OO is a great piece of software considering it's free.
I experimented with OO in an attempt to not have to buy MS Office 2007 on a new notebook. I found it worked well and did enough for me as long as I didn't have to interact (swap files) with other MS Office users. I found enough quirks, mostly minor but still a bother, interacting with MS Office users that I bought MS Office 2007. Very happy now even with having to learn the new Office 2007 user interface. For a student, MS Office literally costs almost nothing (huge discounts for students). I wouldn't send a kid to college with anything else. YMMV.