Side by side install of LibO and OOo

In the Release Notes for LibreOffice 3.3.3, it says:

"For Windows users that have OpenOffice.org installed, we advise
uninstalling that beforehand, because it registers the same file type
associations."

It would be nice to have the option of keeping OOo, for the odd case when
something that works in it is broken in LibreOffice, or when you need OOo
installed in order to provide help to another user who has OOo but not LibO.

The way to do this, I guess, would be to add an option in LibO's
installation, e.g.:

"FILE ASSOCIATIONS
[x] Make LibreOffice the default program for all Open Document Format file
types
[ ] Make LibreOffice the default program for all Open Document Format and
all Microsoft Office file types
[ ] Do not make LibreOffice the default program for any file types

Learn More"

The first radio button would be pre-selected. Clicking on "Learn More" would
bring up a verbose explanation, e.g., a listing ODF and MSO file extensions,
what the consequences of each choice are, perhaps also a pointer to how file
associations are set/changed in Windows.

Would this be a difficult thing to implement? Are there other considerations
besides registration of file associations that make keeping OOo a problem?

Hi ..,

aqualung wrote (18-06-11 06:12)

It would be nice to have the option of keeping OOo, for the odd case when
something that works in it is broken in LibreOffice, or when you need OOo
installed in order to provide help to another user who has OOo but not LibO.

I think that is a fair idea.

The way to do this, I guess, would be to add an option in LibO's
installation, e.g.:

Thanks for your text. Too me, it looks good, though I am not interested myself at all, since I use parallel installation all the time :wink:
Could be handy for you too: http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Installing_in_parallel

But for your idea: the best is to have a look at bugZilla if there already is an issue for this, where you might add your thoughts.
And if not, create a new issue. See this page for info: http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/BugReport

Kind regards,

In news:1308370331119-3078835.post@n3.nabble.com,
aqualung <xfekdcugjrkz@mailinator.com> typed:

In the Release Notes for LibreOffice 3.3.3, it says:

"For Windows users that have OpenOffice.org installed, we
advise uninstalling that beforehand, because it registers
the same file type associations."

If you think about the preceding paragraph, it's saying that both OOo and LO
use the same file types and thus there could be confusion to the program as
to which program should open a given file. Since you're apparently leaving
OOo for LO, just set OOo to not open any files via regstration; you'll have
to do so manually from within OOo then, and then only LO wll be able to open
whatever you set it for.
   Haven't tried it with 333, but another version, and it worked fine. Not
sure I see the need for it though; I only did it to see if it would work.
It's not a new situation.

HTH,

Twayne`

Cor & Twayne,

Thank you for your replies.

Twayne wrote:

If you think about the preceding paragraph, it's saying that both OOo and
LO
use the same file types and thus there could be confusion to the program
as
to which program should open a given file.

Why should there be confusion? If LibO during installation grabs all ODF
file types for itself, then doubleclicking on, say, an .odt file will launch
LibO Writer but not OOo Wtiter. OOo could then still open the .odt via File

Open. And vice versa, if the user is given a choice during LibO

installation to leave existing file associations intact. Ditto for Microsoft
Office file types.

Twayne wrote:

Since you're apparently leaving OOo for LO

Not so fast . I'd like to have both OOo and LibO coexisting on my system
indefinitely. And I would expect to be able to make either program the
default for all (or only some) possible file types via Windows Control Panel
at any time.

I've searched the bugzilla to see if this has been filed as a bug, did not
find one. However, I found this:
https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=33844, which suggests that LibO
does not play nicely with OOo (but maybe it's only a problem for Portable
LibO?)

I wouldn't mind not being able to have both LibO and OOo open and running
simultaneously, but I find the suggestion to uninstall OOo before installing
LibO mystifying.

<snip>

In news:1308412490832-3080029.post@n3.nabble.com,
aqualung <xfekdcugjrkz@mailinator.com> typed:

Cor & Twayne,

Thank you for your replies.

Twayne wrote:

If you think about the preceding paragraph, it's saying
that both OOo and LO
use the same file types and thus there could be
confusion to the program as
to which program should open a given file.

Why should there be confusion? If LibO during
installation grabs all ODF file types for itself, then
doubleclicking on, say, an .odt file will launch LibO
Writer but not OOo Wtiter. OOo could then still open the
.odt via File

Let me start by sayng I don't claim to be a guru on any of this and can only
relate my own experiences and assumptions about what I see/experience. So
there's no way I have the savvy a few of the people here have.

