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Hi Guys,
I am looking for an alternate to MS Office for home laptop (which I am using for part-time freelance work, not on office but programming related). Buying MS Office is costly and can't afford at least at this moment.  I need word and excel only.
I saw few alternates like Apache OpenOffice, LibreOffice, KingSoft Office etc. I know free ones may not be as best as MS Office but which would be closest? Anyone has first-hand experience to guide which one is more like MS office? 
Thanks,
Milind
modified 16-Oct-14 15:07pm.
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I've used OpenOffice and it does OK for my personal stuff. On the other hand, Office 365 is only $99/year and if your freelance work won't cover $99/year in expenses, I think I'd call it a hobby, not work.
CQ de W5ALT
Walt Fair, Jr., P. E.
Comport Computing
Specializing in Technical Engineering Software
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Thanks for the reply. OpenOffice seems promising one. Freelance work is s/w related not ms- office related, sorry for the confusion in original post specified that in the post now.
Thanks,
Milind
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I would go for LibreOffice instead. It's a fork of OpenOffice since Oracle screwed the OpenOffice pooch.
Also, look into Office365 from Microsoft. It's online and I believe there's a free version. Also, for simple documents, Google docs is pretty good. And the Google's spreadsheet is actually fairly rich.
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You must accept one of two basic premises: Either we are alone in the universe, or we are not alone in the universe. And either way, the implications are staggering.-Wernher von Braun
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.-Albert Einstein
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Libre Office. Open office was 'bought' by Oracle via Sun; last time I looked at it, it was obsolete and virtually unmaintained, although it went to Apache Foundation in 2011 and they may be maintaining it more actively.
When Oracle took over, the developers promptly left (so that all they had was a collection of unmaintained and obsoleting code), and started LibreOffice.
Not being sure, I would compare Libre and Open. I use Libre on my personal boxes, it handles practically any MS file type, including 2010 Docx made with Templates, although there are some macro compatibility issues at deeper levels with Excel. This means that if your xls projects are complex, some parts won't automate in Libre.
I would recommend it; I last looked at oo in 2012 and it was pretty poor, although as I said, Apache now has it.
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I've used OpenOffice for many years, I don't use it a lot but it does what I need it to do.
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Yeah, I'll second OpenOffice.
I DO use Office 365 at home. But that's only because I'm doing some work at home that requires it. OpenOffice does far far more than I need, and does it well.
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Another vote for OpenOffice. I've got it on USB, and also use Calc and Writer on systems where Office is installed. It does not come with a Ribbon, does not have those annoying and useless gradients. It's small and fast, but the way it displays a Word-document might differ slightly from Word itself, which may result in empty pages when viewing it in Word.
Bastard Programmer from Hell 
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
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agreed; OpenOffice rocks. I have both on my work machine (MS office 2010 and OpenOffice)and only resort to Word when i absolutely have to.
OpenOffice has a few quarks, but I still prefer the layout. (hope someone at MS is listening  )
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Quarks as opposed to neutrinos 
I prefer LibreOffice, because I like the layout and compatibility a little more.
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Personally I like LibreOffice, as it has a ton of features. It is a very active fork of OpenOffice that was created when Oracle bought Sun Microsystems, due to fears about what Oracle would do to the suite. It even has LDAP Support (e.g. Active Directory)[^]!!!
What do you get when you cross a joke with a rhetorical question?
---
The metaphorical solid rear-end expulsions have impacted the metaphorical motorized bladed rotating air movement mechanism.
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Ditto, though I've found Publisher and Outlook hard to leave behind.
Anna ![Rose | [Rose]](https://codeproject.global.ssl.fastly.net/script/Forums/Images/rose.gif)
Tech Blog | Visual Lint
"Why would anyone prefer to wield a weapon that takes both hands at once, when they could use a lighter (and obviously superior) weapon that allows you to wield multiple ones at a time, and thus supports multi-paradigm carnage?"
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Anna-Jayne Metcalfe wrote: Ditto, though I've found Publisher and Outlook hard to leave behind.
If a customer would ask me to do something in Publisher, i would role laughing on the floor. Of course I could do for a minimum 2000 Euros per Hour, but it's lost lifetime. I could do the same with Indesign (or another Desktop-Publishing software) in a quarter of time, I could do it better, it would look nicer and I would have fun doing it.
MS Publisher is the silliest bunch of crap I ever started on my computer. 
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That's a valid opinion. but I don't think it's helpful in this context.
Anna
Tech Blog | Visual Lint
"Why would anyone prefer to wield a weapon that takes both hands at once, when they could use a lighter (and obviously superior) weapon that allows you to wield multiple ones at a time, and thus supports multi-paradigm carnage?"
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Anna-Jayne Metcalfe wrote: That's a valid opinion. but I don't think it's helpful in this context.
You are right. But when I read something about "MS Publisher" I automatically change to be a rant troll. Sorry. 
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No worries. Rants are fine from time to time, but I'm very wary of trolls at the moment so don't be too surprised if I reach for the halberd.
Anna
Tech Blog | Visual Lint
"Why would anyone prefer to wield a weapon that takes both hands at once, when they could use a lighter (and obviously superior) weapon that allows you to wield multiple ones at a time, and thus supports multi-paradigm carnage?"
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If you are connected to the Internet all the time, take a look at MS Office Online[^]. It is free and may be enough for your needs.
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Thanks. That seems to be better choice compared to Google Docs. I was looking for something similar, probably I didn't try hard. Thanks.
Thanks,
Milind
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If you shop online you can find a single installation license which cannot transfer. You can get Office Enterprise for less than $100.
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Google Docs is good. their Sheet thing isn't as powerful as Excel (nothing is), but it's good for basic stuff.
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I've tried the various OpenOffice products and hated them.
Office 365 Personal can be purchased from Amazon for $69.99!
If desperate, log into your OneDrive account and use the online Office stuff; it's pretty fantastic.
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OpenOffice and Google Docs. Both great and both free.
There are only 10 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
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I used OpenOffice a while back.
I didn't like it because... it looks like it is compatible with MS Office, in most ways, but is just enough different to drive you nuts. If you are handing off any documents in electronic form to an office user (or vice versa) you could get into compatibility/display problems which will look unprofessional.
On the other hand, if none of the documents will leave your computer, and it is just for tracking your own information, it will be fine.
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Kingsoft rocks.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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