OpenOffice.org has announced that their (free!) bundle of desktop applications known as OpenOffice 1.1 has passed all the beta testing and is ready for the public to enjoy. The open source product (which means free to you) has a Microsoft-like bundle of applications that will handle all your word processing, spreadsheet, Web pages, presentations and drawings.

Choosing open source products is a great way to reduce the costly overhead of so-called off-the-shelf applications. They are generally free or available for a small fee and are supported by a large community of programmers and developers dedicated to providing and sustaining quality products that are generally intended to be shared rather than sold for profit.

Several institutions, states, as well as some governments, have switched to open source products primarily to save on the expensive and restrictive licensing fees.

You can download OpenOffice 1.1 here.