FOSS Of The Week: OpenOffice.org

As we hinted (all right, explicitly revealed!) in our giveaway post, we ‘d be kicking off some new sections on Gigjets soon, and one debuting this friday. Well, it’s time we lived up to that promise. So here is the newest section of Gigjets, which will feature every friday, called FOSS of the week!

What is FOSS anyway?

FOSS stands for Free Open Source Software. Let’s get this step by step. Open source implies that the source code of the software is available to those who use it. This implies two things. First, you can know exactly how the software works and what it is doing. Secondly, you can make alterations to the source code to tweak the original software and improve its design or features, as you deem desirable.

Note that free does not necessarily imply that the software is for free. Rather, it implies the freedom to copy and re-use the software. Also, it implies that if you make changes to the source code of a FOSS, say “Program X”, you can market your re-designed software as, say “Program XX”, without any licensing or legal issues.

Okay, so why should I care about FOSS?

FOSS is being increasingly recognized as individuals and organizations as the way forward. Currently, software that is not FOSS has fine print that is unacceptable, and is not even known by most people. If you make a copy of non-FOSS software to give to your friend, or try to figure out how it works, or use it on more than one computer, you are liable to be fined or put in jail. That is the fine print. Thus, FOSS is being recognized as a movement that respects our freedom and liberties. Also, lot of FOSS are freeware or shareware, meaning that you can enjoy the benefits of the software, while taking pride in the fact that you are part of the FOSS movement.

The Debutant

Now that we have cleared that up, and you hopefully understand what FOSS means and why it is beneficial, the idea of kicking of such a section is to showcase a different FOSS each week, so that people are more aware about FOSS and its benefits compared to traditional, non-FOSS programs, and eventually start using FOSS instead.

So for the the first FOSS of the week, we though we ‘d kick things off with a productivity office suite, which is something most people require or use at some point of the other. Note that popular office suites such as Microsoft Office are not FOSS. So without further ado, say hello to OpenOffice.org!

OpenOffice.org is a FOSS and is an office suite. OpenOffice.org is the result of StarOffice, a proprietary office suite developed by StarDivision, and later acquired by Sun Microsystems. Upon acquiring, Sun Microsystems released the code of StarOffice for public download, with the software now open source and known as OpenOffice.org. Subsequent versions of StarOffice are based upon the source code of OpenOffice.org, along with some proprietary elements.

OpenOffice.org has it all and more, including:

• Writer, a word processor, like Microsoft Word. It is supports most formats including .doc and can export files as PDFs. It’s flagship format is .odt, a format that it hopes to popularize by the fact that it’s support is vendor independent.
• Calc, a spreadsheet, similar to Microsoft Excel. Calc has a numer of features not present in Excel, like graphing. Like Writer, it can export files as PDFs. It also supports .xls format.
• Impress, a presentation program, like Microsoft PowerPoint. It can export presentations as Flash files, allowing them to be played on any Flash player. It supports .ppt format. It lacks ready-made templates, but they can be downloaded & added.
• Other programs like Base, a database management program, similar to Microsoft Access, Draw, a vector graphics editor and Math, a program to create and edit mathematical formulae, which can then be embedded inside other documents.

Clearly, OpenOffice.org has nothing missing. In fact, it is at par with any non-FOSS office suite out there. And most importantly, not only is it available for free, it is also compatible to any web host and available for all operating systems out there! All these features surely make it a killer FOSS, and a worthy debutant of this section.

Interestingly, a lot of institutions in the world, including India, use OpenOffice.org for their regular work, to show their support for the FOSS movement and to rationalize their software procurement. Institutions in India include IIT Bombay, NABARD, Supreme Court of India and Allahabad High Court.

So all you geeks out there, stop using Microsoft Office, or any other non-FOSS office suite, and download OpenOffice.org from www.openoffice.org. Until next Friday, when we showcase another worthy FOSS for your pleasure and utility, it’s goodbye from FOSS of the week.