NeoOffice is a free Java implementation of Open Office. Don’t get it. I found it buggy on OSX. I swear by Open Office, but have only tried it on Linux, so I cannot vouch for non-bugginess on OSX. I am running M$ Office on my Mac right now, thanks to a friend of ours who had a student version with 2 keys still unused (the student version can be registered on three computers, another plus) It runs fine, albeit a tiny bit slow.
Gimp is great, but I have not tried it for the Mac yet.
Want software? Browse sourceforge and pick the most downloaded/highest rated software. It should be fairly worthwhile.
NeoOffice on OSX isn’t that bad. I find bugs in it about as frequently as I find bugs in MS Office on my Windows system. There is one exception, though: MS Office compatibility. I’m having a bit of trouble there.
I found I had no problems with Office compatability. But then again, I am used to uusing .sxw’s. I found the main buggy problem with it was when I would access the menu, it would hang for 3 seconds, with some icon on the toolbar blinking.
Paranoid Android: NeoOffice is a java implementation of Open Office. I love Open Office, but Neo Office is apparently less buggy with Macs (according to them, anyway). I tried it, but found it buggy.
I thought StarOffice as free because my Uni gives it out to people who can’t afford MSOffice, but apparently not. I guess they must have a license.
The compatibility problems tend to be in the more obscure features, as one would expect, because they’re the least tested.
I’m a power user on MS Word. I’ve been using it since the first release on Mac back before Windows existed. I use indexing, hidden tags, page backgrounds, auto-TOC, macros, markup features, multiple sections, varying headers, multiple unequal columns, tables, and all of the various image formatting and drawing capabilities in my book layouts. NeoOffice just flat doesn’t understand some of that stuff.
The biggest problem tends to be in the markup/collaboration. It loses some of the notes my editor sends. I end up needing to open the file in Word on my Windows notebook while I’m working on it in NeoOffice on the Mac, just so I can see some of the differences.
Lest this sound overly negative, the basic features of the word processor and spreadsheet in NeoOffice seem to be quite robust. I find very few bugs, and outright program failures are very rare.
But then again, I am used to uusing .sxw’s. I found the main buggy problem with it was when I would access the menu, it would hang for 3 seconds, with some icon on the toolbar blinking.