CHARTING AN OPEN SOURCE
Open Office represents a no-cost alternative

OPEN OFFICE 1.1, a suite of open source office applications developed for Windows, Linux, and MAC OS, is "shipping" this week.

To date, over 15 million users have downloaded the suite, a word processor (named "WRITER"), a spreadsheet ("CALC"), a multimedia presentation application ("IMPRESS") which provides special effects, animation and high-impact drawing tools, and a drawing program ("DRAW") which states you can produce everything from simple diagrams to dynamic 3D illustrations and special effects. Finally, there's Database User Tools for database work, but in spreadsheet-like form.

Users can either download the suite for FREE at http://www.openoffice.org, or purchase (or even distribute) it. OpenOffice.org maintains a list of CD-ROM distributors from which one can buy CDs.