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Microsoft Office has been the only single player in the office applications space. And is still going strong. It all changed when Sun Microsystems brought out the Open Office Suite that had all programs that Widows Office had. The best thing about Open Office was that it was free and open source. So people started to use Open Office instead. Companies did not procure Window Office products in bulk. Even if they did, they bought licenses selectively. Only for people who had extensive use of it.
Now you might ask, “Should I have Open Office or Microsoft Office for my company?” The answer we must say is not straightforward. Both programs have their advantages and disadvantages.
Cost
Open Office programs cost nothing. Yes, it’s a free download. And you get to do the same thing as you would do in Microsoft Office. Writer for word processing, Calc for spreadsheet program, Impress for PowerPoint and the list goes on. Open Office programs have little more added features as well.
Open Office Updates
If a patch or a software update to any program in Microsoft Office costs something, the same thing in Open Office costs nothing.
Customization
Open Office codebase is open to the public. If you are interested in customizing Open Office to suit your requirements you can do so. You can improve the workings of an Open Office program or build something new atop it.
Open Office opens anything
With Open Office you can import any file and open. You can open Word Docs, PowerPoint, Excel spreads and a lot more. This is because Open Office is based on open standards.
