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[Solved] Re-installing OOo in hostile Debian Wheezy

Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2012 8:08 pm
by Superuserlaptop
I have too many things to lose by Debian's decision to switch to LibreOffice. That would be fine except I did not authorize Debian to remove OpenOffice. Now Debian is hostile to OO. I can't access my dictionary and other things.

And I have a bad attitude when folks try to cram things down my throat. I might have gone to LibreOffice, with an orderly transistion. But, not now. LibreOffice is now Anathema and shall be cast aside as I kick the dust of this program off the heels of my shoes.

I think it's time to stand our ground and say no to being bullied. It used to be Linux was a user friendly OS, granted some tinkering was needed. Now Linux is behaving like Microsoft and Apple. If they don't want to support something, they will make sure no one can use it. Is this what we want in Linux? I don't.

So, I have seen the other posts and have searched the Internet. I cannot find some common sense instructions for installing OO. The scripts won't run and no one is saying what Debian and the other operating systems purposefully broke so that OO will not work.

So if someone can help, many of us will greatly appreciated it.

I have two computers:
Debian AMD 64 Wheezy SID, Mate desktop environment. I have Mate on one computer as the Desktop Environment because Gnome 3 makes my work harder to do. My second computer has Gnome 3 with the same Debian install but will be switching this computer to Mate for the desktop once I have the first computer where I want it. The first computer is a fresh install.

I tried using repos and all it does is install LibreOffice no matter what I do and even though it says it is an OO install. So I am assuming that apt will do the same. I downloaded a copy of OO and it will not install. I am not an expert, but if all the steps are given in a rational order I can usually get things running.

Many thanks in advance from many people. I can't wait until I can use the next release of OO. I believe it is 3.4.

Re: Re-installing OO in hostile Debian Wheezy

Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2012 8:30 pm
by RoryOF
The installation for OpenOffice on Debian and similar is straightforward; it is set out in
[Tutorial] Installing OOo on Ubuntu, Debian and Co.
Read the first posting in that tutorial; this should tell you as much as you need. Note that there is a directory change during the installation process and that you run the same command (sudo dpkg -i *.deb) once at the higher level and once at the lower level.

Re: Re-installing OOo in hostile Debian Wheezy Solved

Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2012 7:45 pm
by Superuserlaptop
I am sorry that it took a bit of time to respond. It seems as I try to fix one problem, three more stack up. Each have a higher priority than the previous problem.

These instructions in the link by RoryOF are a bit overwhelming at first. But if we set aside a couple of hours where tiny glitches might eat up some time, this works very well.

I had to go as root to clean out all the Open Office and Libre Office files. And of course, just to be sure, I had my search include hidden files.

Thank you for all your help. I would like to encourage the OO folks who are overwhelmed beyond belief to consider two things. Since there are problems with re-installing OO, to create a installer that will first clean up things and then do the install.

I know, Linux and all, we should be able to do these things ourselves. But, in my thoughts, I have been solving many computer problems for folks by taking one of their older computers and installing only Linux. These folks will not be able to handle such things as described here. Just a thought.

My second point is that with the ability of the Internet, start blowing the OO horn loud and clear. Tell the world that LibreOffice is running a scam about the distruction of OO.

And yes I can see a difference between the two. I find LO a bit slower and a bit more cranky than OO. That's just my opinion.

Thanks again for all your help.