recently posted..The 5 Best Mobile Apps for Sports Info on the Go
Many people find it hard to switch from Microsoft’s product to a new one. Although this one seems great, most will still prefer to pay for the MS product.
Marty recently posted..IPhone 4S To Offer Sky+ For Improved Social Networking Facilities
This tool is completely new for me. But it really seems to be very useful and convenient! And anyone want to save money in any way, this is really a great help.
thanks!
LIbre Office is really a great software. I’ve used its earlier version OpenOffice also. You get most of the features of Microsoft (barring a few) and it does not cost you a dime.
Ashok recently posted..Desktop Slideshow for Windows XP & Vista like Windows 7
Great article! I love openoffice (libreoffice). I use it on every computer that is not a work computer. The only reason I use MS Office on my work PC is because I am not the one paying for it.
Dominic recently posted..Why is my HP So Slow?
Best of all, if you are using it on WebAnswers, you can count it off on your taxes when you report your Google Adsense income, because it was a purchase for your ‘business’ or freelance work or hobby or whatever you call it when you report it.
Cynthia recently posted..Shelterbox Dadaab Kenya
I have personally never used this app but have used similar free packages that basically do the same thing as microsoft office – from a lot of people’s point of view it will be better to use something like this as opposed to downloading a bootleg copy of office (which is of course illegal) – thanks for the info
I think these year its great start using these kind.
Pettina26 recently posted..Les Arcs
While Microsoft has been a major force in my personal computing life, I am often concerned that they will have the same control of my future, much as dBase 3 did in data bases prior to Paradox. One can’t fault the management of Microsoft for doing the best job possible in protecting their brand but it’s gratifying to know that there are programs like Libre Office that does offer relief. For the majority of us, the rudimentary, every-day tasks of word processing and spreadsheet processing cover our needs very comfortably. I am watching with great interest what Microsoft will do with Skype. Oh, my!
Nice post on saving money on softwares! Liked the post! Go on..
I never tried using Libre Office. After you discuss how libre office runs, I must definitely choose Microsoft.
Mika Castro recently posted..שליחת SMS
Hi, thanks for the great information in this article. It helps to inform and to make any comment on one of my sites. Of course I will give credits to Tips4pc, and to be here very often. thanks