Open. And vice versa, if the user is given a choice
during LibO

installation to leave existing file associations intact.
Ditto for Microsoft Office file types.

IIRC, the use is given the choice of not affecting any other file
associations during the install. Or, it can take over all of them depending
on which you choose at install time. Once installed, you can also change
them but you have to do them individually which is a lot of work.
   "Registering" means of course, entries in the registry which, when a file
such as .odt or .ods is clicked, opens whatever program has been registered
to open it. Depending on where in the REgstry these program-choosings lie,
and which it comes to first, and with both LO and OOo iinstalled to take the
same file extensions, it's a crap shoot AFAIK which one wiil be seen first,
and used to open that file.

Twayne wrote:

Since you're apparently leaving OOo for LO

Not so fast . I'd like to have both OOo and LibO
coexisting on my system indefinitely.

OK, I see. I don't see why you'd want to do that, but I understand. If you
do the same thing with, say, two versions of Word, the win installer comes
on and arranges each one to run properly but LO/OOo doesn't seem to work
that way. Maybe it should, I don't know. For a long time I used to run MS
Office 97 I think it was, and win 2k2 at side by side, and even
simultaneously; 97 for web work, 2k2 for the increased feature/functions. 97
didn't fill html files with piles of personal data to strip out like 2k2 on
forward did. Every time you swtched from one to the other you had to wait a
moment for the installer to correct the setups so they'd work right. It was
handy. But, that's not OOo of LO.

And I would expect

to be able to make either program the default for all (or
only some) possible file types via Windows Control Panel
at any time.

There is no way to do that that I'm aware of.

I've searched the bugzilla to see if this has been filed
as a bug, did not find one.

It's possible it wasn't found as a bug because it wasn't considered one IF
it was ever reported. If it doesn't exist at all, then you would be the
first one to enter a bug for that particular option.

I think you have to consider OOo and LO as two different "producers" of
similar programs and they one is not in any way co-erced into doing what the
other does in results or code. This is going to happen with any two or more
programs that share common files or Registry entries so it's not new, it's
just something that seldom happens. OTOH there's nothing to prevent it from
happening either.
   Like I said before I don't see a need to run them in parallel
simultaneiously so for me it's nothing that matters much. Assuming you have
a valid wish and a good reason for it though, you are able to enter it as a
requested feature; not sure you could call it a "bug".
   If you're trying to work for the community and within the source code, it
might be possible to go right to the TDF and as if they have any way to do
it. I can also envision such things as Virtual Machines, VLM, etc., to
enable what you want and there are probably other ways but all I personally
can do is wish you luck and hope you report back if you find a valid
solution.

however, I found this:
https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=33844, which

That's an interesting link but it seems to center on what the title is:
"Bug 33844 - [Portable 3.3.0]: Can not be launched if LibO or OpenOffice.org
is running "
and seems to except other non-portable versions.

suggests that LibO does not play nicely with OOo (but
maybe it's only a problem for Portable LibO?)

Good question. I guess if it were me, I'd just go ahead and try the
installs, first in one order, then the opposite order, and see what happens.
If I had to guess, I'd say to install OOo first, then LO. Make them both
whatever version you want to run production-wise.

I wouldn't mind not being able to have both LibO and OOo
open and running simultaneously, but I find the
suggestion to uninstall OOo before installing LibO
mystifying.

Yes, that is funny since it appears I can start as many instances of LO as I
want to. I just started LO Writer 5 times and have all 5 entries on the Task
Bar and screen. So why it comes up with that message when you add an OOo to
the list, it does get more interesting.

What specific two versions of each are you trying to install? I'll try it
here on win XP Pro and see what happens using those two specific versions. I
also have a win7 laptop I can try it on. I'll have free time to play with it
about mid-week.

HTH,

Twayne`

Twayne wrote:

IIRC, the use is given the choice of not affecting any other file
associations during the install. Or, it can take over all of them
depending
on which you choose at install time.

O.K., good. So, LibO already gives the three-way choice dialog box that I
envisioned? I am not going to try installing LibO now myself because the
warning on the Release Notes page scares me that my OOo 3.3 will get messed
up!

Once installed, you can also change

them but you have to do them individually which is a lot of work.

