Free Office Suites

I really like MS Office no matter what version but then I feel guilty about using it when I find out that the one in my computer was a pirated version (well, I'm not exactly blameless). So I remove it and download free office suites to use instead. I'm still testing these suites. I thought I should put this here so I won't try the same suites over and over again (my memory sucks!).

IBM Lotus Symphony
I have tried IBM Lotus Symphony Suite before. It was really good and I really like its interface. However it only consists of Documents (like MS Word), Presentations (like MS Powerpoint), and Spreadsheets (like MS Excel). There is no database application to replace my MS Access. I didn't want to have to have multiple of same programs in my computer so I didn't reinstall this suite. To download the installer, one has to register first. Good thing I still have the installer from before because I don't even remember my UserID now :D

OpenOffice.org
One thing I do like about this office suite is that I don't have to register in order to use it. Other than that I still don't like it as much as I did for MS Office or IBM Lotus Symphony. I don't know why I don't like it even though it works okay. Maybe it's the learning curve? I still can't use OpenOffice Base. It keeps asking me to save my MS Access file in another format. It could be that I just don't know how to use it yet.

Google Docs
I am also considering the idea of using the online version of office suite. The good thing about Google Doc is it can also works offline. I still haven't test that yet. Anyway there are 4 applications available and they are Documents (like MS Word), Presentation (like MS Power Point), Spreadsheet (like MS Excel) and Form. I like the Form application. It is used to make survey forms, quizzes forms and such. It's really fun! Other applications work really well too but there is still no database application. Why? Why? Why?

At this rate, I might have to combine applications from different suites after all.