Oxygen Office Suite

One of my clients has been recording financial transactions on the Microsoft Works spreadsheet that comes bundled in with new PCs. However, from the perspective of an Accountancy professional, the Works’ spreadsheet is a waste of both the Hard Disk space it occupies and the RAM required to run it. You could fall into the trap of upgrading to the powerful but expensive Microsoft Office suite or you could consider the leading Open Source equivalent.

Formally known as Open Office Professional, Oxygen Office is a powerful office suite along the same lines as Microsoft Office. The best thing about it? IT’S FREE.
I’ve been using this software for about a year and I find I’m using it more than my outdated version of Microsoft Office. I could rant and rave about this software but the Open Office site does a much better job of it.
Unlike the Microsoft product, you can download as many copies as you wish and incur no additional license fees.
What’s more you can burn as many copies of the program (or source) to CD or DVD for distribution to your colleagues as you want – you can even sell it for a profit without paying royalties.
Unlike its Microsoft equivalent, Oxygen Office allows the user to open, edit and save documents created by a variety of Office suites (including Microsoft Office!), which means that you can still share documents with people still locked into Microsoft products.
Still not convinced? In the UK, the Open Office suite is currently used by the British Army and Bristol City Council and, from 2008, Birmingham City Council. Across Europe, Open Office is the office suite of choice of the French Parliament and civil service and most city councils in Germany.