Though MS office stands out to be the best suite which offers most compatible applications that fit all your office and documentation needs, it turned to be back at following aspects
  1. Cross-platform compatibility – MS office works great on MS Windows, though it supports the other prominent platform Apple’s Mac it wasn’t been available for another bunch of Linux platforms.
  2. Expensive – MS office prices bit higher which would appear to be a high sum from an individual’s view. But it definitely worth the individuals who could buy it and any enterprise that has lots of documentation work to go with.
  3. Proprietary – MS office uses file formats listed under (Office Open XML) which is developed and owned by Microsoft.
So, if we are one among those users impacted by either of the above aspects then you would have to consider alternative office suites listed below

Open Office (Star Office)
  • The Most used office alternative which is initially known as Star office and later turned to be Open office. The product is a freeware which was initially developed by Sun microsystems and later moved into Oracle Corporation’s hands and further to be open source by Apache. This is an open-source project and free to use…
  • The Open office uses popular formats listed under Open Document Format which are always ensured to be compatible with other office suites as well. However One can still be able to use Microsoft’s Office Open XML file formats
  • The Open office is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux as well.
  • Though it used to be the default office suite for Linux operating systems, it is not anymore since libre office came to existence
  • For more details have a look at www.openoffice.org . Download it from here

Libre Office
  • When sun microsystems is collapsed and overtaken by oracle they concentrated much on java leaving Open Office aside. This brought up a revolution and Libre office came into existence as Open office is handed over to OpenOffice.org and further turned to be open source under apache’s license AOO
  • As most developers are moved to Libre office from OpenOffice.org. They’ve finally managed to build a great office suite that ports in Windows, Mac, and Linux as well.
  • Libre office suite supports all the file formats listed under Open Document Format and Microsoft’s Office Open XML
  • This suite is indeed great and thus popular linux operating systems have turned it to be the default suite in their operating systems. Those operating systems are Debian, Fedora, openSUSE and Ubuntu.
  • For more details have a look at www.libreoffice.org . Download it from here

Calligra Suite / KOffice
  • Calligra Suite is a comprehension of KOffice and other  graphic art applications that came into existence in 2010. It is developed by KDE after the original developers of Koffice disagreed with the community and went to develop a standalone KOffice and further shutdown KOffice in 2012.
  • Calligra is available for Windows, Linux, and Mac as well.
  • Calligra is not yet a default office suite in any Linux operating system. Though Kubuntu is developed by KDE it is not yet ported as default one in it and the reasons were unknown.
  • The best part of Calligra is it can be ported in Desktops, Smartphones, and Tablets. This is due to its high dependency on QT a cross-platform GUI kit…
  • The portability of Calligra may bring it a scope to be default office suite in the emerging mobile operating systems like Firefox OS. Ubuntu etc.
    On Android, an experimental version is already available and that would become available for everyone soon…
  • Calligra suite also supports all the file formats listed under Open Document Format and Microsoft’s Office Open XML.
  • For more details have a look at www.calligra.org. Download it from here (or) here