The Finance Ministry has begun distributing Open Office, a
suite of basic software programs similar to Microsoft Office,
for free. The ministry also said that it would begin to
distribute thousands of Open Office CD-ROMs throughout the
country. The offer is expected to last at least through
2004.
According to a report in the Jerusalem Post, the
ministry's goal is to lower the price of a computer. But the
offer is also believed to be a bid to break Microsoft's
monopoly on the Israeli software market. Microsoft Office,
which can cost up to NIS 2,000, is currently installed on
almost every personal computer sold in Israel.
According to the main English source of the program,
Openoffice.org, an estimated 16 million+ people have
downloaded the software and many more have installed it from
CDs. Translations have been issued in over 30 languages.
WRITER is a powerful word processor for creating professional
documents, reports, newsletters, and brochures. CALC is a
feature-packed spreadsheet with built-in charting tools to
generate impressive 2D and 3D charts. IMPRESS creates
effective multimedia presentations. DRAW will produce
everything from simple diagrams to dynamic 3D illustrations
and special effects.
It also includes Database User Tools with all the tools
necessary for database work in a simple spreadsheet-like
form. They support dBASE databases for simple applications,
or any ODBC or JDBC compliant database for industrial
strength database work.
The Hebrew version of the suite can be downloaded for free
from www.openoffice.co.il. It is available for Windows as
well as for Linux and Solaris.
The Israeli Finance Ministry underwrote part of the costs of
translating the programs into Hebrew.
