OpenOffice 2.0 Beta

I was talking with Dan earlier today about OpenOffice. As it turns out, I had occasion to spend some quality time with OpenOffice after that conversation.

Dan had asked about a few things concerning the new beta version -- 2.0 beta. Of course, we all know what beta means: "You 'beta' fix the errors". But, in this case, things seems fairly stable and after using Writer for about an hour tonight, I feel more confident about answering Dan's questions. So, I will do so here.

Dan had expressed concern about the look and feel of 1.x OpenOffice. I agree that those versions look almost as awful as KDE (;-)). It looks all boxy and 1980s. However, the new beta shows promise. The icons are slick and the splash screen is cool. Overall, there is an improved level of "polish".

Dan also asked about speed. We all know that OpenOffice 1.x was more bloated than me after eating Papa John's. It was slow and there was lots of lag when simply clicking menus and even just typing text. In the beta, things are much different. Startup is not much faster, but menu response is better and there is no lag when simply entering text. These observations are made on my computer, a lowly 933Mhz with 256mb ram.

Coupling the new UI scheme with the speed improvements and OpenOffice 2.0 may start to be a viable Office alternative.

That's for you, Dan!