No, it's not a lot of work. Windows Control Panel > Default Programs

"Registering" means of course, entries in the registry which, when a file

such as .odt or .ods is clicked, opens whatever program has been
registered
to open it. Depending on where in the REgstry these program-choosings lie,
and which it comes to first, and with both LO and OOo iinstalled to take
the
same file extensions, it's a crap shoot AFAIK which one wiil be seen
first,
and used to open that file.

It should not be the case, ever, that both LibO and OOo are registered for
the same file extensions. If that happens (if it is even possible at all),
then someone has messed up somewhere.

And I would expect

to be able to make either program the default for all (or
only some) possible file types via Windows Control Panel
at any time.

There is no way to do that that I'm aware of.

Yes there is. See above.

I think you have to consider OOo and LO as two different "producers" of

similar programs and they one is not in any way co-erced into doing what
the
other does in results or code. This is going to happen with any two or
more
programs that share common files or Registry entries so it's not new, it's
just something that seldom happens. OTOH there's nothing to prevent it
from
happening either.

LibO and OOo should not "share" any registry entries. They may both have
dependencies on the same system files but that is nothing unusual.

   Like I said before I don't see a need to run them in parallel

simultaneiously so for me it's nothing that matters much.

Again, I don't mind not being able to run them in parallel. I want to have
LibO and OOo installed side by side on the system and not interfere with
each other in any way. It's O.K. if only of them can be open and running at
the same time!

I guess if it were me, I'd just go ahead and try the

installs, first in one order, then the opposite order, and see what
happens.
If I had to guess, I'd say to install OOo first, then LO. Make them both
whatever version you want to run production-wise.

No, I won't do that. The warning to uninstall OOo before installing LibO is
a big red flag that tells me bad things may happen if I want to keep OOo.
And I don't have hours to spend on fixing any damage to my system.

What specific two versions of each are you trying to install? I'll try it

here on win XP Pro and see what happens using those two specific versions.
I
also have a win7 laptop I can try it on. I'll have free time to play with
it
about mid-week.

Thank you for the offer, you might try installing first OOo 3.3 and then
LibO 3.3.3 on your Windows 7 machine; put both through their paces and let
us know what happens.

aqualung wrote:

"Registering" means of course, entries in the registry which, when a file

such as .odt or .ods is clicked, opens whatever program has been
registered
to open it. Depending on where in the REgstry these program-choosings lie,
and which it comes to first, and with both LO and OOo iinstalled to take
the
same file extensions, it's a crap shoot AFAIK which one wiil be seen
first,
and used to open that file.

It should not be the case, ever, that both LibO and OOo are registered for
the same file extensions. If that happens (if it is even possible at all),
then someone has messed up somewhere.

I believe there may be some slight issues due to the fact that both
LibO and OOo have the same process name (soffice.exe). I vaguely
remember hearing/reading that Windows gets slightly confused in the
"Open with..." dialogue, in that it doesn't "remember" the default
correctly when you try to change it. But like I said, I don't
remember the details very well.

You could download LibreOfficePortable
(portableapps.com/libreofficeportable). It doesn't involve any
registry entries as it is made to run from a flash-disk (all the
"settings" are contained in sub folders rather than the registry).
Version 3.3.2 is available.

Regards
Stephan

Jack wrote:

I believe there may be some slight issues due to the fact that both
LibO and OOo have the same process name (soffice.exe).

Ah-hah! Now we're getting somewhere. It's not about the file types, it's
about the "process name". This is potentially a serious issue if it prevents
users from having both LibreOffice and OpenOffice.org be usable on their
system.

So, what is the solution? Change the name(s) of LibO's executable(s)?

You could download LibreOfficePortable

(portableapps.com/libreofficeportable). It doesn't involve any
registry entries as it is made to run from a flash-disk (all the
"settings" are contained in sub folders rather than the registry).
Version 3.3.2 is available.

Thank you, a reasonable suggestion (but see the bug referenced upthread,
about conflict between LibO Portable and OOo.)

aqualung wrote:

Thank you, a reasonable suggestion (but see the bug referenced upthread,
about conflict between LibO Portable and OOo.)

The bug refers to *running* LibO Portable and OOo at the same time.
They can peacefully co-exist, as long as you don't try to have an
instance of both running at the same time (I note that there is also a
work-around to get that working in the bug report).

