OpenOffice.org
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Overview
OpenOffice.org, commonly referred to as "OpenOffice", is a free office application suite available for a variety of different operating systems. Currently it is being developed with a focus on Microsoft Windows, Solaris and supports over 80 different languages.[1]
Licensing and Development
Originally developed as the proprietary software suite StarOffice by StarDivision, the code was bought in 1999 by Sun Microsystems. In August 1999 version 5.2 of StarOffice was released to the public free of charge by Sun Microsystems. When Sun Microsystems released the source code under the GNU LGPL and Sun Industry Standards Source License (SISSL) in July of 2000 they did so with the intention of building an open source community around OpenOffice.org. The SISSL licensing standard was later dropped by Sun Microsystems in September 2005 and now is licensed exclusively under the GNU LGPL.
Future as Free
Chris Anderson wrote an article, "Free! Why $0.00 is the Future of Business", that describes the future of so many things in business becoming free or close to it.[2] OpenOffice.org is an application suite that exemplifies that concept of business. As an open source and community run software suite not only is it provided for free, but it can also be improved by it's main sponsor(Sun Microsystems) and other users. It's competing in the same market as costly Microsoft Office Suite, which has consumed about 95% of the office application market.[3]
References
[1]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenOffice.org Wikipidea article on OpenOffice.org
[2]http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/magazine/16-03/ff_free Chris Anderson's "Free! Why $0.00 is the Future of Business"
[3]http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=1795 Rivals Set Their Sights on Microsoft Office: Can They Topple the Giant?