Future of OOo ?

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bawldiggle
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Future of OOo ?

Post by bawldiggle »

Am I being paranoid ?
- a new player to open source, experimenting with Linux and I want to settle on one office suite. :)
- while I am using LO (portable) all forum help and documentation is from OOo, so I would like to focus on OOo
-----
Just when I was about to replace LO with OOo I discovered these articles. :shock:
OpenOffice project 'all but dead upstream' argues prominent user
Time to retire Apache OpenOffice in favour of LibreOffice?
WIKI - Apache OpenOffice -> Development

Migrating from MS is a slow process for me ... relatively new to OpenOffice, experimenting when time permits.
I am using portable LO but in my experience the help on this OOo forum is superior. This phpBB structure is so logical.
- as for email support (eg, GnuCash) I don't have time to wade through a wall of emails

Today I decided to replace LO with OOo because the help here is excellent and your documentation site is brilliant ... !
But now I am concerned that OOo will meld into LO or worse ... disappear.

I would like to commit to just one office suite than to sit on the fence without making a commitment to any one.
- like marriage ... one at a time :mrgreen:
- for 15 years I have written addins for Excel and was hoping to focus on OOo Calc

What is the future for OOo ... are the "articles" misguided ... the Wiki article is very concerning ?

Thank you :)
----------
EDIT
Just found Apache OpenOffice daily/nightly builds and snapshots for Windows, build releases once per week contradicts the opinions of one critic.
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Villeroy
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Re: Future of OOo ?

Post by Villeroy »

LO or OO does not matter that much on this forum. Just state the office version you are actually using and ask your questions here. However, when OpenOffice is burried, this forum will go away too with it.

On this place: https://ask.libreoffice.org/en/questions/ some of the most active nick names and avatars are the same as here.
Please, edit this topic's initial post and add "[Solved]" to the subject line if your problem has been solved.
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acknak
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Re: Future of OOo ?

Post by acknak »

I recommend that people stick with whatever comes with their (Linux) distribution unless they have a compelling reason not to. I say that mainly because the distros' software manager will take care of all the installation details as long as you stick to the software they've packaged and support.

I don't know what to recommend for Windows. AOO considers Windows their major platform; I think LibO considers Linux their major platform.

If you have to edit the same document(s) on different systems, I would recommend using the same software on all of them. While it should be transparent, I'd be wary of using both AOO and LibO on the same document routinely.
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charlie.it
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Re: Future of OOo ?

Post by charlie.it »

Villeroy wrote:However, when OpenOffice is burried, this forum will go away too with it.
I'm not sure that this happens.
Villeroy wrote:On this place: https://ask.libreoffice.org/en/questions/ some of the most active nick names and avatars are the same as here.
Despite that, our AOO forum is still the best and most friendly.
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floris v
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Re: Future of OOo ?

Post by floris v »

Is it me, or is the forum getting less traffic lately?
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RoryOF
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Re: Future of OOo ?

Post by RoryOF »

It used be close to 100 postings per day, but this year over the summer it is about 70 per day. But happenings in the real world - Nice, Rouen, Munich, Olympics all cause great slowdowns.

What worries me about LibreOffice is that there seems little generosity on the part of many members of the LibO camp; many seem vehemently to wish the complete extermination of OO and all to do with it. I'm reminded of religious wars of the past. The optimum future for OO and LibO is an amalgamation, a rapprochement, but judging by what I perceive from many members of the LibO camp this does not seem likely.
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Hagar Delest
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Re: Future of OOo ?

Post by Hagar Delest »

RoryOF wrote:It used be close to 100 postings per day, but this year over the summer it is about 70 per day. But happenings in the real world - Nice, Rouen, Munich, Olympics all cause great slowdowns.
As far as I remember, the summer months have always been less active. The overall activity has been a bit lower than previous years (when you check the view active topics counter on the index page) but no drastic loss so far.
RoryOF wrote:What worries me about LibreOffice is that there seems little generosity on the part of many members of the LibO camp; many seem vehemently to wish the complete extermination of OO and all to do with it. I'm reminded of religious wars of the past.
+1.
It has been so since the beginning of the fork. I agree that this is quite sad for the end user because energies are split.
I admit that they are very good marketing point of view. Their website is impressive at the first look compared to the old AOO site.

The AOO project lacks momentum. I hardly see how coders would find interest in contributing. What would be the reward? No one talk anymore about AOO.
Either the project finds a way to boost its visibility to get new code contributors (why not proposing partnerships with schools/universities/...?) or the projects slowly dies.
Else, what AOO needs IMHO is a big company wanting to revive it (for philanthropic reasons - that is to boost the good guy aspect of the company) and giving dedicated resources. But is it possible with the Apache way?
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acknak
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Re: Future of OOo ?

Post by acknak »

Hagar Delest wrote:... Else, what AOO needs IMHO is a big company wanting to revive it ...
+1

If companies want to use OO, the Apache license should be much less scary than LibO's GNU-Free license and unstructured development. So there could be some incentive there for contributing resources.

But until some momentum/interest is built up, and the code is made easier to work on (LibO has done some fantastic work on this), I can't see many volunteers are going to be interested in it.