Regards
Stephan

I was running, for some time, both OO and LO on my Win7-64 laptop, with no problems.
I had LO set as the default to open document, spreadsheet, and database files. OO was
still set for "txt" files. And this all worked as it should. But since I was very
seldom using OO, and it really wasn't necessary for OO to open "txt" files, I
uninstalled OO from my computer completely. This was done "just in case" there is
anything to what it said on the website about conflicts, when I downloaded and
installed LO 3.3.3 final. But there really should be no reason for "conflicts" once
you set whichever program you want to open which type files.
And this should be taken care of when the programs are installed. If you want to
change that some where down the road, just use the "open with default program"/ file
association applet in Windows to change it. Or if you just want to use the
"other"/non-default program from time to time, use the right click menu and "open
with".
I had a side by side installation since the original release of LO, up until about 5
days ago, and had no problems whatsoever.
Roxy

Jack wrote:

I believe there may be some slight issues due to the fact that both
LibO and OOo have the same process name (soffice.exe).

Ah-hah! Now we're getting somewhere. It's not about the file types, it's
about the "process name". This is potentially a serious issue if it prevents
users from having both LibreOffice and OpenOffice.org be usable on their
system.

So, what is the solution? Change the name(s) of LibO's executable(s)?

You could download LibreOfficePortable

(portableapps.com/libreofficeportable). It doesn't involve any
registry entries as it is made to run from a flash-disk (all the
"settings" are contained in sub folders rather than the registry).
Version 3.3.2 is available.

Thank you, a reasonable suggestion (but see the bug referenced upthread,
about conflict between LibO Portable and OOo.)

Hi,

Twayne wrote:
>
> IIRC, the use is given the choice of not affecting any other file
> associations during the install. Or, it can take over all of them
> depending
> on which you choose at install time.
O.K., good. So, LibO already gives the three-way choice dialog box that I
envisioned? I am not going to try installing LibO now myself because the
warning on the Release Notes page scares me that my OOo 3.3 will get messed
up!

Once installed, you can also change
> them but you have to do them individually which is a lot of work.
No, it's not a lot of work. Windows Control Panel > Default Programs

"Registering" means of course, entries in the registry which, when a file
> such as .odt or .ods is clicked, opens whatever program has been
> registered
> to open it. Depending on where in the REgstry these program-choosings lie,
> and which it comes to first, and with both LO and OOo iinstalled to take
> the
> same file extensions, it's a crap shoot AFAIK which one wiil be seen
> first,
> and used to open that file.
It should not be the case, ever, that both LibO and OOo are registered for
the same file extensions. If that happens (if it is even possible at all),
then someone has messed up somewhere.

> And I would expect
>> to be able to make either program the default for all (or
>> only some) possible file types via Windows Control Panel
>> at any time.
>
> There is no way to do that that I'm aware of.
Yes there is. See above.

I think you have to consider OOo and LO as two different "producers" of
> similar programs and they one is not in any way co-erced into doing what
> the
> other does in results or code. This is going to happen with any two or
> more
> programs that share common files or Registry entries so it's not new, it's
> just something that seldom happens. OTOH there's nothing to prevent it
> from
> happening either.
LibO and OOo should not "share" any registry entries. They may both have
dependencies on the same system files but that is nothing unusual.

   Like I said before I don't see a need to run them in parallel
> simultaneiously so for me it's nothing that matters much.
Again, I don't mind not being able to run them in parallel. I want to have
LibO and OOo installed side by side on the system and not interfere with
each other in any way. It's O.K. if only of them can be open and running at
the same time!

I guess if it were me, I'd just go ahead and try the
> installs, first in one order, then the opposite order, and see what
> happens.
> If I had to guess, I'd say to install OOo first, then LO. Make them both
> whatever version you want to run production-wise.
No, I won't do that. The warning to uninstall OOo before installing LibO is
a big red flag that tells me bad things may happen if I want to keep OOo.
And I don't have hours to spend on fixing any damage to my system.

What specific two versions of each are you trying to install? I'll try it
> here on win XP Pro and see what happens using those two specific versions.
> I
> also have a win7 laptop I can try it on. I'll have free time to play with
> it
> about mid-week.
Thank you for the offer, you might try installing first OOo 3.3 and then
LibO 3.3.3 on your Windows 7 machine; put both through their paces and let
us know what happens.

--
View this message in context: http://nabble.documentfoundation.org/Side-by-side-install-of-LibO-and-OOo-tp3078835p3084840.html
Sent from the Users mailing list archive at Nabble.com.

My experience is that Windows will often assign the default program for
OOo/LO files types to the last one installed. So if you are trying a
side by side install the order you did the installation is important.
What I have seen is if LO is the default then when I want to use OOo I
must open OOo then open the file. Clicking on the file will result in it
opening in LO.

