# What's your favorite open source office suite? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 9, 2011, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-open-source-office-suite/581242 "2011-05-09T05:47:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2011, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-open-source-office-suite/581242/1 "2011-05-09T05:47:09Z")
I’ve been using [OpenOffice.org](http://OpenOffice.org) for a while now and am fairly happy with it. Some of my friends, though, have had some problems with it, so we’re looking for a new rival to MS Office. Out of all the open source or free office suites, what’s your favorite and why? ---
**Author:** ![Agent\_Foxtrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc29f/32.png) [@Agent\_Foxtrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agent_Foxtrot)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2011, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-open-source-office-suite/581242/2 "2011-05-09T16:54:58Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > I’ve been using [OpenOffice.org](http://OpenOffice.org) for a while now and am fairly happy with it. Some of my friends, though, have had some problems with it, so we’re looking for a new rival to MS Office. Out of all the open source or free office suites, what’s your favorite and why? Not quite what you asked, but I used OpenOffice for a while and found it to be inferior to MS Office (it was annoying to use and some intuitive features Excel had didn’t exist in OO’s spreadsheet). I also tried Apple’s iWork for my Mac and also found it to be inferior. I now have MS Office for Mac on my MacBook. More expensive, but worth it. There are some things that Microsoft just does better. It’s rare, but it happens. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Nene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/da6949/32.png) [@El\_Nene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Nene)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2011, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-open-source-office-suite/581242/3 "2011-05-09T17:35:52Z")
I tried openoffice but I found it rather clunky. I switched to google apps and have been pretty happy with it. If you need something for offline use, try LibreOffice: > **[Home | LibreOffice - Free Office Suite - Based on OpenOffice - Compatible...](https://www.libreoffice.org/)** > > Free office suite – the evolution of OpenOffice. Compatible with Microsoft .doc, .docx, .xls, .xlsx, .ppt, .pptx. Updated regularly, community powered. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2011, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-open-source-office-suite/581242/4 "2011-05-11T04:15:46Z")
How different from [OpenOffice.org](http://OpenOffice.org) is LibreOffice? Oh, I forgot to mention, my friends are definitely not looking for any pay-for programs from MS. ---
**Author:** ![antonio107](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7ea924/32.png) [@antonio107](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/antonio107)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2011, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-open-source-office-suite/581242/5 "2011-05-11T04:30:25Z")
Aren’t the newest versions of IBM Lotus free? I like OpenOffice, but I remember that was all the rage back in the day! ---
**Author:** ![jacobsta811](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jacobsta811/32/2893_2.png) [@jacobsta811](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jacobsta811)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2011, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-open-source-office-suite/581242/6 "2011-05-11T13:02:20Z")
LibreOffice is a fork of openoffice - there was some kind of fight when Oracle bought out Sun and pushed some of the open source people off the OpenOffice team. So basically if you were using OpenOffice because you were supporting open source, non-encumbered licensing, etc you should switch to LibreOffice. ---
**Author:** ![beagledave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6de8d8/32.png) [@beagledave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beagledave)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2011, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-open-source-office-suite/581242/7 "2011-05-11T14:39:50Z")
Google Apps. [Zoho](http://www.zoho.com/)is also pretty good ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2011, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-open-source-office-suite/581242/8 "2011-05-11T15:36:25Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > Oh, I forgot to mention, my friends are definitely not looking for any pay-for programs from MS. There’s a free, [web-based version](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_Web_Apps) of Microsoft Office. (I think it’s meant to compete with OpenOffice and Google Docs.)