LibreOffice vs OpenOffice.org

[pauliw25]

Would somebody please tell me what is the difference? Do they have different features? Is one better than the other?

[therabi]

Would somebody please tell me what is the difference? Do they have different features? Is one better than the other?

There are limited differences between LibreOffice 3.3 beta2 and OpenOffice.org 3.3 RC1. The big difference is that LibreOffice includes code from the Go-oo.

HTH

[pz1]

The big difference is that LibreOffice includes code from the Go-oo.

Which means in User terms?

[RoryOF]

As Therabi says. But we really have little experience with LibreOffice yet. If you are using OOo, there is no point in immediately changing; it is more important to do some actual work than changing for the sake of changing. Some of the changes from the go-oo forks may improve multimedia hooks for presentation, but we are all waiting to see what happens.

[franx]

Hi,

LibreOffice 3.3.0 Beta 2

First round...
→ Search found 151 matches: +LibreOffice

My comment: Re: Clip art
<http://user.services.openoffice.org/en/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=35074#p160805>

[franx]

... well, this is a nice feature (from Go-oo):

Navigator / Headings

[pz1]

As Therabi says.

Well actually Therabi said nothing! He just repeated what others are saying about these inclusions, without further explaining what functionality is meant. What I am interested in, is if this silly bug (see my signature) in Autoformat of tables is finally solved. Seems trivial to me, but I am not a programmer.

[Hagar Delest]

The Navigator view is set to show 1 level only on my system (still Beta 1). Not sure it's normal but that's very clumsy, I've to expand each level of each outline...

By merging some go-oo code, there are some bugs added. For example the dynamic links for internal cross references are broken at PDF export, that's a show stopper for me.

LibO is still an ideological product for the moment IMHO. Maybe it will be fun to have new features from plenty of contributors but if it's detrimental to stability and critical features, it will add confusion.

[mriosv]

Maybe it will be fun to have new features from plenty of contributors but if it's detrimental to stability and critical features, it will add confusion.

+1, the first it's the stability.

[franx]

There's an overview of the LibreOffice development (developer activities):
→ First week development summary
<http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/libreoffice/2010-October/000311.html>
→ 2nd week development summary
<http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/libreoffice/2010-October/000812.html>
→ 3rd week development summary
<http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/libreoffice/2010-October/001143.html>

[Warning: not easy to read ]

[pz1]

Maybe it will be fun to have new features from plenty of contributors but if it's detrimental to stability and critical features, it will add confusion.

+1, the first it's the stability.

+1, next bugfixes

[simosx]

My view of situation is that the OpenOffice.org core developers are keeping back the evolution of OpenOffice.org.
Instead of investing in training more outside developers, they want to do all the job themselves in their slow unscalable way.
And this frustrates outside developers and companies who want to really invest in OpenOffice.org.

As it is now, with the copyright [joint] assignment that Oracle/Sun demands, Oracle is able to pull the plug if they wish to.
There is no mature community yet that can take the LGPLv3 code and develop it. I believe the LibreOffice community tries to do exactly this, make the community self-sufficient in developing LibreOffice.

OpenOffice.org is too critical to the open-source community to keep it in the confines of a single company.
I believe we need to develop OOo like the Linux kernel, where each developer has copyright of their code
and thus have guarantee that the thing remains open forever.

[acknak]

... Oracle is able to pull the plug if they wish to.

How would they do that? I'm not sure what you mean by "pull the plug".

[simosx]

... Oracle is able to pull the plug if they wish to.

How would they do that? I'm not sure what you mean by "pull the plug".

By not releasing any of their new code under the LGPLv3.

[foxcole]

Oracle is not continuing support of the open source projects it took over from Sun in the spirit of open source. From what I've read, they prefer Oracle employees to do the development and they prefer to control the code.

To me, this means these projects will no longer be open source, but proprietary freeware, if indeed it continues to be free. With LibreOffice, TDF is addressing that problem along with the stagnation issues. I think it's the right move, but it's sad that Oracle insists on competition instead of open community support. I've lost respect for that company.

[Hagar Delest]

It would be not only sad for Oracle, it would also be shooting their own feet if OOo becomes a mere freeware. The vast majority of the supporters will move to LibO I think. The installed base having switched to OOo has done that to avoid proprietary code I guess and in such case, freeware is not acceptable neither. Those who have switched for costs issue will install the best one between OOo and LibO.

It seems that TDF is indeed the right move. Let alone the timing (just before a new release) and the manners (quite all the community has been taken by surprise), they must now manage to follow what the Mozilla Foundation has made.

