OpenOffice.org receives update

OpenOffice.org has released version 2.2 of it office suite. OpenOffice.org is an office suite similar to Microsoft Office, but written by the OpenOffice.org community and released under the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL). When OpenOffice.org first came out, there where many claims that it would act as an Microsoft Office replacement with pundits citing the increased cost of Microsoft's product along with a large feature set that most users never touched. Although OpenOffice.org has yet to take significant market share away from Microsoft Office, it has made strides within the business world and has become a viable alternative in the office suite space.

OpenOffice.org, along with Sun and IBM, is one of the main backers of the OpenDocument format, claiming that proprietary formats like those used in Microsoft Office leave users at the mercy of software vendors who often change the formats on what seems like a whim. Microsoft is fighting back, working to get Office Open XML (OOXML) recognized by the International Standards Organization; OpenDocument is already recognized as an international standard. Since many companies and public institutions have been requiring documents to be saved in a standardized format, there is a lot of money at stake, and if the ISO decides to refuse Microsoft's request for OOXML to be recognized OpenOffice.org and OpenDocument may suddenly draw a lot of interest. (There is also an OpenDocument converter available for Microsoft Word.)

Some of the new features in version 2.2 include default kerning across all applications, improved support for Windows Vista, more efficient installation for Mac users, and improved support for pivot tables (a feature Excel users have longed for). Currently, OpenOffice.org is being used by several large companies and many nonprofits around the world, and is the default office suite for Novell. Since it supports most mainstream desktop operating systems, it is a boon to administrators with a mixed client base, especially if they are on a tight budget.