Apache OO vs Libre Office

My ranting aside, maybe LibO is fine now. I just had so many problems with it I would be crazy to try it again. OO is working fine for me. It's nice & stable. It doesn't upgrade every fortnight. I don't really know what to tell you. Good luck with whatever you decide with.

 

Yeah, thanks Daveski.... I think I will give LibO a shot for now and see how it goes... I'm not a fan of frequent updates either.. But if I don't see too many bugs or issues in LibO, I will probably stick with it.

 

Well I hope you don't have any bugs. I just couldn't handle too many regular upgrades on three separate computers.

 

How do the updates work? Is there a built-in updater in LibO, or do you have to actually download and install each huge archive over top of the old setup? I've never used it long enough to find out before....

 

It seems the next Apache Open Office will improve interoperability with MS Office and hopefully allow to write in docx.



Future Releases and Invitation to Submit Ideas

In parallel with work on the Apache OpenOffice 3.4.1 maintenance release, project members have also been working on changes for the 3.5 release. Areas of focus for 3.5 include: improved MS Office interoperability, performance, stability, usability and support of additional languages. We are targeting the first quarter of 2013 for Apache OpenOffice 3.5.0.

A major update, Apache OpenOffice 4.0, will follow, including additional features and improvements merged in from the the IBM Lotus Symphony code recently contributed to Apache. There is also opportunity in this release to think "outside of the box" and bring additional innovation.

https://blogs.apache.org/OOo/entry/announcing_apache_openoffice_3_41


Seems most people ask for ability to work with xlsx, docx, pptx

https://www.google.com/moderator/#15/e=2011d5&t=2011d5.4c

So hopefully they ll do it. Honestly since i am not into supercrazy formatted, ultracomplicated docs/powerpoints, i do prefer this approach of working more on performance and interoperability, rather than bombarding with features.

I also found Apache has an extension which allows to import and edit PDF and it works. Can't ask for more.

 

As far as I remember you have to download the installer & install 'over the top' so to speak. I don't know if this has changed.

 

I found this that supports what Daveski said:

http://ask.libreoffice.org/question/26/what-does-the-updater-do/

So, with their crazy release cycle, you 're in for a LOT of fun, downloading 200MB installers and installing over. Oh, i think i also saw that they also have nightly builds that you can install, so you can have even more fun in between. It's almost like having an antivirus updating!

 

I think that Apache are on the right track with OO. It won't be too long before they implement all of these features. I can wait.

It's not FUD what I've stated with my experiences with LibO. I really wanted it to be successful. I, like many I presume, were worried about the future of OO. I'm so glad that Apache have stood up & taken it on. I've relied on OO for over four years now & it's never let me down. I expect to be still using it in another four years.

You certainly can't.

 

Ok, thanks to both of you for the info... that sounds encouraging that OO is going to add docx capability... and yeah, I don't relish the idea of downloading the entire installer and installing over top every other week either... Hmmm..

I need to ponder things a bit more then...

Edit: I just read somewhere that OO can already open docx files, but it just can't save them. Is that true?

 

It is a bit of a quandary.

I'm not really sure, most of the files I open regularly are from 'legacy' Word documents. My guess is that you can read them but would have to save them in .doc format. I tend to save everything in a .doc format with OO.

When I can remember my password I will ask on these forums if you like.

 

Hey thanks... if I can at least open them, that's probably enough for now.. I usually save in .doc format too....

 

Yes, it can open docx and pptx (i tried both and works). For the time being i have also installed Ashampoo Office 2010 which can save in docx, but i don't think i will need it and has an annoying thing, that default font size is 10 and it doesn't seem to have a way to save permanently the font to size 12.

Given that Apache can save in doc and ppt, i think i can wait a few months, if they hopefully implement writing in v.3.5.

 

Ok, great. Thanks Fuzzfas....

 

Right, that's settled then. Excellent.

 

LibreOffice isn't updated "every other week". Some people here have a passion to exaggerate things.

LibreOffice 3.6.0 - August 9, 2012

LibreOffice 3.6.1 - August 30, 2012

LibreOffice 3.6.2 - October 5, 2012

LibreOffice 3.6.3 - November 2, 2012

And that's the less stable 3.6.x branch. Let's see the more stable 3.5.x branch (just its most recent releases):

LibreOffice 3.5.4 - May 31, 2012

LibreOffice 3.5.5 - July 12, 2012

LibreOffice 3.5.6 - August 15, 2012

LibreOffice 3.5.7 - October 18, 2012

Now LibreOffice really has a very big problem, which is, it still doesn't support incremental updates.

 

It also appears that some people have a passion to beleaguer things.

Kinda says it all doesn't it?

 

Says it all what dude? These updates are mostly for security fixes that should never be postponed when they are ready. They come about monthly or every 2 months - not weekly.

The big releases of LibreOffice follow a 6 months release cycle: http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/ReleasePlan

Of course, if LibreOffice actually supported incremental updates (patches), like Microsoft Office, everything would be easier.

 

You're taking things too literally WH. It was an exageration for effect, to get the point across. And I agree, it would be much better if they had patches or something similar like MS does....

 

The problem with these exaggerations is that some innocent souls take them seriously without double-checking. This is mostly a technological and support forum, I think we should try to be a little more objective.

 

In my experience it's spreadsheets that load the slowest. I work with quite a few complex ones and they do take time to load. Not real long, I mean we are talking only a couple of seconds here, but it is a slight annoyance. Most of these are local and not shared with others so they are in ods. What is odd, xls or xlsx files load faster than ods, so I have been considering saving them as xls.

 

I don't think anyone reading the thread would have taken it literally as it appeared in the context of the other comments on update frequency etc.. As far as I can see, you are the only one who took it literally...

Let's drop the nonsense bickering here and move on. Nobody cares about all this silliness. Or is this yet another one of your attempts to start an argument and get the thread locked?

I won't comment any further on this....

 

Honestly, you really do remind me of a bloke that used to post here. You have to ask yourself why Apache don't feel the need to upgrade so rapidly. My guess is that it doesn't actually need the security fixes. That says it all to me.

 

Hmmm ... I wonder.

 

Whatever you think others will or won't do, care or not, is irrelevant. The possibility remains. You are the one bickering here when I'm the one posting facts.

 

I already told you why, on my very first posts in this thread. Apache doesn't have as many devs as LibreOffice working on the code. Don't be lazy and review that image, number of commits, etc.

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