Open Office

Open Office Productivity Suite is another free application that is included within the applications of Ubuntu. If you have been using Microsoft Office, then this free download would be a replacement for the Office package. I will tell you upfront that there are some issues with the sideshows or documents that you have previously created in Microsoft Office when they are opened in Open Office. I am currently in the process of making slideshows for my classroom using Open Office. At this point, my students are still using PowerPoint 2003 on the newer computers in my classroom and some of the older models have PowerPoint 97. I would like to begin uploading this Suite so that we are all using the same software at school and at home.

I would say that one of the greatest features about Open Office is that I can share the website with my students and they are able to go home and download the same program even if they are not using Ubuntu. In the past, students would not be able to work on projects unless they had the same software at home. The availability of Open Office corrects that problem. Open Office Productivity Suite is another Open Source application.