Likelihood to Recommend In my opinion, Apache OpenOffice is best suited for writing, editing and proofreading texts in any language. You can also download additional language packages that really take up little space in your PC's storage. Of course, Apache OpenOffice is comprehensive of spreadsheet-/drawing-/database-related softwares and so on, but I primarily use it for writing and editing my own texts. I don't see any scenarios where it is less appropriate, at least so far.
Read full review As an open source rule engine and product suite, Drools is well suited for the small and middle scale business to manage and integrate the rules to build the rule-driven system which can process the business-critical data and events to produce the automated decision. It is better to use Drools in the well-secured environment (back-end behind the DMZ), not putting it on the customer-facing front or exposing it directly the to public where may bring direct security risk in the enterprise environment. Drools still needs a lot hardening on the security side.
Read full review Pros The number one strength of OpenOffice is the flexibility it gives. We can open any file type, save any file type - it's pretty much invincible. Even if we're going to work on this in a different program, just being able to open some of these ancient files that we get from local city governments is a huge win for us. It's also administrator friendly - I'll use it a lot on the road because the licensing is so much easier to deal with than trying to check out a license from a server or make sure that everybody has internet connectivity. It just looks pretty! It's legitimately a quality product, the layout looks good, it's not nearly as pushy as "other suites," and for the money it's the best! Read full review Writing rules with business focus Rules evolution and maintenance separate business logic from program code Read full review Cons There seem to be issues using this app in Windows 10. It worked fine when we used it on Windows 7, but after we upgraded the network with NEW Win 10 computers, it takes a very long time to process commands. It will not allow any upgrades. Read full review Fusion doesn't support persistence of working memory, which brings some extra high availability risk to our business. Guvnor still has a lot room to be implemented, it is not so user-friendly for non-technical people, so a lot of business users complain it is hard to master. Rule execution server doesn't even have JMX implemented, hard to be monitored. Drools is still lacking support for key Web services standards. Read full review Likelihood to Renew It is a cheap alternative; however, with
Microsoft 365 licenses also dropping significantly, we might opt to go in that direction to maintain uniformity.
Read full review Usability It is so easy to use and produces quality work comparable to its paid competitor, Microsoft Office. I highly recommend this free software to any who need to make the switch to powerful and free Office software.
Read full review Support Rating Is there really support? There is a user forum but I do not see much developer input. Support options are limited. The most recent (Sept 2019) version of the product seems to have issues operating under Windows 10, yet there are few recent comments in the community forum, most comments are regarding older versions.
Read full review Implementation Rating We found that it is possible to use Open Office to accomplish everything we need. Some tasks required searching for steps on Google.
Read full review Alternatives Considered Apache OpenOffice is less intense on our computer systems and saves us a ton of financial resources. Since our document creation and editing needs are typical of a small business and not very complex, Apache OpenOffice is sufficient for us. We think that almost any smaller to medium sized business would feel the same way if they don't have a need to make or edit complex documents.
Read full review I did not participate in drools choice. I can only compare drools with the previous situation which was using nothing.
Read full review Return on Investment Moving to OpenOffice will save the company the cost of 500+ of Microsoft Office licenses in our company. Because it is cross-platform, we could also save 500+ of Microsoft Windows licenses if we move everyone to Linux. On the negative side, the lack of online collaboration and browser support may be an issue when you use clouds like Box, Workboard etc. Read full review The IT department quickly adopted Drools as it is a very good java-based rule engine, which saves a lot of time to meet the project timeline and balanced our business requirements. Recently we start considering the OpenRules, which may be more business user-friendly. Read full review ScreenShots