Which was the last version of LO able to run on Win XP?

users
#1

Please let's not have discussions about MS having ended support for XP.
There are still an enormous number of machines out there running XP SP3
POS Ready 2009, which MS are still actively supporting. MS most recent
XP update (October 2017) added support for TLS 1.1 and TLS 1.2 to XP POS
Ready 2009, See Microsoft Secure Blog: http://bit.ly/2ylRGDo

I have successfully screwed up LO on a client's XP POS Ready machine (my
fault for not testing on a VM first), by installing LO 5.4.2 over the
previous 4.4.7.2 install. The 5.4 installer completes without any
complaint, gleefully removing the old version, but on start up the
splash screen flashes and soffice dies without a murmur. Would have been
nice if the devs had added the very simple system check call to
installer and blocked the install. Yes, the information is there for
anyone who wants to dig down into the release notes:
http://bit.ly/2yjj2Ir But how many users read software release notes or
EULAs? It's also about time we updated the misleading "/System
Requirements/" page http://bit.ly/2yh0SHo which still reads
"/LibreOffice on a Windows system are as follows: Microsoft _*Windows
XP*__*SP3*_, Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows
Server 2012, or Windows 10/".

Two questions:

1. Which was the last version able to run on Win XP?
2. Are there any known security issues with that version?

Thanks

Dave

#2

​After a quick test, I found that the 5.3.7.1 version works fine in XP​.
The latest 5.4 doesn't, but I'm not sure exactly which subversion started
to fail. I can confirm however that it doesn't output any error message,
neither on the GUI or on the command line. The splash screen just flash. No
error or warning in system logs either.

The website should probably be updated (or, if possible, the issue causing
a crash fixed instead). I'm tempted to say that losing XP compatibility
wasn't done on purpose.

I can't provide an answer for known security issues, although common sense
says that it's more likely to have some (there's always security issues)
and that they might be fixed in more recent versions. However, not talking
too much about the end of support of XP, it is itself a large attack vector
at this point, so I'm not sure that obscure security issues with
libreoffice would be relevant. Beyond the usual "disable script by default"
advice, it's most likely safe enough to use in such conditions.

#3

Please let's not have discussions about MS having ended support for XP.
There are still an enormous number of machines out there running XP SP3
POS Ready 2009, which MS are still actively supporting. MS most recent
XP update (October 2017) added support for TLS 1.1 and TLS 1.2 to XP POS
Ready 2009, See Microsoft Secure Blog: http://bit.ly/2ylRGDo

[snip]

​After a quick test, I found that the 5.3.7.1 version works fine in XP​.
The latest 5.4 doesn't, but I'm not sure exactly which subversion started
to fail. I can confirm however that it doesn't output any error message,
neither on the GUI or on the command line. The splash screen just flash. No
error or warning in system logs either.

The website should probably be updated (or, if possible, the issue causing
a crash fixed instead). I'm tempted to say that losing XP compatibility
wasn't done on purpose.

I can't provide an answer for known security issues, although common sense
says that it's more likely to have some (there's always security issues)
and that they might be fixed in more recent versions. However, not talking
too much about the end of support of XP, it is itself a large attack vector
at this point, so I'm not sure that obscure security issues with
libreoffice would be relevant. Beyond the usual "disable script by default"
advice, it's most likely safe enough to use in such conditions.

Why XP is still being hacked all these years after it no longer is supported?  There is one reason I know about - ATM machines.

I was shocked a few years ago learning that, in the USA, most ATM money machines are run by using a modified version of Windows XP. There was an article about this and a major ATM manufacturing company paying "big money" to keep getting security patched from Microsoft - upwards of $100,000.

The same article[s] I read talked about making the new ATMs using some version of Linux, for both the security and cost of the license agreements - i.e. Linux seems never had a virus, malware, hack, etc. in the past 20+ years.  More stable too.

As for LibreOffice, well the 5.3.7 version is still a very good version to have on your laptop/desktop.  I think I have one desktop with an early 5.3.x loaded and one older laptop as well.  Actually, this laptop is still running 5.3.6.1.  I just keep forgetting to install a newer version for Ubuntu MATE 64-bit 16.04LTS.  I forget what was last installed on my Windows systems or partition for the dual booting systems.

#4

hi.
i use windows xp and love my windows version.
from the plan of libreoffice developers i realized that libreoffice
6.0.0 and later does not support xp or vista.
i use version 5.3.4.1 forever and love it very much.
hope that help, God bless you!

#5

After some considerable testing, I came to much the same conclusion and
installed 5.3.7.1 on the client's machine. Surprising how fast and
smooth it runs under XP on a ratty old single core Pentium.

IIRC there was agreement at a fairly recent ESC meeting that XP support
would be dropped, but I wasn't able to track down the minutes of that
meeting to know which was the first version it applied to.

Yes unpatched XP machines are a large attack vector, but when you see
the number of security updates MS rolls out for the XP POS edition each
month it's obvious that MS are really knocking themselves out to keep
that edition patched. There must be a fair number of heavyweight
corporate/government customers MS wants to keep on-side. Let's all hope
that MS are working even harder to keep the UK's "/Windows XP for
Warships/" fully patched http://bit.ly/2ynpmys Could get a bit exciting
to have hacked nuclear submarines popping off Trident missiles.

I've checked LO security advisories http://bit.ly/2ykHcCn and there
doesn't appear to be anything in 5.3.7.1 that might case my client any
major headaches. He has a regularly updated copy of MS Security
Essentials installed, plus a fairly solid firewall and intrusion
monitoring setup.

Dave

#6

I loved XP as well.  That was one reason that I found Ubuntu 9.x/10.x had a similar look/feel with the GNOME desktop environment back in late 2009 and early 2010, when I bought my first "default desktop that did not have any OS installed when I bought it new. When Ubuntu went to Unity, I looked into the MATE desktop. That is what I use with a Ubuntu 14.04 -  crashes when I try to install 16.04 - and 16.04 for most of the other systems.

For Windows, I also wanted to keep XP for as long as possible.  I even have a XP SP3 DVD with many licenses from computers that I have scrapped over the year.  My old HP laptop was XP.  My next one had VISTA - yuck.  I upgraded it to Win7.  The next laptop has Win7 installed.  Those laptops then went to Win10 on the Windows partition and Ubuntu 16.04 on their Linux partitions.  My newest laptop [ASUS 17"] has only Ubuntu, since Windows 10 [came with] would over heat playing videos - streaming or local.  Ubuntu sometimes gets a little hot, but not to 180° F, or even hotter, like Win10 does all the time and then freezes due by being too hot.

The last MS Office I uses was version 2003.  Then I switched to OpenOffice.org as my default office "system".  When LibreOffice had its first release version to the general public.  I have never looked back.  Currently, I do not install the first version[s] of LO's lines [5.0.0, 5.2.0, 5.3.0, etc.] anymore, but I keep installing later versions.