I have seen with other file types particularly audio and video files
where you might have two or three players and the last one installed
changes the file associations in the registry to it.

If you have LO installed as the default and want to open a file in OO, simply right
click on the file and choose "open with". That will probably bring up OO as an
option. If it isn't an option, click on "choose default program" and through this
window you will be able to find and choose OO. IF YOU ARE NOT GOING TO ACTUALLY
CHANGE DEFAULT PROGRAMS BE SURE THE LITTLE BOX ON THE LEFT IS NOT!!!!! CHECKED. This
will open your chosen file with OO, AND should leave OO as a choice in the "open
with" choice of the context menu, and should leave LO as the default. At least that
has been my experience with XP, Vista, and Win7.
Roxy

My experience is that Windows will often assign the default program for
OOo/LO files types to the last one installed. So if you are trying a
side by side install the order you did the installation is important.
What I have seen is if LO is the default then when I want to use OOo I
must open OOo then open the file. Clicking on the file will result in it
opening in LO.

I have seen with other file types particularly audio and video files
where you might have two or three players and the last one installed
changes the file associations in the registry to it.

Hi Roxy, Jay--

Thank you for your replies but please keep on topic.

This thread is not about how to change file associations in Windows or how
to set a particular program as the default in Windows. We all know how to do
this already (I hope) and we all accept that only one program will launch on
double-clicking files of a particular type. Rather, it's about the highly
unusual -- and puzzling -- warning in the LibO 3.3.3. release notes and the
recommendation to uninstall OpenOffice.org before installing LibreOffice.

From your reports, I gather that it is possible, after all, to have both

these suites installed on a computer and working normally. Thanks, that is
valuable information. However, two questions remain: What about the note
from Jack that there could be a problem because the main executable in both
LibO and OOo is named soffice.exe: does action need to be taken in this
regard? And if not, can the warning to uninstall OOo before installing LibO
be removed?

At this point, it would be good if a developer or website maintainer with
insight on what is going on could chime in.

Jay Lozier wrote:

I have seen with other file types particularly audio and video files
where you might have two or three players and the last one installed
changes the file associations in the registry to it.

Jay, that's right. A well-behaved program should inform the user during
installation what it's going to do and offer the option of taking over all
the file associations the program want, none of them, or individually choose
only some.

VLC (VideoLanClient) does exactly that. Last time I installed VLC, the file
associations it wanted (all 98 of them!) appeared in a dialog box during
installation. They were sorted into categories and sub-categories and each
one of them could be selected or unselected individually. The only thing
missing was extensive help for users unsure of what choices to make.

However, in the case of LibO/OOo it might be better not to give too
fine-grained a choice to the user... or perhaps the ability to
select/unselect each file type should be hidden far down some "Advanced
Users Only" dialog box. Otherwise there will be lots of confused users
asking questions like, "When I double-click .odt files I get LibO Writer,
when I double click .ott files I get OOo Writer, what's wrong??" when the
answer will be, "It happens because of the choices you made during
installation."

Come to think, I suspect that's why the recommendation to uninstall OOo is
there: someone thought this would be a good idea to forestall requests for
assistance coming in. If I'm right about that, then it wasn't such a good
idea, more like throwing out the baby with the bathwater...

Hi :slight_smile:
There is a lot of stuff that only devs would understand that would explain why
OOo and LO are not easily able to sit on the same system. Clashes seem to be
reduced if you turn off the "Quick Start" but using the guides on how to install
both is really the only answer for most of us.

There have been a lot of clashes between LO and OOo installed on a single
system. Hence the page showing how to do it safely. The LO code-base started
off being identical to OOos and both still date back to the time they were
called Star Office.

Conjecture from non-devs (such as me) is unlikely to arrive at a reasonable
explanation. I gather that it is something that LO devs want to work on at some
point but probably that will be much easier after code-clean-up is completed. I
suspect it's likely to break a lot of compatibility with existing Extensions so
it's not something to rush into.

Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

When I installed 3.3.3 on Vista, I was asked about assigning the Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files to LibreOffice.

Are you saying that you want to have a "routine" that asks if you want LibreOffice to be your default office package for the ODF file formats, along with the MS Office file formats? Just like Firefox asks about being the default web browser?

I know that, in XP and Vista, you can right click on a file and assign a software package to that file extension, but showing extension is turned off by default. So if you have installed OOo and then install LibreOffice, you want to have a choice whether or not you want LibreOffice to take over being the default office package to use the associated file formats.

