OpenOffice.org 3.0

After three years of development the third version of the free and open source word processor OpenOffice.org has been released, and the best new feature: Native Mac Support! Previous versions of the application required X11 to run but version three will run without aid on all Intel Macs.

I’ve been an OpenOffice.org user for about six years now after refusing to use the bloatware Microsoft calls a Word Processor. The feature that make OpenOffice.org powerful is its ability to read and write to a huge number of formats including Microsoft Word files up to the 2003 version of “.doc”; with version 03 adding the feature to read Word 2007’s “.docx. format. This is especially helpful for multi-platform users, I’d love to use Apple’s Pages as my primary Word Processor but with how much I relay on Windows it just isn’t practical. It is free to try and comes highly recommended. Jump over too “openoffice.org” for more information and download links.

From Wikipedia:
“OpenOffice.org was originally derived from StarOffice, an office suite developed by StarDivision and acquired by Sun Microsystems in August 1999. The source code of the suite was released in July 2000 with the aim of reducing the dominant market share of Microsoft Office by providing a free, open and high-quality alternative; later versions of StarOffice are based upon OpenOffice.org with additional proprietary components.

The project and software are informally referred to as OpenOffice, but this term is a trademark held by another party, requiring the project to adopt OpenOffice.org as its formal name.”