MS Office 2010 Starter vs OpenOffice

[Ken Blake]

If you haven't already made a decision, I'd recommend you search for
office suites. There's a multitude of them out there. Currently, when
a basic suite is needed, I install Kingsoft Office Free. Looks and
feels like Office 2003 to me.

Others that I know of are:
Lotus Symphony
Ashampoo
Crystal Office
Oxygen Office
SS Office
Softmaker Office

Some of the above are free, some are commercial. And I'm sure there are
others.

You left out Corel WordPerfect Office. I'm not crazy about all the
programs in the WordPerfect Office suite, but as far as I'm concerned,
their flagship product, WordPerfect itself, is the best word processor
available.

And leaving aside the economics of using a suite, I'm against using
suites of software, whether Office suites or any other kind. I think
you should choose what you consider to be the best product in each
category rather than get stuck with all the programs that some
manufacturer bundles in his suite. For example, for a word processor,
I prefer Corel WordPerfect to Microsoft Word, but for a spreadsheet,
I prefer Microsoft's Excel to Corel's Quattro Pro.

 

[Ken Springer]

You left out Corel WordPerfect Office. I'm not crazy about all the
programs in the WordPerfect Office suite, but as far as I'm concerned,
their flagship product, WordPerfect itself, is the best word processor
available.

And leaving aside the economics of using a suite, I'm against using
suites of software, whether Office suites or any other kind. I think
you should choose what you consider to be the best product in each
category rather than get stuck with all the programs that some
manufacturer bundles in his suite. For example, for a word processor,
I prefer Corel WordPerfect to Microsoft Word, but for a spreadsheet,
I prefer Microsoft's Excel to Corel's Quattro Pro.

I did, but not intentionally, I simply forgot about it. For Windows
commercial products, always preferred it over Word, and considered it
more powerful. I accrued that list looking for free software for the
computers I refurbish and donate.

If they made a Mac version, I'd buy it. I know some of the members of
my Mac User Group aren't happy with Word for Mac, but have no other
option (apparently, I've not investigated). Pages, part of iWork,
doesn't have the high end features. But it is very good for some basic
stuff, including newsletters.

Libre Office, Open Office, and Lotus Symphony (I think) all have
versions that run on Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Crystal Office will let you download just the parts of the suite you are
interested in, you are not forced into having the full package.

--
Ken

Mac OS X 10.8.2
Firefox 18.0.1
Thunderbird 17.0.2
LibreOffice 3.6.3.2

 

[Mellowed]

I have Home Premium 64bit and I am using my PC for just home use, not
business. Does the MS Office 2010 Starter offer any advantage over the
free OpenOffice ?
Thanks,
Buffalo

I can't remember the reasons, but Libra Office had a better review than
Open Office. The do have a common history. http://www.libreoffice.org/
It doesn't hurt to have it on the back burner.

 

[Wolf K]

I can't remember the reasons, but Libra Office had a better review than
Open Office. The do have a common history. http://www.libreoffice.org/
It doesn't hurt to have it on the back burner.

Both are more capable than MS Office Starter Edition.

The good news is that Libre Office/Open Office are near clones of MS Office.
The bad news is that Libre Office/Open Office are near clones of MS Office.

I have them both, on different machines, only because I need to open
*.doc files from time to time. They are more capable that MS Office
Starter edition, so if you want/need an MS Office clone, get whichever
one runs on your system.

HTH