Beware of Malware and Bloatware with Free Office Software

When writing the chapter on spreadsheets for my eBook, I researched free Office software that included a spreadsheet application.  Caution: LibreOffice was one that I found.  When I went to install it, I noticed that it was bundled with unwanted items (bloatware), so I cancelled the install immediately.  Unfortunately, it had already made changes to my computer!  It changed the apps that opened files, for example, .doc files would not open with Word.  It changed my search engine and default search page.  For example, it changed the search page to Incredibar.  I had to go to the Control Panel on the Windows PC to remove Incredibar malware. 

I decided to include the information in the eBook to warn others that I DO NOT recommend downloading LibreOffice.  Apparently, the problem may have been my own unique experience because a couple of days ago PC World was inviting users to test the app.  My recommendation for free office software is still OpenOffice. OpenOffice is now an Apache product.