Would be interesting to see that, but how many "real world" users would have both OOo and LibreOffice on the same computer?

Yet, the concept of asking if you want LibreOffice to be your default package, with all the file associations, might be a good idea.

Hi :slight_smile:
I think it would be better if it was easy for people to install LibreOffice
alongside "whatever they use now" so that they can have a choice of using
either. Then they can keep using "whatever they use now" when they have
short-deadlines or things that need to be rushed through. That way they can
explore using LO and recommend it to friends and colleagues to try out without
forcing people to commit to something they might be uncertain about.

It already happens with MS Office, just not with OOo, yet. At least not easily
and predictably. Most of the time it does work but in maybe 1% of cases, maybe
10%, something goes a bit wonky.

It seems the devs would like this to happen at some point in the future but i
would have expected marketing to be even more keen. The users list is the least
likely list to be able to do anything about it nor to understand the issues so
discussion here is fairly pointless.

Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

Well, the side by side installation, and running together, of OO & LO DOES have to do
with having the correct settings in Windows. Since I have never run any of the Linux
type OS's, I have not idea how those kind of things are accomplished, or if it even
makes any difference. I DO know that a side by side installation installs and runs
properly, both in Win7 and XP. I also have that on my XP desktop machine - actually
my wife's "game" computer - and I use that machine from time to time as it is
attached to my scanner.
And, it also appears from some of the posts here that there are some that might be
having problems with their installations because they may not completely understand
default programs, file associations, and the "open with" option.
And that is why I have said that maybe it would be better to have these lists
separated by OS types - to see if problems are OS specific or not. That does make a
difference.
Its apparent that not everyone even mentions what OS, or versions, they are running
when they start posting problems. So this "side by side" issue, at least as far as I
have seen where enough info has been given in the posts, could be more of an OS issue
rather than an overall problem with either OO or LO. IMHO, that is something very
important to the programmers.
Just my 2 cents worth. Roxy

Hi Roxy, Jay--

Thank you for your replies but please keep on topic.

This thread is not about how to change file associations in Windows or how
to set a particular program as the default in Windows. We all know how to do
this already (I hope) and we all accept that only one program will launch on
double-clicking files of a particular type. Rather, it's about the highly
unusual -- and puzzling -- warning in the LibO 3.3.3. release notes and the
recommendation to uninstall OpenOffice.org before installing LibreOffice.

From your reports, I gather that it is possible, after all, to have both

these suites installed on a computer and working normally. Thanks, that is
valuable information. However, two questions remain: What about the note
from Jack that there could be a problem because the main executable in both
LibO and OOo is named soffice.exe: does action need to be taken in this
regard? And if not, can the warning to uninstall OOo before installing LibO
be removed?

At this point, it would be good if a developer or website maintainer with
insight on what is going on could chime in.

krackedpress wrote:

Would be interesting to see that, but how many "real world" users would
have both OOo and LibreOffice on the same computer?

Ahem... I am a real-world user, don't I count?

I gave two reasons in my opening posting, (1) wanting to have one available
when the other fails or suffers from a limitation, and (2) providing support
to another user who only has one of them installed herself or himself.

As I'm a volunteer on a user-to-user support forum for
LibreOffice/OpenOffice/etc., I expect more and more people coming in with
queries will have only LibreOffice, and I want to be able to reproduce their
problems on my machine... provided that I can have both LibO and OOo
installed safely!

Earlier, I was leaning towards filing a bug about this on bugzilla, now I'm
leaning instead to going over to the "Website" mailing list (or Nabble
section, for me) and posting a request to remove that "uninstall OOo first!"
notice/warning from the Release Notes.

krackedpress wrote:

Would be interesting to see that, but how many "real world" users would
have both OOo and LibreOffice on the same computer?

Ahem... I am a real-world user, don't I count?

Yes you do,
but I was just wondering how many people would have both installed, since we are trying to get all the OOo users to use LibreOffice.

Many users may wonder why they would need/want two office suites with the same abilities [generally] on their systems. Some will want to try it before removing OOo, but I know of many people who would be very confused about having both on their computers.

I did notice some weird issues when I first tried LibreOffice 3.3.0 with OOo 3.2.x installed on my Ubuntu desktop. So I removed OOo so those weird issues [which I do not remember the specifics except they were printing and loading issues] would not be happening any more.