OpenOffice docs really are secure

Saving a document with a password in MS Office used to be a joke.  For all I know it still is (I can't afford a copy to check).  Would OpenOffice be any better?  I decided to try.

Using a paltry 6 character password, I expected one of the pieces of cracking software to break it in short order.

Not so.  One ran for 48 hours before giving up, but give up they all did. Using a decent password of, say, 12 characters, is calculably sufficient to strain the NSA.

So saving a document with a password on OpenOffice really is worth it - just don't forget that password!