OpenOffice.org vs Neo Office for Mac

[markteach]

I've been using OpenOffice.org for a few years now on my Windows machines. I've been using NeoOffice for my Macs. I see OpenOffice.org is available for the Mac. What is the difference? I thought NeoOffice was the Mac version of OpenOffice. Is one better than the other? Thanks.

[kabing]

Note that I write this as someone who has used NeoOffice but never OpenOffice.org. So I may be somewhat biased.

OpenOffice.org has a version for Mac that uses the X11 windowing system to allow it to run on a Mac. This means installing X11 and living with a rather un-Mac like environment. This version of OpenOffice.org is unable to recognize the Java Runtime Enviroment (JRE) available in Leopard, so neither the wizards nor the Base Module will work on Leopard--unless OOo 2.4 fixed that problem, which it may have.

There is also an Aqua Mac port in progress that will run natively on the Mac without X11. It is currently at an alpha stage; available for testing, but without all the features, and clearly labeled as not for production work.

NeoOffice is an independent port/fork of OpenOffice.org for the Mac. It is a "native" application which does not require X11. It has been out of beta for some time and is stable enough for serious work. It uses the native file picker and print dialogs, etc. The NeoOffice developers have decided to include several extras that are not available in the standard OOo version. These include:

• converters for docx, xlsx, etc. this is from the odf converter project; the filters are still somewhat experimental.
  experimental VBA support (from the OOo build project); I think this is limited to VBA in Calc right now.
  Support for Microsoft Works documents
  Ability to access the Mac Address Book (this may be in OOo 2.4, too; if not it should be part of OOo 3.0)
  Supoort for Quicktime video and audio (new)

A comparison chart can be foun on the neowiki.
The developers are currently working on making a Media Browser available in NeoOffice.

The downside to NeoOffice is that it is always a version or more behind OpenOffice.org. OOo is currently at 2.4; Neo is at 2.2.3, based on 2.2.1. The NeoOffice developers will not be porting OOo 2.3 or 2.4 to Mac; instead they will soon start working on porting OOo 3.0.

There may be other advantages of OOo for Mac/X11 that I'm not familiar with.

kabing

[markteach]

Thanks alot! That is exactly the information I was looking for.
Mark

[davidb]

I use both Neo Office and X11 OOo and in have found Neo Office to run significantly slower than than the X11 version of OOo (which itself is already slow) - depending on what I want to do I use one or the other.

David

[ericb]

The point is NeoOffice is not OpenOffice.org, but tries to make believe the users they are.

I'd like to add NeoOffice sued OpenOffice.org project:
http://council.openoffice.org/servlets/ ... msgNo=1187

This is not the first time, and this is unacceptable.

[wurzel]

I'd like to add NeoOffice sued OpenOffice.org project:
http://council.openoffice.org/servlets/ ... msgNo=1187

This is not the first time, and this is unacceptable.

Hi Eric,

It might not be, but the message you point to isn't an infringement suit, it is a cease and desist request, based not only on copyright, but also on trademark law. One would hope, and I certainly believe that it is so from the exchanges I see on the OOo trademark discussion list, that the OOo project sends similar requests to people who infringe on the use of the OpenOffice.org trademark and trade dress. Is such behaviour from the OOo community also unacceptable in your opinion ?

Lots of nice proverbs come to mind :
"People in glass houses don't throw stones"
"Let he who is without sin cast the first stone"

Well you get my drift. At least we ought to remain factual, even if we can't remain gentlemanly.
Please note Eric, that I am not taking sides here, but your own personal feelings with regard to past "bad blood" between the two projects do tend to make you appear rather less than objective.

Alex (who has had the same pseudo since the OOo project was born) Thurgood

[wurzel]

I've been using OpenOffice.org for a few years now on my Windows machines. I've been using NeoOffice for my Macs. I see OpenOffice.org is available for the Mac. What is the difference? I thought NeoOffice was the Mac version of OpenOffice. Is one better than the other? Thanks.

Hi,
The two projects have the same origins, at least in the initial source code. Each has its own philosophy linked to a different choice of licence for the source code and different priorities for development and system integration which have led to two similar, but different products. One can always hypothesize on how great it would have been to have everybody working under one roof, but the whole point of opensource communities is that they are often made and broken on the wills/egos/personalities of one or two key developers, and this is what happened here several years ago.

NeoOffice is developed by one group of developers.
OpenOffice.org is developed by another group of developers.

NeoOffice is specifically developed for the Mac platform, and thus the developers tailor the code evolution to the specifics of that platform. The way the project is organised means that they can use the OpenOffice.org code as a base for their own "enhancements".

OpenOffice.org is developed for several platforms, and several operating systems, of which the Mac is but one, and so the developers have to use code that works on all platforms, including the Mac. The Mac developers within the OpenOffice.org project can not use the code developed by the NeoOffice project, because of the licensing issues, and so have had to "re-invent the wheel" so to speak for those features that make NeoOffice look good and slick on the Mac. An example : the NeoOffice project has a rather nice set of application and toolbar icons, whereas the OpenOffice.org Mac project has to use the basic and rather unattractive "retro-look" icon set that was designed and supplied by Sun in the StarOffice product. Even the Linux distros out there have switched this basic icon set for ones of their own selected from other GPL'd open source icon themes out there, but OpenOffice.org requires that its basic icon sets be released under the LGPL, whereas most of the opensource icon sets around are GPL.

Some might consider this situation to be rather Kafkaesque, and it indeed it is, but nobody forced Sun (at least not that the general public knows of) to adopt the LGPL licence instead of the GPL licence in the first place. This is merely one of the consequences of a decision made all those years ago when the OOo project came into being.

I use both products, but I only test and do quality assurance for the OpenOffice.org product. In the end, NeoOffice wouldn't ever have existed without the OpenOffice.org project. It is like the mothership, and I'm happy to see it continue developing. If others want to develop spin-offs then I'm happy with that too, and if I think that the spin-off product can satisfy my needs, I see no reason why I shouldn't use it. I like choice, choice is a good thing. This is why I also use NeoOffice. There are some nice things in NeoOffice that aren't in OpenOffice.org for Mac, even in the Aqua version under development. That doesn't make me decide that one is better than the other, just that one version is well suited to some things I want in the product, and the other one less so, and vice-versa.

So I won't answer your question outright as to which is better, I would just say it depends on what you want, both have something to offer, and the OpenOffice.org Aqua version under development will probably be a really sweet application when it is released as stable. In the meantime, the X11 version works mostly pretty fine too, like I said, it all comes down to what you want, and what your preferences of the moment are. Hell, I occasionally use Novell's Evolution on Mac OSX despite having Thunderbird as my main mail reader, basically because I can't stand Mail.app, and there are some things in Thunderbird that are so annoying, but again it all comes down to personal choice.

Alex

[markteach]

Thanks. I think I will download and try both now that I know they are separate programs. It sure is nice to have alternatives to Office!!

[WilliamBrandt]

That's just what I've done - downloaded NeoOffice and given it a try. As Wurzel says, it's great to have choice - and as Mark Teach says, it's great to have an alternative to Office!

I've found NeoOffice really good so far - perfectly stable (touch wood) and a much more seamless startup on the Mac without the X11 window (and, on Leopard at least, the "command timeout" message) and it looks a lot more "Mac like" which is pleasing to the eye.

Having said that I'm really looking forward to seeing Aqua come out in a stable version - I'd love to try that too!