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Well, I honestly never thought I would see the day that a Mac user openly and publicly advocated a Microsoft product in favour of an open source or non-proprietary software package. It's true. I was sifting through the site this morning, slurping my morning coffee and dropping crumbs from my morning Danish, when I came across this moaning, whining contributor who had not one good thing to say about Open Office or OpenOffice.org, aka OOo, as they put it. Apparently it's a pile of c* and people shouldn't be using it.

As you can imagine, I was very surprised to hear such vehement criticism from a Mac user of all people all I can imagine is that they have become so wrapped up in the beauty and smoothness of their Mac OS X desktop that nothing will ever be good enough again. I can understand that, I love Macs and loved working with one for the short while that I was able to until it became blatantly obvious that it was never going to give me the power I needed to get my job done and I traded in for something a little more Intel.

Anyway, getting back to the point, I think this guy was just a bit cranky (I'm not sure whether they are a guy or a gal since they claim to write under a pseudonym) and might reflect a little more generously on the joy of Open Source when he has calmed down and had some time to think a bit. I have to say at this point that I love Open Office. I think it is a great package. It is a pioneer in a world of over-inflated software prices and licensing gone mad. Projects like the Open Source project demonstrate to the world what is possible when minds get together and work in the true spirit of productivity instead of greed. Here in the UK Microsoft products cost a fortune and for the average consumer on the street who has just blown nine months hard-earned savings on a new Vista machine there is not much left in the pot for office software to go on it because oh yeah, Microsoft don't give anything away with their fancy new operating system. It all costs extra baby. So what's the first thing our proud new Vista owner does when he gets home and, after a long and arduous fight, gets connected? He downloads Open Office and instantly adds productivity and value-add to his over-hyped OS.

Now, back to Mr Open Office. I don't think it's fair to moan about another writer's article without at least giving readers a chance to review it themselves (and no doubt help boost his rating), so have a read for yourself: http://www.helium.com/tm/45829 8/people-recommend-office-actu ally. In all likelihood the moderators here at Helium will stop this piece ever seeing the light of day so my comments are probably wasted, but I thought it important that some weight be put behind the boys and girls at Open Office. Incidentally, I've written this piece using the Writer element of the package and have found it no more difficult then tapping away in the Word environment. In fact, I would go so far as to say that the interface is infinitely more pleasing on the eye than the 'official' product.

The beautiful thing about Open Source is the community spirit and 'openness'. The author of the piece I have commented on here had a problem with the 'freaking stupid coders' at Open Office. The solution is simple: contribute, help them out, offer your input or are you afraid to put your money where your mouth is and live up to your love of letting your 'opinion be known' and 'sharing your knowledge' (or work for the good of others instead of your pocket)? Check out http://contributing.openoffice .org/index.html

Might I also suggest the help manual if you are having trouble with auto-complete and bullet points? Sorry, as a tech author I feel duty found to plug the Help file if I don't who will?

Learn more about this author, Alex Samson.
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