Open Office

Open Office is an open source software package used in the same way as Microsoft Office.

The package is made up of five different peices of software.

Writer

Writer is identical to MS Word (bar the Vista version) so if you use that then you'll have no trouble getting used to Open Office's equivelant. It has all the things you'd expect to see in Word; AutoCorrect, AutoComplete, Tables, Text Formatting etc. and has no problem opening or saving the software giant's filetype. It does however have it's own format which personally I don't like to save in unless it's for my own personal use, as Word's format is more generic therefore more people will be able to open it.


Calc

This is the same as Excel. Whatever formulae I remember work fine in Calc. Not really sure what else to say about it, again if you use Excel you'll have no problem using Calc.

Impress

Impress is much like PowerPoint. Myself and my cousins played about with PowerPoint on old laptops we had when we were younger, just making random things. From what I've saw this is yet again identical to it's expensive rival.

Draw

This ones new to me. It seems to be for creating 2D and 3D images for use in other OO packages, though I could be entirely wrong. No idea if there's anything like this in other word processing packages. Never got the hang of this one lol

Base

You - probably - guessed it. This application allows you to create databases. Personally I've never really found a use for these as I can only see purpose in using MySQL for a database, though I could just be bias because I'm a webdeveloper. Anyway, I don't really know how to use this (apart from a few things I remember from a computer course at school) but I'm sure there are many people who could do with this, who may need it for work and what-not, or just personal use.


A few points to add overall are:
- You can create .pdf files
- OpenOffice has been reported to open files of which the suite the file originated from stated it was corrupt
- OpenOffice can open virtually any other office package's file types
- It's easier and cheaper to migrate from old MS Office to OpenOffice, than to MS Office 2007


The fact that it can be seen as a free MS Office is enough reason alone to download it.


Price: FREE
Download: http://www.openoffice.org/

Introduction

Welcome to Software Socialist. I was going to make a site for this (maby I will eventually) but I don't see the point right now.

Anyway, I created this to review free and cheap products which can be used as substitutes for the costly software packages typical to see price ranges of £100-1000.

If you would like me to review a product then email me at scoty.c@gmail.com

Don't think there's anything else to say here really:P

If anyone is interested in Paid To Click, I've been using Bux.to on and off for a few months, currently have over $3US on there (minimum payout is $10US). If you're going to sign up, keep my referal in the URL, that way you help me, rather than someone who has bought your referal (as they sell unrefered users).
It's a very small income but you never know it may help someday lol