I've recently started using Open Office in place of the Microsoft Office set. So far pretty impressed - anyone else had experience with this set?

It's pretty much equal to MS Office for most peoples use, I think. I used OO for my thesis proposal & presentation last year... I struggle to think of a reason for not using the free alternative.

That said, I was more or less forced into buying Ms Office because my employer-sponsor kept wanting stuff in that particular format set (more specifically, they wanted me to use templates defined in PowerPoint for a demo poster).

I use OpenOffice primarily because Windows7 Professional came with no native word processor. I honestly cannot detect a difference between OO and my copy of Word 2003, so I am in no rush to replace it.

Same. I've got it installed on my main comp and my netbook, no significant problems to report, but you do have to be mindful of passing around the default format to other people, especially att work or whatever.

I have it installed on my W7 laptop, but since I rarely use that for anything except for gaming, I don't use OpenOffice very often.

Been using Open Office since the early days. The latest major release, Open Office 3 is such a big improvement over previous versions. As for MS Office, haven't used that since 03/04, I know in the latest version the layout of the toolbars is all fuked, and thats as far as I got.

I'm still running the Student/Teacher copy of Office 2003 I got with this rig, so I've never had a real reason to try Open Office, but I'd definitely go with it for any future machines.

Real men use Notepad.

With a pencil and pencil sharpener!

No, a pencil and a knife.

I use Open Office on both my laptop running Linux, and desktop running XP. As it accomplishes a majority of what I'm looking for. Some of the formatting can be off when viewing a power point presentation, but it accomplishes the desired task. Additionally, in recent updates, Word 2007 can read the OO formats. Therefore, for most school-related papers and such, odt should do nicely. Assuming your professor is trying to open it on a school-provided computer.

Real men use Notepad.

Real men write on the hide of an animal they caught themselves.

Real men have dictation taken down by a bush, on a mountain... and then shortly thereafter decend with two tablets, etc, etc.

And then get really pissed off at those goddamned golden goats and smash them.

Real men have dictation taken down by a bush, on a mountain... and then shortly thereafter decend with two tablets, etc, etc.