I think the question is, how long will AOO remain viable with minimal development? It works well as it is, but it has to get updates as the systems change. As it is, the latest release has problems with Fedora and I'm a little bit afraid to update the system for fear that AOO will stop working at all.
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bawldiggle
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Re: Future of OOo ?

Post by bawldiggle »

Thank you all for your comments :)

I am drawn to OOo because of the attitude/helpfulness of members here AND the incredible online documentation.
- some of the Linux forums are quite elitist, so for the past 15-20 years I had almost given up.
- on an old Acer laptop (designed for WinXP, with factory OEM Vista, then downgraded back to XP) now has Mint.
- the Mint forum is very helpful, But Linux has me bluffed (almost) -- I wont give up !
- I am putting some faith into Linux (Mint) as MS is treating us as ATMs, although I do concede there is room (and a need) for both OSs.
acknak wrote: ~ AOO considers Windows their major platform; I think LibO considers Linux their major platform.
Good info. Thank you. Adds to my sway to OOo
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acknak wrote:If you have to edit the same document(s) on different systems, I would recommend using the same software on all of them. While it should be transparent, I'd be wary of using both AOO and LibO on the same document routinely.
Agree. Too many apps doing similar things, IMO just adds to confusion.
charlie.it wrote: our AOO forum is still the best and most friendly
Agreed. That why I posted my dilema here. I am getting sensible feedback.
floris v wrote:Is it me, or is the forum getting less traffic lately?
My measure of a new app is their forum "performance".
- the official LO forum is just impossible for me to make sense of -- my thread in July-2013, I was (and still am) totally lost :?
- the unofficial LO forum appears to be in Limbo LibreOfficeForum.org is Shutting Down
- at least with this OOo forum the lights are on and I get plenty of helpers. :)
RoryOF wrote: It used be close to 100 postings per day, but this year over the summer it is about 70 per day. But happenings in the real world - Nice, Rouen, Munich, Olympics all cause great slowdowns.

What worries me about LibreOffice is that there seems little generosity on the part of many members of the LibO camp; many seem vehemently to wish the complete extermination of OO and all to do with it. I'm reminded of religious wars of the past. The optimum future for OO and LibO is an amalgamation, a rapprochement, but judging by what I perceive from many members of the LibO camp this does not seem likely.
For too many years the Firefox forum was a total frustration. :crazy: I wasted hours trying to get past the "new thread" police trying to discourage posts.
- as a contrast Mozilazine forum is very good.
When "PaleMoon" was forked from the-fox, I jumped ship too. And I have never looked back
- there appears to be some animosity as PaleMoon numbers climb and Firefox numbers fall -- (it is a shame that scapegoating is the politics of 21st century)
- in fairness to the-fox (I am 71) I am not into bells and whistles, new toys, games, social media ... etc
- my days were/are filled with AutoCad and writing addins for Excel, and running a small business.
- bouncing GIFs -- ribbons (don't get me started on ribbons :twisted: ) --- are not an attraction for me.
** that is why I prefer OpenOffice toolbars **

WINDOWS vs OPEN OFFICE
Over at PaleMoon (browser) forum I was intrigued by the developer's stats.
2% downloads for Linux
98% downloads for Windows
- now I cannot find the thread :knock:
- interesting considering "acknak's" comments earlier ... AOO considers Windows their major platform; I think LibO considers Linux their major platform.

:) Thank you all .. your inputs you have settled my dilemma ... for AOO :)
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Villeroy
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Re: Future of OOo ?

Post by Villeroy »

Windows users use AOO because they never heard of LO. I use LO on Windows because "my girls" like the green one better than the blue one. I upgrade every now and then, after some testing if my templates and backend database actually work with the new version of LO (which is not always the case).

Linux users use LO because the distributors support the more vivid developer community and LO makes working with the source code easier than AOO. LO supports more foreign file formats than AOO which is a strong point particularly in Linux land where the original applications are not availlable at all. As a Linux user I use AOO most of the time because I don't like the way how LO devs constantly modify well working stuff, because most of the new features are pointless to me and because I don't care about proprietary file formats.
- a new player to open source, experimenting with Linux and I want to settle on one office suite. :)
LO is your office suite on Linux. No hazzle with installation and more foreign file formats.

Just don't do distro hopping. It does not pay off.
Please, edit this topic's initial post and add "[Solved]" to the subject line if your problem has been solved.
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RoryOF
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Re: Future of OOo ?

Post by RoryOF »

Villeroy wrote: Just don't do distro hopping. It does not pay off.
I agree with that remark - best to try live Linux DVD/USBs until you find one that suits. In my case I went through Ubuntu, briefly to Fedora, then to Xubuntu, on which I have standardised all my computers.
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Hagar Delest
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Re: Future of OOo ?

Post by Hagar Delest »

For the record, a related topic on the dev mailing list: Merge with LibreOffice?
Personally, I've always installed AOO on my Xubuntu system without any problem.
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orangeli
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Re: Future of OOo ?

Post by orangeli »

I agree with Hagar - the only way OOo will survive is if a big company with enough money will replace horrible Apache.
The project can not rely solely on volunteers and must have also paid employees.
Also code sharing with LO must stop because there is no point in having two similar office suits, each should find its own way.

PS regarding dev mailing list merging - I can't think of a good merge example in the software world so no chance...
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