OpenOffice.org Project green lights OpenOffice 2.0

OpenOffice.org 2.0 was developed over the past two years by a community made up of independent programmers and widely known technology companies including primary sponsor Sun Microsystems, Novell, Red Hat, Debian, and Intel.

Advocates of the new version of the software suite point to the applications potential as a serious contender to Microsoft Office. "OpenOffice.org is on a path toward being the most popular office suite the world has ever seen; providing users with safety, choice, and an opportunity to participate in one of the broadest community efforts the Internet has ever seen," said Sun COO Jonathan Schwartz in a statement.

New to the Office suite are the database module called OpenOffice.org Base and native support for the OpenDocument format. The application also sports an overhaul to the user interface.

OpenDocument is an XML file format for saving office documents such as spreadsheets, memos, charts, and presentations. It was approved as an OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards) standard at the beginning of this year. OpenDocument, set as a default in OpenOffice, is cited by proponents as a way of fighting vendor lock-in associated with proprietary formats. Already, it is the required office format for internal archives of the US State of Massachusetts.

Also new to version 2 is BASE. It allows users to manipulate database data within OpenOffice.org. Users can either create and modify tables, forms, queries, and reports, using their own database or BASE's own built-in HSQL database engine.