While OpenOffice.org has always sported the ability to talk to MySQL databases, connecting the productivity suite to the popular database engine wasn't particularly straightforward. Establishing a connection to MySQL involved installing and configuring a connector software, which did require some skills and made the whole idea less attractive.

But it seems that you don't have to put up with this situation for much longer. A recent post on the GullFOSS blog has announced the availability of a native MySQL driver for OpenOffice.org. You can download the alpha version of the driver which works with OpenOffice.org 3.1. The blog points out that you should use the stock version of OpenOffice.org as the version that comes with your distro may not work with the extension. And, as with any alpha and beta software, you should use it with caution and resist the temptation to deploy it in a production environment. The driver is distributed as a regular .oxt extension, so you can install it using the Extension Manager. Once installed, the extension adds the Connect native option to the database connection wizard which allows you to specify connection settings. You can find further info about using the driver on the project's wiki page.