Question: Software licensing for MS Office continues to be extremely expensive in our school district. Are their viable, free alternatives to MS Office for Windows and Macintosh computers that provide compatible word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation file sharing?
The IT Guy says:
Yes, absolutely. OpenOffice for Windows and NeoOffice for Macintosh are fully-featured productivity software suites which offer excellent file compatibility with MS Office users on either platform. The price is right: Both these software solutions are open source and entirely free to use. Students can even take home installation CDs and put these programs on their home computer, if they do not currently have Office-compatible software installed. Doubt the functionality and file compatibility? Download one or both programs and give them a test drive for yourself. They are fully-featured and powerful. Get off the productivity software upgrade treadmill and start running free, open source software instead. The vast majority of your users are not likely to miss out on needed functionality of their Office suite software package.
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