There are quite a few Open Source Project Management Software products available these days that are beginning to encroach on Microsoft’s MS Project Software.
Yesterday, I downloaded OpenProj from Projity. It’s a pretty functional piece of software. From what I can tell after a few minutes of use is that it pretty much has most of the functionality of MS Project, without the costs and large overhead associated with using a typical MS software product.
Installing and using OpenProj was incredibly easy. After downloading and unzipping the files, all you need to do is click on the openproj.jar file and off you go. You will need to have Java Runtime Version 1.5 or later, which is available free from Sun.
Projity offers a subscription based Project-ON-Demand solution that competes with products like e-project and others.
Either solution will allow you to use your existing MS Project files. The look, feel, and functionality is so similar to MS Project that there will be a minimal learning curve. For me, I was up, running, and using the product in less than a half hour and that includes the installation.
Plus, since there is not the overhead associated with most MS software, OpenProj comes up quickly and runs fast. A winner in my view.
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Open Office
Nice props to the Projity folks and OpenProj! I agree with your note and have been using both Project-ON-Demand their SaaS offering and OpenProj for awhile. I do think Microsoft is finally in for a good run with these folks. It is about time, we’ll see if they can do it but for now I am exceedingly happy and will not go back as it is a great solution!!!!