Existing users, 
I hope, as spass_dabei says, that Open Office will get a Cocoa makeover, though if it does it may no longer be free as that's a lot of extra work. At the present time Open Office looks like an old version of MS Word. One wonders how it can have any appeal as a Microsoft alternative when it looks like an antique version of a Microsoft product. It may be that the look is constrained by X11, but that's a techie quibble. Most users are concerned with what they see before them on the screen, not why it looks that way. I haven't tried Open Office on LINUX or Windows so I don't know if it's equally retro there or not. If it is, the same barriers to wide adoption would apply. However important it may be, cost is not the only factor in a product's success.
At the same time, Open Office seems to have influenced in the price cuts for the student edition of MS Office. Microsoft is apparently feeling the heat of competition from this and other quarters. So I wish the people working on the Open Office project all success.
OpenOffice.org
full-featured office productivity suite
Version: 3.0
Word 5
Feedback Type: Commentary
Contributed by: WhiteDog Sunday, October 23 2005 @ 12:56 PM PDT
Product Platform: MacOSX
Used Product For: Less than a month
Comments
Word 5 - Joe Wheeler
<[NeoOffice/J] feels like an OS X-native app (because it is!)> NOT! It relies heavily on Java, which slows it down considerably, and it is based on OpenOffice 1.1, whereas we now had OO 2, so powerful and solid that I can't imagine anyone doing all that is now available with Java and some C+++ code. Once you tell X11 to forget system keystrokes, suddenly all you Mac Command keys work where it was Conrol before. Open Office 2 is fast even on really modest machines, like old iMacs and even unsupported OS X machines like Beiges (which is what I use, with Tiger no less).Wednesday, October 26 2005 @ 02:11 AM PDT
Word 5 - Edwin-schemer
Whether OOo or Word "looks better" is a matter of taste.What matters is -- does it do what it needs to, and at a "reasonable" cost.
Free is definitely more reasonable than what MS charges.
So if you like "Word' use it. If you don't like X11 (I happen to like it) don't.
If you want a more "pont-and-clicque" versioo,. try NeoOfifceJ.
(This was posted by an emacs-LaTeX afficionado, as you may have guessed by my nickname -- Edwin is my middlke name).
Sunday, October 23 2005 @ 04:28 PM PDT
Word 5 - Tim McNamara
OpenOffice.org does not and never will follow the Apple Human Interface Guidelines (or whatever the exact name is). It will follow the Unix stadards. However, OO.o has had a Cocoa makeover. It's called NeoOffice. http://www.neooffice.orgCheers!
Thursday, January 19 2006 @ 11:17 AM PST
Word 5 - jspectre
i'm using a word processor to type up docuements. not gawk at how pretty the UI is. give me something fast, stable, that can read and write my files.who cares if the UI looks like word 5 or word 1 or a blue kangraoo?!?! i guess if you want a pretty UI go out and buy office, if you want to type up documents and save some $$$, use OO.
Thursday, January 19 2006 @ 11:33 AM PST
Word 5 - cosborn72
I run OpenOffice on the Mac, Win Xp and linux(kubuntu) platforms, and it looks far better on the latter two. In XP, OO looks and feels almost exactly like MS Office. There is no comparison in linux (MS Office isn't available), but OpenOffice is fully intergrated into both the KDE and Gnome desktops.If you're looking for something a little more aqua, you could try NeoOffice. It is based on OpenOffice, but runs native on OSX and is better intergrated. I use both. Although I prefer OpenOffice, NeoOffice is fine for most basic functions.
Thursday, January 19 2006 @ 11:59 AM PST
Word 5 - deejemon
What some people appear to be forgetting (or not understanding in the first place) is that look-and-feel has as much to do with the usability of the software as the core functionality. You may have an appliation that is the most feature-packed and feature-complete, but if it's got the worst UI in the world, users aren't going to _want_ to use it. It's true of websites and it's true of applications.Dismissing UI complaints as "who cares" if it will "type up documents" is pretty ridiculous. I mean, please, we're Mac users. If that was truly the case, we'd use Windows. Or TextEdit.
I wonder if OpenOffice.org has considered/is looking at XUL to implement the GUI. It's not perfect, and looks a little funny at times, but it's a whole lot cleaner than startin' up a whole X11 thing on top of the requirements of the application itself.
Thursday, January 19 2006 @ 05:06 PM PST
Word 5 - sinclair44
You may be interested in NeoOffice. It's a full OS X overhaul of OpenOffice 1.1.4 and feels like an OS X-native app (because it is!)http://www.neooffice.org/
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Sunday, October 23 2005 @ 02:42 PM PDT