Please redirect users to LibreOffice

[linuxhippy]

Hi there,

A lot of friends and colleagues of mine are still downloading OpenOffice because they are used to the name / brand and I have heard quite a few complaints lately that there is almost no activity when it comes to new features and new releases. However what they were really looking for was the LibreOffice project, which is the place where most of the development happend over the recent years - yet non of those users was able to figure out the project splitup themself because OpenOffice.org was still kept alive and did not display any hint that users could also have a look at LibreOffice.

This is just a personal opinion (and therefore I kindly ask you to not delete this post) - but doesn't promoting OpenOffice.org do more harm than good to free office software ecosystem in general?
Thousands and thousands of users are downloading and using almost stale and unmaintained office software and are maybe even switching back to MSOffice because they experience almost no progress. And all this just because apache and a few individuals can't seem to let the brand go and hand it over to the document foundation.

Please apache - put an end to the distraction of users and hand the OpenOffice.org brand over to the Free Document Foundation.

Best regards, Clemens

[Hagar Delest]

Hi and welcome to the forum!

Many people still use AOO because it's more stable than LO. Agreed, less features, less development but rock solid. Competition is not a bad thing (why not merge all the GNU/Linux distros in a single one then?).
AOO development is still continuing, even if on a very slow pace. You can check the AOO dev mailing list.
Note that there are almost no Apache guy here, just users like you, trying to help other users (even lO users).
Sometimes we propose users to use LO when it may be the best solution for them. But to be clear, there is no way we redirect by default users to LO.

See also this topic on a related aspect of the discussion: How should this web site best support LibreOffice and others (same section of the forum than your own topic).

Note: it's a rule in the forum that no topic or post is deleted (it can be checked in the administration panel). So don't worry, we are not the kind of people who hide things, even if they don't fit our own views. Personallly, there is no way I switch to LO.

[Zizi64]

My opinion:

Everybody can try both of opensource office suites. Everybody can decide which one he/she will use for his/her tasks based on his/her preferences: higher stability, more functionality and features, compatibility with the foreign filetypes, ... etc.

I have installed AOO and LO in my workplace and home too, but I preferred the LO since the date of the fork.

[John_Ha]

Many people still use AOO because it's more stable than LO. ... Personally, there is no way I switch to LO.

I am 100% in agreement. I recently tried out LibreOffice but it was hopelessly unreliable for my purposes and I dropped it like a hot brick.

If you want to live on the bleeding edge and if you value function over stability, if you are only writing 2 page documents, then go for LibreOffice ... and good luck.

If you want rock solid stability, with marginally fewer functions (which can be worked around) and rigorously tested software that is not full of bugs, and are doing anything more complex or large, then choose AOO. If you are a business, choose AOO.

It's not just "us oldies" who think this - see, for example, the recent post Re: URL conversion of %23 to "#" and 404 in which new poster taadev says:

This is by far the best Office version and my first use was Libre; your's is far more stable!

[dphawk53]

[soby]

i agree with Zizi, let the users make there own choice
and i can understand that someone make his choice for stability and reliability
but every software has there pro and cons

[istephen]

Over the years, I've used various Mac flavours of this software: NeoOffice, OpenOffice, LibreOffice. I found that LibreOffice 5.3.7002 exhibited very disturbing behaviour (i.e. trying to print documents sideways and incorrectly). Just downloaded LibreOffice 6.0.2, and it's doing the same thing. They also have had difficulty fixing their "find and replace" function, at least in LibreOffice 5. So I'm continuing to stick with OpenOffice, although have a copy of LibreOffice as a backup.

Really, it disturbs me to see anyone claiming that their software is great, when it usually (or always) exhibits major bugs - resulting in a not-great user experience. And that goes for Apple (and likely Microsoft) too. And please don't suggest that I fix the bugs myself, as I am most definitely not a programmer / coder. (Although I have sometimes figured out ways to do fixes to compensate for Apple's stupid design flaws.)

[RusselB]

I have versions of OpenOffice, LibreOffice, Microsoft Office and Corel Quattro Pro/Word Perfect.
The reason I keep multiple options, is that there are times when someone will be thinking of a command/function that exists in one, but not another.
By having these options, I can (usually) determine which suite they are thinking of, and check if others have similar commands/functions.
Each suite has, in my opinion, it's own pros and cons. I'm not going to get into a discussion about that, as what I consider to be a pro, someone else might consider to be a con... and vice versa.

[istephen]

In my experience, LibreOffice is mostly cons. Why bother with something which is unreliable, and in which the developers can't fix a bug for years (or maybe never). To be truthful, OpenOffice suddenly started acting unreliably too, although I think it may be because of something else I downloaded to fix one of Apple's bad design decisions. Overall, I don't have a good opinion of coders. Sorry - but whether something is "free" or has a fee, it should work properly.

[Lupp]

In my experience, LibreOffice is mostly cons.

Would you mind to explain? It may be different concerning the different components of the software. I personally never use 'Impress' e.g. and cannot judge about it. Actually I am retired and do no longer use any software in a professional context. However, I watched forums on LibreOffice and on AOO as well and contributed to them for years now. I often pick questions concerning Calc and go into them to some depth with a sligtly "academic" attitude.

From my experience I would claim I can clearly reject an allegation like the quoted one. And yes, I have 12 bug reports for LibO of my own open, but there were also many that were resolved within a reasonable time. "Ultra posse nemo obligatur", and regarding the low number of developers and the hard fight for imposing problems by a competitor, the only alternative to taking the risk of "regressions" or imperfect implementations of new features would be to freeze (next to) a historic state. In fact AOO also has lots of bugs. Omitting fast development did not do much about this as far as I can see.

Thus I would accept both the startegies of LibO and AOO as long as there can't be a merger. And if united forces will be strong enough one day, development should go on - without any bloating, of course.

On the other hand I am sceptic concerning the capabilities of new users to thoroughly decide which branch is the better one for them. Let's tolerate preferences in advising, too. No advice concerning software can be proven at all.

It's not just "us oldies" who think this - see, for example, the recent post Re: URL conversion of %23 to "#" and 404 in which new poster taadev says:

This is by far the best Office version and my first use was Libre; your's is far more stable!

Well, that recent post is from 2018-01-23. But if not "taadev" is fooling us, he used LibreOffice 3.6 (or earlier) for his test. This is from his signature as it is today (2018-03-08). The most recent sub-version of LibO 3.6 was released on 2013-06-10. An eternity ago considering the release policy of LibO. Let's be earnest again.