Office 2008 or Open Office?

J

JediK

Limp Gawd
Joined
Apr 16, 2002
Messages
467
I can get Mac Office 2008 at for about $20 bucks through my work. I'm wondering if I should just get that since it doesn't cost very much or just grab Open Office? :p
 
Openoffice on Mac isn't very good (yet), IMO. If you can get iWork or MS Office for a reasonable price, I think you should go for it.
 
Gotcha, I thought OpenOffice 3 was running native on Mac OS now.
 
JediK said:
Gotcha, I thought OpenOffice 3 was running native on Mac OS now.
Click to expand...

It is, but the interface leaves a lot to be desired. Since it's free, I'd recommend at least downloading it and seeing what you think of it, but for $20, you should find MSOffice to be enough of an improvement to be worth its price.
 
I have Office 2008 for the Mac. I also got it through work for $20. I don't use it. Can't stand it. It takes FOREVER and a day to load, even on my Mac Pro. I use OpenOffice 3.0 now, its much nicer as far as I'm concerned.
 
Yeah, Office 2008 is really unresponsive on my Macbook pro... I just use Textedit really, :rolleyes:
 
I have both. I use OOO 3.0 a lot more. I am more fond of the simplistic and clean design of OOO. I don't like how Office 08 is all over the place.
 
with OOo3 now having an official mac build I would definitely consider that
Plus MS-Office for mac (excel) doesn't have an equation solver for starters

Try OOo3, its free if it does what you want/need jobs a goodun
 
My solution is to run a virtual machine for Office 2007. Can't stand Office 2008 and 2004.
 
For the price I'd get office 08 just to have it for when its needed. Give open office a try and see if you like it more. If you do run it and have office for the times where open office will not get the job done.
 
what about Neo Office? I started with OO, then moved to Neo office. I liked it a bit better, not having to worry about the x11 stuff.
 
SlimShady said:
what about Neo Office? I started with OO, then moved to Neo office. I liked it a bit better, not having to worry about the x11 stuff.
Click to expand...

well OOo3 doesnt use x11, so I don't know what neooffice will do now.
 
I decided to get Office 2008, for $20, I couldn't go wrong with it.
 
Office 2008 runs extremely poorly for me. Its totally useable, but in comparison to nearly every other program i use its sluggish as all hell.
 
Cali3350 said:
Office 2008 runs extremely poorly for me. Its totally useable, but in comparison to nearly every other program i use its sluggish as all hell.
Click to expand...

Really? What are the specs of your machine? Do you also have the latest 12.1.3 update?
 
JediK said:
Really? What are the specs of your machine? Do you also have the latest 12.1.3 update?
Click to expand...

2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
2GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x1GB
160GB Serial ATA Drive @ 5400 rpm
SuperDrive 8x (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)

I assume i have that update, i click 'OK' whenever the update notification comes.

Like i said, its not slow. But Pages is a million times faster.
 
Cali3350 said:
2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
2GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x1GB
160GB Serial ATA Drive @ 5400 rpm
SuperDrive 8x (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)

I assume i have that update, i click 'OK' whenever the update notification comes.

Like i said, its not slow. But Pages is a million times faster.
Click to expand...

Well... I'll report back once I receive my copy! :)
 
If you can get office for 20 bucks definately do. OpenOffice interface looks like something that was designed in the Windows 95 days. If you just want to be able to type up documents and make simple charts/presentation OO is ok but since you can get office for $20 I'd go for that.
 
alex2792 said:
If you can get office for 20 bucks definately do. OpenOffice interface looks like something that was designed in the Windows 95 days. If you just want to be able to type up documents and make simple charts/presentation OO is ok but since you can get office for $20 I'd go for that.
Click to expand...

Yeap, that's what I'm doing. I thought I might as well. I didn't like user inferface on OpenOffice 2.x on Linux or Windows when I tried it a while back.
 
I'm not sure what all the fuss is about. I just installed Office 2008 and then installed the latest update. It took a few seconds booting up the first time to build the menus. Now it loads in one bounce. It seems fast enough for me. :D
 
Arch said:
I have Office 2008 for the Mac. I also got it through work for $20. I don't use it. Can't stand it. It takes FOREVER and a day to load, even on my Mac Pro. I use OpenOffice 3.0 now, its much nicer as far as I'm concerned.
Click to expand...

There's something wrong with your Mac if it takes Office 2008 that long to load. Entourage and Word takes about 10sec for each to load on my Macbook.
 
At least OpenOffice.org has fewer mathematical errors in its spreadsheet engine than MS Office does, even if it is a tad slower.
 
I'm not having any problems with office 2008. Open office is ok, but has some problems.
 
office 2008 would offer the best compatibility anyways, minus it's lack of VB macro's (which was not an issue for me, but for some i know it's an issue).
 
ive worked with a handful of excel docs with macros and have had no problems... it warns you about them being there, but doesnt seem to interfere.
 
i meant the ability to create new ones and use them, but yeah, that's good information.
 
The thing i hate about Word 2008 is the side toolbar screws up when you use multiple Open Spaces. The toolbar always end up in the wrong window.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top