For most people, though, what matters about Open Office is the quality of Writer and Calc. Are they as good as Word and Excel? In the cold light of day, the answer is no. If you compare the free tools against Microsoft's products, you'll notice the advanced tools and templates that are lacking from Open Office.

However, that's not the issue here. Most of us will barely ever scratch the surface ofthe options available in Word or Excel, instead focussing on the tools that are needed to create documents such as letters, inventories and shopping lists. If this is what you want to do, you'll find that Open Office includes everything you could possibly need. And the closing argument has to come down to price.

There's simply no justification for spending what Microsoft charges for Office unless you're going to use its powerful features regularly. If you only need an office suite every so often, oryou regularly create simple documents, we strongly reconunend giving Open Office a try before spending any money on an alternative. After all, what have you got to lose?