OpenOffice.org 2.0 Nears Final Release

The first release candidate of OpenOffice.org 2.0 is now available for download, signifying a final release may not be far off. The free open source office suite has been hailed by users as an impressive alternative to Microsoft Office, and forms the code upon which Sun's StarOffice 8 is based.

"Now is the time to test the RC, and we urge all to download it, test it, and file issues with the QA project on what you discover," reads a notice on the OpenOffice.org Web site. Windows users will need to remove older betas of version 2.0, due to a problem with the Windows Installer.