Business and enterprise software, and other applications that help a business run

Open Office Draw – I have not yet transitioned to Draw, although I have used it several times. It seems to do a little of everything, and certainly seems to have everything that a user needs to create illustrations for documents and presentations. It is not Photoshop, although it will handle most image formats, including .psd files. Although it may not be Photoshop, or the combination of Fireworks and Freehand that I spend too much time in, but it appears to be a good journeyman application.

Open Office Impress – This Microsoft PowerPoint replacement is most capable. I had a consulting job as a Director once while a regular employee went on sabbatical for a year. Almost all management reporting was done via PowerPoint, so I got awfully good at it for a while. I instantly felt at home in Impress. It opened the most complex presentations that I have ever done, including my absolutely huge project management training master presentation. I can manipulate the pieces just like I can in PowerPoint. This one looks very solid.

Open Office Math – I am simply not qualified to judge this one. I have done a lot of statistics in my career, but straight math is not my thing. I’m going to have to leave this one up to you, if you need it.

Open Office Base – This looks like exactly what it is – a replacement for MS Access. I honestly have not used this much. Access began to annoy me years ago. It seems to get in the way of getting work done. Locally, I build databases in MSSQL Server. On Web servers I use mySQL. So I have not done any more with Base that build a simple database. It seems adequate for a personal database.

I have worked enough with Draw and Impress to know that the apps are solid for most users. They do as well as any Microsoft products that they would replace. I don’t know as much about Math and Base, because I don’t use the Microsoft counterparts. If those apps are important to you, I would urge you to download and install Open Office. It is a very well-behaved group of applications. Give it a try.

Tomorrow, the acid test: look and feel.