Will Oracle continue to pay for a team working on OOo & Oracle Office if fewer and fewer users are interested in those products?
Is there a point for Oracle in competing when its credibility has been so severely damaged? If they want to make a better product, isn't it energy loss when you could cooperate directly with the community?

I'm also rather surprised by the somehow lack of participation from the big players (Google, IBM). Could IBM see this moment as a good one to promote Symphony?

I do hope that LibO will focus on stability and quality before new features. Else, it may be devastating for the whole community of users (MS may be counting the points now).

[RoryOF]

I wait to see what happens. OpenOffice as it stands suits my work, writing and the occasional presentation. It would be good to see multimedia handling (sound and video) improved and unified across platforms, so that OOo presentations were truly platform independent. I have had no stability problems with vanilla OOo, but there are sufficient reports of file loss to make one wish that stability be made a priority. Ultimately I shall vote with my feet, but need to feel I am going to move to a better platform when I do move.

[pz1]

Well the Oracle-Libo battle is the best that happened to Microsoft in many years I am afraid.

[spikey27]

I've used both the Windows and Linux versions of OOo, and each works well.

And I thought OOo was in the public domain, whereby nobody "owned" it.

But when they started talking about Oracle buying the rights to it, I became concerned.

If - no make that when - anybody owns and/or controls the rights to something in the public domain, there's going to be problems down the line when they decide to use it, whether to forcibly control users, or to withhold or limit their ability to use the product.

Oracle is like any business - they are in it to make money. I wonder if they have an altruistic side as well. Perhaps the way they handle OOo's future will determine that.

[Hagar Delest]

Of course Oracle goal is to make money. But it doesn't mean that there is no place for free software. The community can help in several ways: developers can propose code and users can help with the quality tests (reporting bugs, ...).

But nobody owns OOo, the proof is that it has been forked.

[PGAGA]

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Sun, now owned by Oracle, bought StarOffice because it was cheaper to buy an office bundle than to license office. Releasing to the public was a means of generating some resources for continued development. Sun and now Oracle have maintained a commercial branch. Sun's added commercial addons: templates, Word filters, dictionaries, filters. SO9 became a support release, but with Oracle Open Office 3.3 the product was again commercial - this time a separate build branch is maintained in support of Oracle Cloud Office.

Despite Sun/Oracle's self interest in the product, the code remains public and different development forks exist. To see the number of possible forks/branches see my signature.

Phil

[Loiseau2nuit]

Hi there !

I've read all this with interest BUT I'm afraid this not answering the main question of the topic : Is OOo still "state of the art" and will it stay so in times ? (I have serious doubts when using daily OOo 3.3 but LibO 3.3.2 did not really convinced me more...)

Forking is good but if it creates more bugs than it solves them and/or if it''s just a matter of changing for changing without anything really new to existing problems... well, actually I don't know what to think ???

[RoryOF]

The answer is that we don't know. Until Oracle make clear what they mean by "Community based project" and we see how it fits in/amalgamates with the other forks, who can say. All we can do is wait.

[Loiseau2nuit]

OK, thanks for feedback

[thomasjk]

See http://www.libreoffice.org/

[RolandTheGun]

I just tried to download and install the latest version of OpenOffice and it now seems that you can't install it without paying for support. The costs are not high but I think Oracle's reasons are now becoming clear.

[lgusaas]

I just tried to download and install the latest version of OpenOffice and it now seems that you can't install it without paying for support. The costs are not high but I think Oracle's reasons are now becoming clear.

Go to http://download.openoffice.org/index.html
OpenOffice.org was and is free.

[Bill]

I just tried to download and install the latest version of OpenOffice and it now seems that you can't install it without paying for support. The costs are not high but I think Oracle's reasons are now becoming clear.

You need to install "OpenOffice.org", not "OpenOffice".

[sawchmo]

Looks like OpenOffice has been given to Apache; check out http://www.marketwire.com/press-release ... 521400.htm

Just ran into this but the comments on filehippo.com for LibreOffice mention that you now have to uninstall OOo.

[lgusaas]

Looks like OpenOffice has been given to Apache; check out http://www.marketwire.com/press-release ... 521400.htm

Check out the Apache ooo project site http://incubator.apache.org/openofficeorg/index.html

Just ran into this but the comments on filehippo.com for LibreOffice mention that you now have to uninstall OOo.

No need to remove OOo. You can have both on your computer. There was a problem with the first version of LO on windows but that has been rectified.