OpenOffice gets a push!

Sun’s OpenOffice initiative gets help from an unexpected supporter.  Big Blue has formally joined and decided to donate some Lotus Notes code to OpenOffice project.  OpenOffice is an open source office suite which is compatible with most major office programs such as Microsoft Office and Lotus Notes.  With IBM now backing the project, OpenOffice has a good shot at becoming a major "commercial" player in the office productivity field.

The suite itself has all the major components needed by normal users.  However, from business user’s perspective it lacks one major feature: an integrated e-mail and calendar client.  There are many open-source clients available which rival the MS Outlook, e.g. Evolution, Thunderbird etc.  These can be easily integrated.  In terms of features, GNOME’s Evolution could or should have been included in the OpenOffice.  It is light, has plenty of features, and is bundled as default e-mail client with most Linux distributions.  Thunderbird from Mozilla Foundation is more popular, and it has been targeted towards Windows users.  But, it still has not been able garner the same public support as its browser sibling Firefox. 

OpenOffice 3.0 is due to come out in fall of 2008.  Nevertheless, the current plans do not include an e-mail client in the release.  With IBM pushing the Notes in OpenOffice, the developers might now seriously think to include messaging capability in the suite. Businesses and corporations can now see OpenOffice as a viable productivity solution.

Wish list!

Going forward, the OpenOffice project should also think of including an instant messaging (IM) client.  With Microsoft Communicator and Lotus Notes Sametime available, internal IM is becoming a necessity in the corporate world.  GAIM (now Pidgin) would be an excellent choice; it can interact with almost all the major IM services including Sametime and MSN.  Time has come for OpenOffice project to try to work and consolidate other projects and provide users with an added functionality.