My new Acer only came with a 60day free use of Office ... looking for a cheap option as all I use is Excel and PP ... noted on eBay that Open Office claims to be "clones" and way cheaper.

Anyone use Open Office and if "yes" .. how do you like it?

thanks

I use OpenOffice.org 2.4 regularly on my own PC, and I absolutely love it. I never quite got the hang of Office 2007, and when the trial ran up on mine, I also got OOo. My only complaint with regard to it is on the Microsoft side: they need to have the ability to import without the use of a plug-in. But, considering you can save in Microsoft formats, that's not too big of a problem, is it?

The program is free and can be downloaded from: http://download.openoffice.org/
There are also paid versions, but as far as I know, you pay only for additional things, not the OpenOffice itself...

I find the program very good - some things you can do faster than in MS Office... Anyway it takes a little time to get to know the program...

I do use MS office but used OpenOffice before that. The main reason for the switch is that MS office has a better spell checker.

I have been using OO.o for several years now, without any problems. For the most part (unless your WP sheets are very complex, or you use a lot of macros in your spreadsheets) the OO.o files are readily translatable to MSOffice files (except 2007, soon to be rectified; but then most organisations have been hesitant to convert to 2007 ,anyway). There is fairly good on-line documentation, and a user forum with many people willing to answer your questions or help with problems.
I found the transition from MS Office to OO.o fairly easy, since the user configuration and icons are similar. That you also get a presentation and a database module with OO.o is certainly a plus.
Cheers,
John

Been using OpenOffice for a few years and don't have any problems.
Highly recommend.

thanks all.

I downloaded OO and didn't check anything but an Excel spread sheet and ... no problems.. Looks like a winner. Will contribute.