I have been using OpenOffice.org 3.0 since it went private beta (May-June time period), and NeoOffice since 2.1, but now use NeoOffice 3.0 Early Access (the beta of 3.0; since I paid support to the project, I have access to it). Until EA came out early this month, I had set default to open all MS Office files in O
rg because 3.0 had newer features than NO 2.2.5. But once EA came out, I set NeoOffice to be default for all.
Four major reasons:
1. OO 3.0 does not handle Hebrew (RTL language) properly. NeoOffice handled it correctly in 2.2.5, and now 3.0 EA also handles it correctly. (BTW, O
rg 3.0 on Windows and Linux do handle Hebrew correctly, just not on the Mac). This is critical for me.
2. NeoOffice 3.0 EA is even a little faster than O
rg 3.0 (I just downloaded 3.0.1, and it is faster than 3.0). But both are much better than MS Office. I don't even have MS Office on my MBP (2004 is still on the eMac).
3. Some of the actions of O
rg 3.0 are not consistent, whereas NeoOffice gets right. It feels like a Mac program, rather than a port.
4. NeoOffice 3.0 EA is very stable, as much so as OpenOffice. I don't have to fix things.
Considering that NeoOffice is ported and maintained by two people, this is a phenomenal effort. I had used NO for more than a year, but finally decided to support the effort late last year. Well worth it. The developers are very responsive to problems, questions, features. They are also up front about what they can do and what they cannot do.
I keep both programs up-to-date to see what is happening. Overall, NeoOffice has been a better solution.