OpenOffice, the open source productivity suite, has finally released version 2.0. With grumblings about Microsoft Office in government and a plethora of new features, OO 2.0 could be ready for corporate desktop.

OpenOffice.org 2.0 is the productivity suite that individuals, governments, and corporations around the world have been expecting for the last two years. Easy to use and fluidly interoperable with every major office suite, OpenOffice.org 2.0 realises the potential of open source.

With new features, advanced XML capabilities and native support for the OASIS Standard OpenDocument format, OpenOffice.org 2.0 gives users around the globe the tools to be engaged and productive members of their society.

OpenOffice 2.0 sports a new database front end. Whether it can challenge MS Access in usability is a wait and see, but it does sound interesting.

OpenOffice.org always had database front end tools, but in past versions they were very hidden. OpenOffice.org 2.0 starts to handle databases like any other application, i.e. a new database can be created via the “File - New” menu. For novice users OpenOffice.org provides a new Table Wizard that allows creating database tables without any knowledge of databases or SQL. The new embedded HSQLDB database engine, based on Java technology, allows creating “database documents”. These simple database files don’t require a back end database server like MySQL or Adabas D. All information (table definitions, data, queries, forms, reports) is stored in one XML file.

You can download OpenOffice from their site using bittorrent