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

Since the employee's workstation desktop is pretty much the ultimate business software, and because I recently purchased a MacBook Pro specifically in order to avoid ever having to use Windows Vista, this is likely to become a recurring theme in this column. The OS move has forced me to rethink what I use for software. And while I was involved in that task anyway, I am taking the opportunity to locate and use more Open Source software in my day-to-day business and personal life. As I have said before, I would much rather donate than send money to Microsoft.

I am writing this column using NeoOffice Writer and, coincidentally looking out across the broad valley that is all I can see from my deck, off to the distant ridge that lives between me and the lake. NeoOffice is a fork of Open Office specifically made for OS X by the nice folks at Planamesa. I used Open Office when I used Windows (remember, No More Microsoft than absolutely necessary) and loved it. NeoOffice is more closely coupled to other native OS X apps than is Open Office, so it is now a better fit for me.

It still has a word processor (like Word), a spreadsheet (like Excel), a presentation manager like PowerPoint), a personal database manager (like Access), a drawing program (way better than Paint), and a math formula program. I like each and every one of them better than their Microsoft counterparts. They are easier to use, faster, and contain much less useless and unnecessary bloat. I have yet to be disappointed in any of these apps.

Each one reads and writes the files from Microsoft Office, in some cases with more alacrity than does Office, and from a number of other systems, as well. These are some of the most common applications on the business desktop. I changed from being a MS Office user to being an Open Office user in the time it took to do the install (ten minutes) plus an hour or less of familiarization time. I switched from Open Office to NeoOffice in just the install time. I have never felt lost in any of these apps. They are highly recommended.

You can find more about these Open Source applications in our previous columns about the Open Office Suite and apps, which are almost identical to those of NeoOffice: Suite, Writer, Calc, and the other apps, as well as at the NeoOffice site.