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I am an older person, with limited computer knowledge, using Open Office 3.3; on Win 7.
Would some Kind Soul please explain why Open Office seems to be fading away.
In Open office, I use Writer and Calc; I assume that the OOo files are compatible
with Libre Office.
Should I start using Libre Office immediately?
Please keep abbreviations to a minimum., or at least explain the abbreviation.
Thanks in advance.
John.
John. jfgregson@shaw.ca
Would some Kind Soul please explain why Open Office seems to be fading away.
In one word: politics.
OpenOffice.org was part of a purchase by a company with a poor record
towards open source software like OpenOffice.org -- so most of the
people who worked on it formed a separate group and began producing
LibreOffice.
In Open office, I use Writer and Calc; I assume that the OOo files are
compatible
with Libre Office.
Yes,
Should I start using Libre Office immediately?
That is, of course, entirely up to you. I switched and have not had any regrets.
In brief, over a year ago, most of the primary contributors to the Open Office project became so offended by what they perceived as inappropriate actions by Oracle that they forked the project. Their fork became LibreOffice. The original fork has apparently had very few contributions since. For more, see Wikipedia, "LibreOffice" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LibreOffice).
The divorce from Oracle was not amiable, but LibeOffice seems to be thriving while Open Office is not. I started using LibreOffice early this year. I noticed a few bugs that seemed not to be present in the then-current version of Open Office. However, I think those bugs have been fixed with many others in subsequent releases of LibreOffice.
Spencer Graves
You could probably use OO forever, and there is still some activity in that camp, but
the Linux people decided to support the fork of OO called LibreOffice for various
reasons, many of them political. In practical terms, LO is going to have the most
work done on it (AFAICS), so in regard to cleaning up the old bugs, etc., LO is the
way to go. (They have already cleaned up a bug in Calc. In OO and even Symphony,
some spreadsheets made on MS software printed with extra boxes above the main
spreadsheet; LO seems to have fixed that.) Now if only the LO people would
import some of the polish that Symphony has. . . .
--doug
Hi John,
John Gregson schrieb:
I am an older person, with limited computer knowledge, using Open Office
3.3; on Win 7.
Would some Kind Soul please explain why Open Office seems to be fading
away.
When Oracle bought Sun it got the rights on OpenOffice.org among other things. But Oracle had no interest to develop OpenOffice.org. It shuts down the development department and dismissed the developers. Oracle gave Apache the possibility to do further work on OpenOffice.org. But parts of OpenOffice.org are not compatible with the Apache license. So the current work is to identify those parts and replace them with Apache license compatible solutions. In addition, OpenOffice.org was not only a product but had a lot of infrastructure around like Wiki, Bugzilla, mailinglists and forums, which Apache tries to migrate to the way Apache works. So it will last some time till the next release will appear and it will no longer be an "OpenOffice.org" but an "Apache OpenOffice". For more information see for example https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/OOOUSERS/OpenOffice.org+Migration+Status
Apache is not an enterprise but a foundation and does not employs developers but the work is done by volunteers. In this aspect it is similar with The Document Foundation and LibreOffice. There are enterprises which pay some developers (including some of the old stuff) to work full time on the Apache OpenOffice. That is similar to the situation here, where some enterprises pay developers to work full time on LibreOffice. The latter had worked already on the OpenOffice.org code for a long time and LibreOffice gets all of their know-how. The fact, that lot of the volunteers of OpenOffice.org work now on LibreOffice has been told already.
In Open office, I use Writer and Calc; I assume that the OOo files are
compatible with Libre Office. Should I start using Libre Office
immediately? Please keep abbreviations to a minimum., or at least
explain the abbreviation.
You can start immediately with LibreOffice. There are some versions available parallel. The version with the higher second number has got new features but might contain some more bugs. The version with the smaller second number does not have the latest features but has got a lot of bug fixes already and is in use a long time by many users.
Kind regards
Regina
Hi 
It wasn't that bad. Also although OpenOffice seems to be fading away right now t6hat could be just a temporary phase.
Oracle are in the process of giving OpenOffice to the Apache Foundation at the urging of IBM apparently. When Apache take on a project they have a process to convert it to their style of working. OOo is quite different from most of their projects so it's taking a lot to re-organise it. Once they do get going they are likely to get code dumps from IBM to give them a bit of a boost.
About a decade ago, when OpenOffice first forked from Star Office there was a plan to eventually move it into an independent Foundation. Somehow a decade slipped by with OOo staying under Sun's management. When Oracle took over Sun's assets it seemed a good time to implement the plan that had been developed during the decade. Oracle didn't seem keen to develop OOo anyway, at least not until after The Document Foundation had been up-and-running for a while. That was about when Oracle seemed to start getting a bit petulant and childish imo. Then a few months later we had the race to get the 3.4.0 out and TDF won by miles purely because there is so much momentum behind LO and a great team of devs and more.
