Technology: Free (Or Cheap) Lunches For Your Computer

Editor's Note: Although Open Source software is usually associated with GNU/Linux, many applications are cross platform and will work on Windows, Linux and other operating systems.

For more than two years, this column has been written using Open Source software. This started when I downloaded a copy of StarOffice 5.2, an office productivity suite similar to Microsoft's Office, to evaluate it for an article. To my surprise, I discovered that I liked the suite's word processor so much that it quickly became my writing tool of choice. The fact that it does an excellent job of opening and saving documents in Office formats means that I can read and send attachments to those who are still beholden to Microsoft – a definite plus.

Like most people, I'd always assumed that a free Open Source program like StarOffice would be vastly inferior to an expensive offering like Office. Instead, I found a program that stands on it's own and contains many features that Office lacks. Of course, there are some components found in Office that are lacking in StarOffice, most notably the ability to write and execute macros, a feature I'm happy to do without since macros are nothing but a security risk to those of us who don't use them.

For the last several months I've been writing this column using OpenOffice.org, the free Open Source version of StarOffice's 6.0 release. When Sun Microsystems decided to give StarOffice to the Open Source community, they established OpenOffice.org as the Open Source version of the suite, keeping StarOffice as a proprietary product. Actually, the only differences between these two programs is that StarOffice contains some licensed third party applications, notably a database, dictionary and thesaurus. In a way, this is a moot point, since OpenOffice.org comes with an excellent Open Source developed dictionary and thesaurus and most home users don't need a database, since the spreadsheet application can usually serve the same purpose. OpenOffice.org will integrate with third party databases, so if you've been using StarOffice 5.2, you should be able to integrate your existing database into it.

StarOffice/OpenOffice.org is a fully functional office productivity suite that's more than ready to give Office a run for it's money. The suite contains a word processor (Writer), a spreadsheet program (Calc), a presentation program like PowerPoint (Impress) and a graphics editor (Draw). Both StarOffice and OpenOffice.org are available for the Windows and Linux operating systems. A developers' (test) build of OpenOffice.org is available for Mac's OS X, which means that the next version of StarOffice will probably be Macintosh ready.

Earlier versions of StarOffice had trouble gaining acceptance because of an integrated desktop that took over the entire computer, using a lot of memory and causing the program to be somewhat clunky. With the new version, the desktop has been replaced with the MS Office model, opening each module individually while still enabling the user to integrate functions between the various modules.

Probably the biggest improvement to StarOffice/OpenOffice.org is in it's file format. Files are no longer stored in a binary format, but utilize XML, a standard developed primarily for web applications. This results in extremely small file sizes (last weeks column created an 18 Kb Word file, but only a 7 Kb OpenOffice.org file). In addition, this format also creates documents that will never become obsolete, since XML can be read in a simple text editor.

StarOffice 6.0 is available as a download from Sun Microsystems or on CD at a cost of $75.95, which allows the program to be installed on up to five computers. The StarOffice version also comes with some free technical support and a user's manual. OpenOffice.org is available as a free download at OpenOffice.org, but support is limited to a users' forum. If you're familiar with previous releases of StarOffice, I recommend the free OpenOffice.org version. If you're new to StarOffice (or if you need a database), pay the 76 bucks for the technical support and manual.

Another great program based on Open Source code is Netscape's newest browser, version 7.0, or (better yet) Mozilla 1.x. The fact that these browsers are to be recommended is astonishing, given Netscape/Mozilla's track record since being bought by AOL. Although Netscape inadvertently gave boost to the organized Open Source movement, for a long time they became an Open Source embarrassment. Mozilla (the open source version of Netscape) only recently released a stable build and Netscape 6 was a disaster that caused serious system crashes.

With Netscape 7 or Mozilla 1.x, however, the folks at AOL/Netscape/Mozilla have redeemed themselves. As with StarOffice/OpenOffice.org, these two browsers are essentially the same (both are free), with the branded Netscape offering some proprietary features that are lacking in Mozilla. Both are already proving themselves to be the coolest browsers ever. Among it's many features are the ability to tab windows, so that you can display more than one web site on your screen in the same browser window. Another nifty function allows you to highlight text (but not a link) for a web search. For the security conscious, both are infinitely more secure than Microsoft's Internet Explorer. I recommend Mozilla over Netscape, since the proprietary product is reputed to come with some spyware. In any case, download one or the other immediately. Use the Netscape web site, or Mozilla.org. Either one will completely change the way you use the Internet.

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