OpenOffice 3.0 beta

OpenOffice 3.0 beta has been released (click to download). Why do you care? Because this is the first version for Mac OS X that doesn’t require X11 to operate. OpenOffice 3.0 for Mac OS X features an Aqua interface, among the other new features present in version 3.0.

My initial impressions are:

• Finally!
• Damn, that’s a big file (167.4 MB)…
• and – man, is this thing SLOW!

Still, it is nice to see a native version of OpenOffice available for Mac OS X. Personally, I love iWork and it does a great job at handling my word processing, presentations and spreadsheet needs, along with conversion of Office 2007 and older docs. But one can’t argue with a decent free product that handles the same tasks. If the community can get OpenOffice 3.0 a speed boost, it may just become a hit on the Mac.

Oh, and why you’re at it, get rid of the icon. It sucks.

Category: Software