Thinkpads Forum

Having reformatted my HD and reinstalled the OS, I realized that my copy of Office '97 is still packed in an unknown box from my last move. I don't really feel like tearing my attic apart looking for it right now, so I'm making due with OpenOffice. I'm also experimenting with LibreOffice, which I understand is related.

Anyone have any experience with these? Any suggestions on the best free office suite? (any suggestions beyond these two programs?)

My big gripe about OpenOffice (at least in the past) is that it behaves like WordPerfect, and I much prefer Word.

LibreOffice is a "fork" from OpenOffice. They are still very similar, and both are still free (as in beer) but I would recommend LibreOffice, and that is where the bulk of developers seem to have migrated to.

Since they both come from similar roots, however, whatever you didn't like about OpenOffice, you will probably still not like about LibreOffice. I'm not sure what specific parts of (or which version of) WordPerfect you would like to keep, but I'm pretty sure that if they aren't in LibreOffice then you won't find them in any other current, free office suite.

LibreOffice doesn't come with a Microsoft Outlook replacement. For email and calendar functions, I would recommend Mozilla Thunderbird (for email) with Lightning (which is a Thunderbird "add-on" that gives you calendar functions).

Phil.