Open Office

In my placement last week I noticed that all the computers in the computer lab (PC's) didn't use Microsoft Word. Instead they used a program called Open Office, and every computer in the school had it, even the teachers. I went to openoffice.org and found out that it is an open-source program. Open-source means that it has a completely open development process and anyone can report bugs, request new features, or enhance the software.

I can definitely see why a school would want to use this software instead of one that they have to pay for like Microsoft Word. This is completely free of any licencing fees and offers pretty much the same thing as other programs.

There are however a few issues with it. My counseling teacher (CT) sent me a file of her class schedule and I was unable to open it on my computer. I feel like issues like this would be likely to come up, but it would be worth working through them when you think about how much money you could save your school. Some sources say that open-sourced software has saved people $60 billion dollars a year (link).