The free alternatives for Microsoft Office

The Office suite has been a real money spinner for Microsoft.
Cheaper or free alternative office software from companies like Oracle and Google have now features compared to those offered from the biggest software maker Microsoft.



Offline alternatives (desktop alternatives) to Microsoft Office:
1.Oracle's OpenOffice 
An offline alternative i.e. a desktop alternative is Sun's OpenOffice (now Oracle's OpenOffice).

It however does not seem to support the new Office 2007 format (i.e. docx, pptx, etc.). However if you are still using the older versions of Office i.e. Office XP or Office 2003 , nothing can beat OpenOffice.

2. IBM Lotus Symphony
IBM Lotus Symphony supports the new versions of  Microsoft Office (2007 and upwards).

Online alternatives to Microsoft Office:
1. Google Docs 

To use Google Docs all you need is a Google account. Google Docs takes collaboration to the next level. It is free to use, however comes with an online storage of 7 GB.

2. Microsoft Web Apps 
Microsoft has also launched an online office suite called Microsoft Office Web Apps. 
The best thing is that since it is created by Microsoft it has no issues of compatibility with it's desktop version.

Related posts:

1. Google Docs Versus Microsoft Office Web Apps
2. How to save Microsoft Office documents online with the help of cloud computing?