Running an office on Free Software

5limJim

Hi all, just wondering if anyone has used any free software in the running of their office, for example why fork out for Microsoft Outlook when you can use Thunderbird for free (I use Thunderbird at home and it looks like it could do the trick for me as a simple email tool, whcih is all I'd need)

I know you can get openoffice, which is compatible with MS Office, but not sure whether that particular piece of software is worth taking a chance on when it comes to needing to run ya own business...

The_JinJ

5limJim wrote:

Hi all, just wondering if anyone has used any free software in the running of their office, for example why fork out for Microsoft Outlook when you can use Thunderbird for free (I use Thunderbird at home and it looks like it could do the trick for me as a simple email tool, whcih is all I'd need)

I know you can get openoffice, which is compatible with MS Office, but not sure whether that particular piece of software is worth taking a chance on when it comes to needing to run ya own business...

I use Thunderbird, OpenOffice and GnuCash - all running on Mandriva Linux - never had any problems once you get by the difference in OS or way of working. All seem stable enough.
I think a business could save a lot of money on licensing doing this as Opensource software tends to be stable and problems fixed quickly so is reliable enough to use.....

crossleydd42

Openoffice v1.1, designed primarily to run on Linus, will run on MS Windows, but is a bit of a fiddle to achieve sometimes, although I've used it in the past. However, I've used EasyOffice for some time, which is freeware, although even the full-featured version, Easyoffice Premium, is inexpensive. I prefer it. Give the freeware version a try.

Go to http://www.easyofficesuite.com/

I also use Mozilla Firefox/Thunderbird and it's fine.

Savvy_Sue

I would say that the main problem with OpenOffice is that it is not quite 100% compatible with MS Office if you are receiving documents from or sharing them with others. It does have some big advantages for sharing with, if you don't want things changed, in that you can output to PDF files easily. But you will sometimes get stuff in MS Word which just doesn't work in OO Write, and vice versa. Mostly tables and fiddly stuff, but it can be very very annoying.

Likewise with MS Excel vs OO Calc: some of the commands are different and a spreadsheet opened in one may behave differently next time it's opened in the other.

So if you're standalone, I'd say go for it, but if you do a lot of sharing, think carefully. We were using both in our office, and users could generally manage, I was the only person trying to use both and I struggled at times, would end up saying "shut it down on your machine I'll have to sort it over here because I haven't got time to work out how to do in OO."

Can't comment on the other alternative.

Having said that, I know our local council is supposed to be transferring to OO, so hopefully the MS stranglehold will start to weaken soon!

At home we use Thunderbird and like it, although I also liked Outlook because of the diary, and Mozilla Firefox is my browser of choice!

5limJim

My only problem is that neither me or my prospective business partner are exactly technically savvy (You'll be pleased to know it isnt an IT Consultancy...), so having to install things like Linux would be a nightmare, I was hoping OpenOffice would be a little more MS compatible... I think we will definitelty be going ahead to use Thunderbird as our email tool, I will check out GnuCash (is this Linux based only??), and the easyofficesuite.. thanks all so far

paul_h

5limJim wrote:

I was hoping OpenOffice would be a little more MS compatible...

I understand that version 2.0 of openoffice being shipped with the latest linux distributions is much better in this respect, but I haven't tested it myself...

Certainly worth running business software on linux - a very stable and robust operating system which is always less likely to fall over than MS offerings.

5limJim

thanks paul_h, like I say we're looking at it from a cost point of view, why pay loads for a Microsoft product when there are perfectly great free alternatives out there, our concern with linux is that neither of us is actually technically savvy...

lellie

5limJim wrote:

thanks paul_h, like I say we're looking at it from a cost point of view, why pay loads for a Microsoft product when there are perfectly great free alternatives out there, our concern with linux is that neither of us is actually technically savvy...

for linux you don't need to be these days - it's not all command lines - there are decent GUI based linux distros - I recommend Fedora Core - it's easy to use and install

Savvy_Sue

We were running OpenOffice under MS Windows, rather than Linux. The computers had come pre-installed with Windows, so that cost was already covered. From that point of view, you could 'suck it and see' before deciding.

If what you're doing is fairly straightforward, you'll barely notice the difference - the icons are similar, although sometimes in different places. If you're playing with tables in a text document (as opposed to in Calc), different colour fonts and formats, or fancy layouts like columns, well all I can say is that MS Word and OO just did not mesh together seamlessly in the end result. For example, in one document I created three equal columns across a landscape page with equal gaps between the columns in Word, but when I opened it in OO the RH column was too narrow and too far across the page. Disaster! And in Excel / Calc, calculations set up in one program didn't display correctly after being opened with the other, although the data in the cells was right. Pain in the neck!

As for Linux, I use Linux systems on other people's computers without really noticing the difference, and in some respects it is vastly superior. Although it has had a reputation for needing a far deeper technical knowledge than MS Windows, I'm not sure I agree with this any more, although I don't speak from experience. More from a feeling that I would benefit from a slightly deeper understanding of Windows at work, where I do things a bit blindly, or following advice from our technical consultants which I don't understand.

I think you will find an increasing number of people keen to help with Linux based systems as well should you find you need help. There are a few on the techie board if you wanted to snoop around there and see what people say. You could even post a link to your original question and ask for responses, or ask the Board Guide to move this post over there?

Oh, one other word of warning - my DH has both Linux and Windows at work, and has had problems getting a decent network printer set up. He's leasing a copier / printer, and the original supplier said it could do Linux, but couldn't. Don't know if that's an issue for you. But if it is, check it out THOROUGHLY first.

5limJim

Thanks all, your advice here really has been extremely useful and has opened my eyes to using free softwares, and the options available, if any of you are running your own business then I am sure you appreciate how important saving every penny before startup is... I'm going to look into all the info you've supplied (Thanks Savvy_Sue for the heads up on checking network printer options etc)...

crossleydd42

Do let us know the outcome, 5limjim!