Free alternatives for everyday PC apps

Published October 6, 2008

(Page 3 of 7)

Application: Microsoft Office Standard 2007
Why we hate it: From students to professionals, at one point or another everyone has needed a copy of MS Office to create documents, spreadsheets, or presentations. However, this bloated piece of software hogs up hard drive space, takes forever to launch, and did we mention it's expensive?
Alternative: OpenOffice, AbiWord, SSuite Office
One might think MS Office is a necessary evil, but fortunately for the world, it's not. Originally developed by StarOffice, OpenOffice is a full product suite with a range of apps that closely mimic MS Office. This cross-platform download includes a word processor, spreadsheet program, presentation program, graphics editor, and more. Taking the suite concept a few steps further is SSuite Office, which also includes a media player, desktop search engine, and PC VoIP software. For those times you just need to write, there's AbiWord, a modest, yet capable word processor that won't bog your system down to a crawl.
Savings: About $399

Please note that, although prices sometimes fluctuate or expire unexpectedly, all products and deals mentioned in this feature were available at the lowest total price we could find at the time of publication (unless otherwise specified).

We love comments and feedback. Please be respectful and add comments that aren't mean-spirited, offensive, abusive, inaccurate, or misleading. Please don't post affiliate links or links to sites that use affiliate links. dealnews reserves the right to remove content as it sees fit and makes no representation as to the accuracy of information, opinions, claims, or advice shared here by dealnews readers. Thank you!