14 DAY TRIAL // A few days after the release of the third Release Candidate for the open source office suite, the final version for OpenOffice.org 2.0 has been also announced. So, after two years of sustained efforts, the open source community has come up with a new solution, able to go against the better positioned players.
The suite contains a text editor, a spreadsheet software, a data base and presentation tool. OpenOffice.org 2.0 will be available in 36 languages for both Windows and Unix.
OpenOffice.org 2.0 is the first stable version of the office suite to be compatible with the new ODF (OpenDocument Format) standard. It will also be compatible with the Microsoft Word documents.
OpenOffice.org Base is the component of the database, written in Java. The improvements brought to this version also extend in the graphical domain, the renewed interface offering users the possibility to select multi-panel viewing and desktop integration.
Still, if Firefox was a surprising case of David and Goliath, the OpenOffice.org 2.0 situation is much more complicated, and convincing users to give up on Microsoft's alternative is quite a challenge.