Google wants to improve OpenOffice.org and is going to hire programmers to make this happen.

Based on the StarOfice from Sun, OpenOffice is Microsoft’s Office serious enemy.

According to Chris DiBona, manager for open-source programs, Google wants to improve the applications because sees a great future in it. “We want to hire a couple of folks to help make OpenOffice better,” DiBona said.

DiBona also talked about Google’s interest in open-source software, because many of the company’s programmers are from this community. “We use a fair amount of open-source software at Google. We want to make sure that’s a healthy community. And we want to make sure open source preserves competitiveness within the industry,” he said.

Google’s interest about OpenOffice.org was shown earlier this month, when the search giant and Sun partnered to promote a few software projects.

OpenOffice.org has become the center of attention lately. Why? Well after the announcement of The commonwealth of Massachusetts that it will adopt the OpenDocument format, and reaching the 2.0 version, OpenOffice.org, at its 5 years, has become a powerful alternative to the leading Microsoft Office. It wasn’t a surprise when Google revealed its interest about the office suit. We all know about the rivalry between the two giants.