The Alternatives to PowerPoint
Although Microsoft's PowerPoint application is the most widely used presentation software suite -- with a massive 94 percent market share according to Gartner -- there are several commercial and free alternatives with just as many features. Since PowerPoint files are a relatively open document standard, most other presentation applications can read and manipulate PowerPoint documents as well.
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Apple iWork Keynote
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The iWork office productivity suite is Apple's competitor to Microsoft Office. Keynote, the presentation application, was originally designed so that Steve Jobs could produce more effective presentations at conferences and meetings. From that purpose, Keynote has evolved into a full-scale application that can read and work with PowerPoint documents as well as Apple's own presentation format. Keynote, along with the whole iWork suite, is available only for Apple's Mac OS X and iOS operating systems.
OpenOffice Presentation
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OpenOffice is a free and open source alternative to the many commercial, office productivity software suites. Presentation is the OpenOffice version of PowerPoint. Although Presentation has good compatibility with most PowerPoint documents, there are some more advanced features that simply don't translate well. Additionally, after many licensing disputes, many developers and users have moved to a fork -- a new project using some of the old source code -- called LibreOffice, which looks to provide better all around support. However, OpenOffice is still widely used and is available for all major operating systems.
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LibreOffice Presentation
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As a fork from OpenOffice, LibreOffice is still largely the same application, even calling itself Presentation. Although small usability and compatibility features have been implemented that provide better PowerPoint support, the application doesn't differ much from OpenOffice as of LibreOffice 3. Like OpenOffice, LibreOffice supports the open document format for presentations and can also work with Microsoft PowerPoint documents. LibreOffice is also free and open source software that works on every major operating system.
Google Docs
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Increasingly, companies are turning to cloud computing for document and storage solutions. In addition to simple storage, cloud-based applications have begun to replace standard, desktop versions. One example has been the rise of the Google Docs suite that allows you to work on presentations and other office documents all through a Web browser. Other Web-based office suites, such as Zoho, have also gained some notice. As an alternative they aren't quite as robust as a stand-alone product, but the majority of users don't need more than simple presentation functionality.
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