8 Reasons Why OpenOffice 3.0 Could Be The Tipping Point Application (or not?)

It has been nearly 24 hours now that OpenOffice.org website has been under unprecedented demand following the release of the third version of OpenOffice.org, so much so that the site is being completely hammered.

You may still be able to download the various flavours of the Open Source business suite from other websites though (betanews or Softpedia).

Here are 10 reasons why OpenOffice is now ready to take on its main opponent, Microsoft Office in a race for hearts and minds.

(a) It is and will continue to be free. Ever since Sun Microsystems released it to the open source community. And now with more than 100 million downloads, it is by far the most popular free application around (not counting in Firefox). As the global economic slowdown forces companies to review their expenses, proponents of Openoffice.org will find it easier to convince decision makers that free is the price to pay. But then, very few companies foot the hefty initial outlay for Microsoft Office Licenses as this is often spread over a period of time to reduce the cost of acquisition. This can, in many cases, fall around £10 per seat per month, which for many companies is worth the hassle.

(b) Openoffice is now better supported than ever with more than 700 books available at Amazon and hundreds of courses accessible worldwide. However, corporate support is still quite thin. For example, openoffice.org is not present on Keystone learning systems, VTC or Learning tree, arguably three of the bigger e-learning companies around. And those who do offer courses have forgotten to update their courses.

(c) Openoffice is multi platform with now native support for Macintosh users. But we would dearly wish for an online version and a mobile one which would pip Microsoft. Openoffice is too bloated right now to work on any portable platform and even Openoffice.org portable needs to be trimmed down before envisaging an Android-version.