LibreOffice continues to be a "drop-in replacement" for OpenOffice and OpenOffice is not dead. It's just "resting" (well actually working quite hard in a 'behind the scenes way'). So, it's ok to stick with OpenOffice for now and change over later if you want. Both use the same formats as do quite a number of other programs.
Just to completely contradict that i would recommend moving to LO but only because i think it's prettier and nicer and does more and has a vitality and excitement about it. So, its a personal recommendation based on aesthetics more than practicalities really.
It is possible to have both on a single system but they are too similar so it's not trivial. This guide can help if you fancy trying that
http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Installing_in_parallel
It is really designed for multiple copies of LibreOffice but a bit of imagination can twist it around a bit
Again it's not really important to do that just as it's not important to change to LibreOffice just yet if you don't want to.
Regards from
Tom
Hi
Lol, it was all very exciting and a bit turgid at the same time. Still is, even tho things have calmed down a lot now apparently.
The basic up-shot is that you don't need to change. OpenOffice faded like the moon wanes and then waxes. Hopefully under Apache it will wax towards being full again.
You can choose to "jump ship" now and join the much more exciting and better developed LibreOffice now or you could choose to stick-it-out a bit longer and then choose to change (or not) at some point later on.
Regards from
Tom
Which extensions do you use?
There are some extensions that can't be installed in LibO, but can be
installed in OOo.
There are some extensions that can't be installed in OOo, but can be
installed in LibO. (I do not have a comprehensive list of which
extensions install in which program.)
What type of content, and documents do you create?
Whilst the two are approximately par for all types of content, and all
document formats, the minor differences between the two make some types
of content creation easier with one program, than with the other:
* Calc in LibO offers slightly better functionality that Calc in OOo.
Howver, by installing the appropriate extensions, most of the
distinctions are lost;
* Presentation in LibO is marginally better than in OOo, but by
installing the appropriate extensions, the remaining differences won't
be noticed by anybody except an 'extreme power user";
* Write in OOo is slightly better than Write in LibO. However, those
differences are minimal. The installed, and installable extensions are
what makes the difference between the two.
* I don't use Draw, so I don't know how different the two are;
* Math: I always install dMath, and go from there. IMNSHO, dMath should
be part of included build, and not an extension;
* Legacy desktop file formats (formats from prior to circa 2005) and
mobile device file formats are being switched to extensions for the user
to install;
* eBook file formats (ePub, LIT, FB, DAISY) are only available as
extensions. These tend to be platform specific. Those that have been
adapted for LibO tend to have better support, and fewer bugs. (The
preference here seems to be to support the Windows Operating
System,rather than Linux.);
jonathon
Hi
Good points! Quite a few Extensions written for OpenOffice got pulled into the main install of LibreOffice. So if there is a missing Extension don't worry, just check to see if you can still do the thing you wanted to do.
Regards from
Tom
Quoting John Gregson <jfgregson@shaw.ca>:
I am an older person, with limited computer knowledge, using Open Office 3.3; on Win 7.
Would some Kind Soul please explain why Open Office seems to be fading away.
"Why" doesn't really matter to the end-user. It is all about corporate stupidity. LibreOffice is the now, OpenOffice is the then.
In Open office, I use Writer and Calc; I assume that the OOo files are compatible with Libre Office.
Yes, completely. And the application will be comfortably the same
Should I start using Libre Office immediately?
Yes. LibreOffice has more developers and just more bugfixes. It is the same, just better.
The big reason to use LibreOffice 3.4.4 over OpenOffice.org 3.3.0 is that LO reads/writes ".docx" files better that OOo's offering. It had come a long way from its OOo roots about a year ago.
So LO 3.4.4 should be looked at as the better product.
That is the real reason to try LO now.
As for an "older person" dealing with this question, well try it. As an older person myself, I have switched and I like it.
Yeah, sure! I can't even stop these from appearing in my mailbox even though when I try to "unsubscribe" the mailer daemon tells me I'm unknown!! What a load of crap!!!
Hi Barry
Barry Elder wrote
Yeah, sure! I can't even stop these from appearing in my mailbox even
though when I try to "unsubscribe" the mailer daemon tells me I'm
unknown!! What a load of crap!!!
Your problem with this mailing list has no relation to what the previous
poster said about LibreOffice.
See if this link solves it for you
http://nabble.documentfoundation.org/mailing_list/MailingListOptions.jtp?forum=1639498
or this one
http://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/mailing-lists/how-to-unsubscribe/