August 6th, 2007
Public beta of Microsoft Project open-source competitor to launch at Linuxworld
Microsoft’s Office family of products is poised to get yet more open-source competition. 
On August 7, the first day of the LinuxWorld San Francisco show, Projity will officially release a public beta of OpenProj, its freely downloadable open-source competitor to Microsoft Project project-management software.
There are already more than 50 customers testing the Projity OpenProj software, according to company officials. The OpenProj product works on Windows, Linux, Unix and Mac OsX, Projity says. OpenProj can open native Microsoft Project files, Projity officials said.
“(Microsoft) Project is not included in any Office Suites so it is not pre-installed on any computers which means even Windows users need to purchase very expensive software for their project needs,” according to a press statement released by Projity.
My ZDNet blogging colleague Dana Blankenhorn recently noted that there are talks underway to integrate OpenProj into OpenOffice. As far as I know, Projity is not intending to announce any kind of OpenOffice partnership this week, however.
Projity already offers a software-as-a-service Project-ON-Demand offering. The company says it has signed up more than 100 companies as customers of its SaaS product, with much of the demand coming from non-U.S.-based companies.
Microsoft has been relatively quiet about its future plans for Microsoft Project. Is there a “Live Project” service in the works? I wouldn’t be surprised. And Microsoft’s next version of its Team Foundation Server, codenamed “Rosario,” includes hooks into Microsoft’ Project Server product.
Do you think OpenProj will make any inroads against Microsoft Project?
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