[NurseBerryAddict]

Just wanted to let everyone know that Microsoft released Office 2010 as beta which is free to use until October 2010. It includes Word, Power Point, Excel, Outlook, One Note. I've downloaded it and it is awesome. Brand new UI, tabs that make everything easy to find, and great new features.

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[jlb21]

A link would be helpful. Sure, somewhere on MS's website, but still, a link...please.

[trucky]

Microsoft Office 2010 Beta Professional Plus - Free Download

[_StephenBB81]

Microsoft Office 2010 Beta Professional Plus - Free Download

Been running it for about 2 weeks. Very happy with it excel has been improved so much, outlook has gmail like conversational emails, and powerpoint is far more powerful

Ms did a great job kicking open office in the head and keeping it down

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[trucky]

Ms did a great job kicking open office in the head and keeping it down

Open Office is still FREE and does almost all the same things that M$ Office does. I use both, and recommend Open Office to my clients unless they have plenty of cash to spare.

[_StephenBB81]

Open Office is still FREE and does almost all the same things that M$ Office does. I use both, and recommend Open Office to my clients unless they have plenty of cash to spare.

I don't know what you do, but Open office has nothing on Office 2007, and even less on office 2010 in speed of use,

the ability to pull webpage data into excel has improved even more in 2010 vs 2007, and 2007 was pretty good anyway.

NO ONE touches Powerpoint for presentation building, I hate powerpoint, but it is by far the best tool I can find to build and share presentations, and with 2010 allowing webcasts of your presentations natively it just got even better.

Has Openoffice brought the Ribbon interface in? I know at first people hate the Ribbon interface but after 30 or 40 hours of use, you can't live with out it, I was so glad when MS Paint went Ribbon, it once you learn where things are and know the keyboard short cuts Ribbon is far better then drop down.

I will agree that Free is nice, but I've never had to pay more then $99 for a full version of Office, between package specials with computers, and Promotional things from Microsoft, you can get Office for very affordable rates for sub 10 copies.

[trucky]

I do basic and advanced word processing and spreadsheets every day. Both M$ and Open Office do the job just fine. If I had the choice I would choose M$ but if someone took it away tomorrow I would be happy with OO. We are replacing M$ on thousands of desktops with OO in this coming year. The pilot group has been very happy with OO. So, I guess, to each his own and whatever works best for you. Sometimes economics dictate one path when another might be more fun or look better.

[_StephenBB81]

When word processing is concerned, take out publisher and only use Word, then I will agree that the difference between OO and MSO is negligable,

But if you assume a 2 year life on a Computer and its software, and MSO saves 10 minutes a day in processing time, it has paid for its self for a minimum wage employee over the course of those 2 years.
I talk about TCOO all the time, and the fact that spending a little upfront can be a cost savings over the long term,
But if you are providing OO training, to those moving to OO from MSO then the upfront cost savings will take longer to pay out as the time savings from using MSO wont exist.

Side note, I no longer work in the Technology field, I have no vested interest in seeing MS or OO do better or worse.