Apache OpenOffice Community Forum

Sorry, but I can't find this info in help pages.
Can I install both LibreOffice and OpenOffice at the same computer (Windows XP)?


Ponny

Of course you can. They are two different applications. All major versions work independently from each other so you can install and run any version of OpenOffice 1,2,3 and 4 plus LibreOffice 3 and 4 (6 office suites) in parallel.

I read somewhere about some conflicts about Libo and OOo in Linux. But I can't find it now.

I run Linux with many office suites. I can't see any "conflict".

OK. Thankyou.


Ponny

Ponny wrote:I read somewhere about some conflicts about Libo and OOo in Linux. But I can't find it now.

Maybe it was the LibreOffice Release Notes which recommend uninstalling OpenOffice.org in Windows before installing LibreOffice.

Now I recall that both suites want to use the symlink /usr/bin/soffice.
The --force-overwrite option resolves this problem pointing the symlink to the newly installed suite. You can manually change the target at any time.

Villeroy wrote:Now I recall that both suites want to use the symlink /usr/bin/soffice.
The --force-overwrite option resolves this problem pointing the symlink to the newly installed suite. You can manually change the target at any time.

Can you please explain how to do this?
I tried installing today LibreOffice alongside OOo which was already installed on my PC. However, I discovered that LibreOffice makes it impossible to use the extension manager within OOo. Hence, I was unable to install any new extensions in OOo. I received an error message saying that OpenOffice 4.0.1 stopped working and that it needs to close. Except for that problem, both suites were working just fine.

The only thing I could do was to uninstall both of them, then re-install OOo.

Any suggestions about how to fix this? I am really interested in running both suites on the same machine

Thank you very much

If you're using Vista, uninstall LO and OOo, then use portable versions of both or install one and use a portable version of the other.

A method which may work (read: I haven't tested this) is to install OO only for one Windows User and LibO only for a different Windows User

Kikyō wrote:

Villeroy wrote:Now I recall that both suites want to use the symlink /usr/bin/soffice.
The --force-overwrite option resolves this problem pointing the symlink to the newly installed suite. You can manually change the target at any time.

Can you please explain how to do this?
I tried installing today LibreOffice alongside OOo which was already installed on my PC. However, I discovered that LibreOffice makes it impossible to use the extension manager within OOo. Hence, I was unable to install any new extensions in OOo. I received an error message saying that OpenOffice 4.0.1 stopped working and that it needs to close. Except for that problem, both suites were working just fine.

The only thing I could do was to uninstall both of them, then re-install OOo.

Any suggestions about how to fix this? I am really interested in running both suites on the same machine

Thank you very much

I was talking about a tiny conflict on the Linux platform.
In our Windows domain there is at least one PC where both applications are installed without any conflict, aside from the "conflict" that only one program can take the double-clicks for the same file types. A double-click on a certain Writer document starts either LibreOffice OR OpenOffice. To feed that file to the other program you've got to right-click the file or start the program first and pick up the file from there.
Same "problem" when using more than one picture program or many movie players on the same system which is quite common.
I don't understand why others recommend portable versions or different user setups.

Thanks Bill and RoryOF for your suggestions ... I guess that I am going to go for the "installing a portable LibreOffice" solution.
For the other suggestion, it seems a good solution (it is logical) though it may not be practical if a person doesn't like to switch back and forth between two accounts.

Villeroy wrote: I don't understand why others recommend portable versions or different user setups.

Well in my case, it turned out that one suite conflicts with the other (I can't use the OpenOffice extension manager when LibreOffice is installed on the same machine and for the same user) and unless there isn't any workaround for this, I guess that the best solutions are those provided by Bill and RoryOF.

Kikyō wrote:I can't use the OpenOffice extension manager when LibreOffice is installed on the same machine and for the same user

Why can't you use it? What happens if you try? And what exactly do you do?

Villeroy wrote:Why can't you use it? What happens if you try? And what exactly do you do?

I couldn't use it because like I said, there is some kind of conflict with LibreOffice. I don't know what are the technical details which account for this conflict. That is why I brought this issue up.

As per to your question what happens when I use it, it closes. A message appears saying that OpenOffice has encountered a problem and that it needs to close. OpenOffice however doesn't close, only the extensions manager closes. As per "what I exactly did" question, I was doing the usual thing. I downloaded the extension from the extensions website. My firefox browser is set to open .oxt files with OpenOffice. Normally I should have seen the extensions manager dialogue prompting me about the installation of the extension but instead I only got the above-mentioned error message.

In order to be clear, I must say that OpenOffice and LibreOffice ran just fine together but the problem occurred when I tried to use OOo extensions manager.

Anyways, uninstalling LibreOffice solved the problem.

I am using now a portable version of LibreOffice & both LibreOfficePortable and OpenOffice are running just fine.