In light of the recent developments of Microsoft's Ad-supported Office Starter 2010, I think it's quite appropriate for people to start looking for an alternative works software. Personally, I think this is a double edged sword for Microsoft. The good part is that their office software will be available to more people for free, but then the downside is that you'll be annoyed by ads flashing on your screen. It might not appear that bad, who knows? 2010 is still months away and we don't know what can change in the next few months, but as it stands, this doesn't seem like something to suffer.

For another thing you don't just suffer ads while you're working on an imortant document or presentation, but you'll have to suffer a lack of functionality that is common with all the other free teasers that want you to buy the whole thing.
Microsoft Office 2010So what is Open Office and why is it more beneficial? Long story short, Open Office offers the same functionality as Microsoft Office, except it's totally free software and you don't need to suffer ads while you're working on it. Why wasn't this popular a long time ago? The same reason why Linux isn't mainstream; Apple and Microsoft have dominated the mainstream of operating systems forever.
Linux is merely an alternative for those who can deal with not being able to have the software that they're used to on those operating systems. Anyway, back to Open Office.
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What is Open Office?